What Is the Rotten Tomatoes Score for The Exorcist

The Exorcist currently holds a 78% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the most acclaimed films in the horror genre despite its modest score. However, this figure represents a decline from the film’s previously listed 84% rating, a change that occurred when Rotten Tomatoes added approximately 70 historical reviews to the platform.

The original 1973 film directed by William Friedkin remains the highest-rated entry in The Exorcist franchise, outperforming all subsequent sequels and spinoffs released over the past five decades.

This score reflects a critical paradox that defines The Exorcist’s legacy.

While the film is widely recognized as a masterpiece of horror cinema and one of the few horror films ever nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, its Rotten Tomatoes score doesn’t fully capture the breadth of critical acclaim it has received since its theatrical release.

The 78% rating becomes more meaningful when understood in context: a 78 on Rotten Tomatoes typically indicates a film that critics respect and recommend, even if it’s not universally loved.

Table of Contents

• How Did The Exorcist’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Change?
• The Original 1973 Film’s Critical Reception and Controversy
• How The Exorcist Franchise Scores Compare
• What The Exorcist’s Score Means for Modern Viewers
• The Impact of Adding Historical Reviews to Classic Films
• The Future of The Exorcist Franchise
• Understanding Critical Consensus in Horror Cinema
• Conclusion

How Did The Exorcist’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Change?

The drop from 84% to 78% occurred when rotten Tomatoes expanded its database of critical reviews to include historical assessments from publications and critics that the platform had not previously tracked.

This is an important distinction from audience scores, which are based on viewer ratings collected through the Rotten Tomatoes website itself.

When the platform adds new critical reviews to a film’s cumulative score, the percentage can shift significantly, especially for older films where the original number of reviews might have been relatively small.

The addition of approximately 70 new historical reviews altered the aggregate picture of The Exorcist’s critical reception. This situation highlights a limitation of percentage-based review aggregation: a film’s score can shift substantially when the sample size of reviews changes, not because critical opinion has evolved, but because more voices have been included in the calculation.

In this case, the newly added reviews likely included some mixed or negative assessments from critics whose work had gone unindexed on the platform until that point.

For viewers relying on Rotten Tomatoes as their primary metric, this drop might suggest declining critical support, when in reality it represents a more complete accounting of historical critical opinion.

The Original 1973 Film’s Critical Reception and Controversy

The exorcist‘s 78% score makes sense when considering the film’s original release and the shock value that defined its critical reception.

The 1973 film directed by William Friedkin was genuinely controversial—not primarily because critics disagreed on its quality, but because the film’s content was so transgressive for 1973 that some critics and publications resisted endorsing it entirely.

The film depicted demonic possession, graphic violence, and religious imagery in ways that were genuinely disturbing to audiences at the time, and some religious critics actively condemned it on moral grounds rather than artistic merit.

This controversy created a split among critics that partially explains why The Exorcist never achieved a higher percentage score. Positive reviews typically praised Friedkin’s direction, the cast’s performances, and the film’s technical achievement in creating terror through practical effects and atmosphere.

Negative reviews, however, often expressed moral objections to the film’s content or argued that its shock value overshadowed meaningful storytelling. A 78% score reflects this reality: most critics recognized the film’s artistic merit, but a significant minority rejected it on various grounds, and the platform captures that dissent in its aggregate percentage.

How The Exorcist Franchise Scores Compare

The Exorcist stands as the undisputed critical favorite of its entire franchise, which tells an important story about the original’s artistic standing. The Exorcist: Believer, released in 2023 as a direct sequel attempting to reboot the franchise, received only a 22% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.

This dramatic gap illustrates why the original’s 78% score, while not a superlative number, represents genuine critical achievement.

A 22% rating indicates that critics overwhelmingly rejected The Exorcist: Believer, whereas a 78% rating indicates broad critical approval with some notable dissenters. Other sequels and spinoffs in The Exorcist universe have similarly struggled to match the original’s reputation.

Films like Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) achieved poor scores on Rotten Tomatoes, further emphasizing that the original 1973 film remains the franchise’s only universally recognized critical success.

This comparison provides valuable context for anyone trying to understand what a 78% score actually means in this particular case—it’s not a middling score among Exorcist films, but rather the consensus that this film transcends its sequels in nearly every critical assessment.

What The Exorcist’s Score Means for Modern Viewers

For contemporary viewers considering whether to watch The Exorcist, a 78% critics score represents a recommendation from critics who have carefully considered the film. On Rotten Tomatoes, scores in the 75-85% range typically indicate films that critics value and respect, even if they acknowledge certain limitations or controversial elements.

