[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I watched The Exorcist at the cinema last night, the first time I've seen it in quite a long time, probably several years, and my first viewing of the version with the new Atmos sound mix.

I hadn't forgotten that it was a great film, probably my all-time favourite, and the film I consider to be the greatest in the horror genre.

Watching it in the cinema (for the first time since 1999) and because of the unusually (for me) longer period of time since my last viewing made me remember how it's really a slow-burning, intelligent, and powerful drama that escalates into a paranormal thriller and then a horror film.

The film probably benefits if you watch it with a knowledge of the sociopolitical climate in which it was made as that's where the importance of 'Crash Course ', the film Chris MacNeil is making with Burke Dennings ("like the Walt Disney version of the Ho Chi Minh story" as she puts it), the invite to the White House for dinner whilst Nixon was being consumed by the Watergate scandal, and the progressive nature of a film led by a single working woman, separated from her husband, and effectively raising her young daughter alone.

Even 50 years after its release, the possession and exorcism sequences are extremely intense and powerful – the special effects make-up by Marcel Vercoutere and Dick Smith have stood the test of time and the 44-year-old Max von Sydow still looks like an elderly septuagenarian.

For me, the most disturbing parts of the film are the documentary-style scenes of Regan's medical treatment, particularly the angiography, which is very disturbing because of its realism. At this point, Regan is more a victim of Western medicine than a supernatural entity. It's this verité aesthetic that makes The Exorcist so powerful and engrossing as it doesn't look or sound like a fantasy film, but one deeply rooted in reality.

I only noticed a couple of differences between this and the Version You Never Seen/Extended Director's Cut, a reprise of the blacksmith hammering when Father Merrin receives the telegram from Washington, and the call of "Allahu Akbar" that opens the Iraqi sequence plays again right at the end, possibly indicating that Pazuzu isn't vanquished but is still a real and malevolent force. Visually, some of the colours and lights seem a little oversaturated and overblown – most notably in the subway scene – but this looks like a product of maximising the detail in the film stock.

Anyhow, this is a long and perhaps rambling account of my takeaways from last night's cinema trip so I'll just end with this: if The Exorcist is playing in a cinema near you, do yourself a favour and go to watch it.