{"id":89120,"date":"2025-09-27T15:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T15:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/89120\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T15:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T15:58:09","slug":"i-watched-the-exorcist-with-my-teen-daughter-and-her-reaction-says-a-lot-about-how-horror-has-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/89120\/","title":{"rendered":"I Watched The Exorcist With My Teen Daughter, And Her Reaction Says A Lot About How Horror Has Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n

When I was growing up, The Exorcist (1973) was one of the most terrifying films<\/a> I had ever seen, not for gore, but for pure, soul-shaking fear. Watching it felt like crossing a line you couldn\u2019t uncross; it’s a horror movie that left a mark<\/a> on me. So when my 14-year-old daughter casually said she\u2019d never seen it, I figured it was time. I expected terror. Instead, 45 minutes in, she turned to me and asked: \u201cWhen does something happen?\u201d<\/p>\n

And just like that, one millennial\u2019s best horror movies<\/a> became Gen Z\u2019s \u201cthis movie\u2019s buns.\u201d She tells me “buns” is bad. So, let’s break down my experience watching one of my favorite horror movies with my daughter.<\/p>\n

\"Regan<\/p>\n

Credit: Warner Bros.<\/p>\n

Gen Z Attention Span VS. The Slow Burn<\/p>\n

She wasn\u2019t bored\u2014just confused. To her, The Exorcist didn\u2019t feel like a horror movie. It felt like a drama. She\u2019s not wrong. Like a lot of the best 1970s horror movies<\/a>, it builds tension slowly. There\u2019s atmosphere, dread, mystery. You don\u2019t even know what\u2019s going on for the first act. But Gen Z, raised on TikTok pacing and streaming-era speed, expects horror to “start.”<\/p>\n

To my sensibilities, The Exorcist remains terrifying today<\/a>, but compared to new horror movie releases<\/a>, such as Weapons, Bring Her Back, and Sinners, it doesn\u2019t quite come out swinging. Today’s horror movies sometimes feel like the scares aren\u2019t earned; they\u2019re scheduled. That\u2019s not just about attention span\u2014it\u2019s about narrative expectation. Horror\u2019s cinematic language has changed.<\/p>\n

\"Linda<\/p>\n

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n

The Exorcist Is All About Building Dread, Not Jump Scares<\/p>\n

Watching it with her felt like seeing it through new eyes, because she didn\u2019t flinch at the attic door slam or the demonic face flashes. When Regan growled in her iconic demon voice, she deadpanned: \u201cShe sounds like an old smoker.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not wrong\u2014if you know the movie\u2019s behind-the-scenes lore<\/a>, then you\u2019re aware that actress Mercedes McCambridge actually chain-smoked and drank raw eggs to get that sound, according to director William Friedkin<\/a>. But to my daughter, it wasn\u2019t creepy. It was kinda funny.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: my kid loves horror. She\u2019s powered through the entire Conjuring universe<\/a>, Hereditary, Barbarian, and both Smiles. But she\u2019s used to hyper-edited, adrenaline-shot horror. The Exorcist, to her, felt like a slow museum crawl.<\/p>\n

\"Linda<\/p>\n

Credit: Warner Bros.<\/p>\n

The Devil Isn\u2019t Very Scary To Gen Z<\/p>\n

Halfway through, I realized something\u2013the religious fear wasn\u2019t really landing. I grew up in a Pentecostal household. Crucifixes, Latin prayers, and holy water weren\u2019t just props\u2014they were loaded symbols. But my daughter, who\u2019s been raised secular? The iconography didn\u2019t register as scary.<\/p>\n

For some Gen Z, especially with ever-growing secularism, Satan isn\u2019t terrifying. Possession feels like mythology, not a threat. Their fears live elsewhere\u2014in surveillance, identity, and climate doom.<\/p>\n

\"Linda<\/p>\n

Credit: warner bros pictures<\/p>\n

The Practical Effects Don\u2019t Hold Up<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the practical effects. I still find them haunting\u2014the spinning head, the shaking bed, the pea soup vomit<\/a>. My daughter saw Spirit Halloween.<\/p>\n

And honestly? Fair. She\u2019s grown up with Stranger Things (available to stream with a Netflix subscription<\/a>), The Last of Us, and A Quiet Place. Horror now comes in nearly flawless 4 K resolution. The seams in the 1970s effects are starting to show, now that it’s 55 years old.<\/p>\n

But near the end, something clicked. When Father Karras leaped from the window, she let out a soft \u201cWhoa.\u201d She didn\u2019t fear the movie, necessarily, but she respected it. After the credits rolled, I asked if she\u2019d watch it again. She said, \u201cMaybe. It wasn\u2019t really scary. Just… interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll take that because The Exorcist is interesting. It’s a scary movie that lingers. And with the collapse of the original plan for the Blumhouse Exorcist trilogy<\/a>, here\u2019s hoping Mike Flanagan\u2019s upcoming sequel<\/a> can strike the balance\u2014something that bridges the gap between old-school dread and modern terror. Something both Millennials and their Gen Z horror offspring can be scared of\u2026 together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,300,28999,19,17,327,25131],"class_list":{"0":"post-89120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-gen-z","11":"tag-horror-movie","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-warner-bros"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}