The distinction matters because some viewers treat Rotten Tomatoes scores as binary judgments—above 80% is good, below 80% is questionable—when the actual meaning is more nuanced. A 78% score for a film from 1973 means critics from multiple decades have found merit in it, even as some have found significant flaws.

The tradeoff between critical consensus and personal enjoyment is worth considering with The Exorcist. The film’s relatively modest percentage score doesn’t reflect a decline in the film’s actual quality, but rather the reality that exceptional horror films sometimes generate mixed critical reactions because horror itself is a polarizing genre.

Some viewers will find The Exorcist transcendent, while others may find it predictable or dated. The 78% score accurately reflects this reality—most critics think you should see it, but some do not, and that’s valuable information for potential viewers.

The Impact of Adding Historical Reviews to Classic Films

The fact that The Exorcist’s score shifted when Rotten Tomatoes added historical reviews reveals a limitation in how aggregated scores work for films made decades ago. Historical reviews from publications that no longer exist, or from critics whose work wasn’t digitized until recently, provide a more complete picture of how a film was actually received.

However, including these reviews can change how modern audiences perceive a film’s critical legacy. The shift from 84% to 78% created a temporary news cycle around the film, with some headlines suggesting the original Exorcist had “lost support,” when in reality the platform had simply become more comprehensive.

This methodology issue affects many older films on Rotten Tomatoes. When platforms commit to adding historical reviews for accuracy, they accept that aggregate scores will fluctuate.

The warning here is straightforward: Rotten Tomatoes percentages for films more than a few years old should be understood as snapshots from a specific moment in time, and they can shift as the platform’s review database expands.

Using a film’s score as your primary decision-making tool works better for new releases, where the review pool is relatively stable, than for classic films where historical additions can change the percentage substantially.

The Future of The Exorcist Franchise

An untitled Exorcist film directed by Mike Flanagan is scheduled for release on March 13, 2026, and it will eventually receive its own Rotten Tomatoes score once critics have reviewed it. Flanagan is known for his work in horror and his attention to character development, which represents a different creative vision than the 2023 reboot.

This upcoming film represents an opportunity to see whether the Exorcist franchise can produce another entry that approaches the critical success of the original 1973 film.

Given the failure of The Exorcist: Believer and the legacy of failed sequels, the bar for success is actually quite low—simply achieving a score above 40% would represent an improvement over recent franchise attempts.

The fact that the original Exorcist remains the franchise’s critical high point after more than 50 years is itself noteworthy. Few horror franchises can claim that their original entry has never been surpassed by subsequent films.

This durability suggests that the original’s 78% score reflects something durable in its artistic achievement—a quality that survives changes in filmmaking technology, critical standards, and audience sensibilities. Whether Flanagan’s new film can challenge that legacy remains to be seen.

Understanding Critical Consensus in Horror Cinema

The Exorcist’s 78% score places it in the upper tier of horror films that critics genuinely respect. For comparison, many acclaimed horror films from recent decades score in the 70-80% range on Rotten Tomatoes, suggesting that critical consensus around horror is typically more measured than around other genres.

Horror critics balance artistic achievement against the genre’s inherent shock value, which naturally generates some critical resistance. Understanding this context makes The Exorcist’s 78% score read as a strong endorsement rather than a tepid one.

The film’s placement as a critical landmark in horror cinema is secure regardless of whether its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at 78% or 84%. Historical and critical analysis of horror cinema consistently identifies The Exorcist as one of the most important and influential horror films ever made.

Academic studies, film histories, and critical retrospectives all recognize its artistic significance. The Rotten Tomatoes score is one data point among many in understanding how critics and audiences have received this film, useful for making viewing decisions but limited in its ability to capture the film’s actual cultural and artistic impact.

Conclusion

The Exorcist’s 78% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes reflects a film that achieved broad critical success while acknowledging that some critics found fault with it. The decline from 84% to 78% when historical reviews were added demonstrates how these aggregate scores function—they capture a moment in time rather than a fixed judgment.

For viewers considering whether to watch the film, this score indicates critical approval, particularly when contextualized against the rest of The Exorcist franchise, where no subsequent film has approached the original’s critical standing.

Understanding the 1973 Exorcist’s Rotten Tomatoes score requires recognizing both the film’s artistic achievements and the legitimate critical reservations some voices have expressed about its content and approach.

The score accurately reflects that most critics value the film while some reject it, a reasonable consensus for a horror film that was genuinely controversial at release and remains thematically intense today.

The upcoming Mike Flanagan-directed Exorcist film will eventually receive its own score, but the original’s 78% critical approval remains the franchise’s standard against which all subsequent entries are measured.

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