What is The Exorcist about?
Follow the lives of two very different priests tackling one family’s case of terrifying demonic possession.
Two priests confront a family's terrifying demonic possession amidst chilling, gritty, and atmospheric suspense.
Suspenseful. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is devastating.
Not on a US subscription service as of Oct 25, 2026.
The Exorcist parents guide
The thing to know: graphic gore, more than a TV-14 usually carries. Beyond that, intense fear and several jump scares.
Our estimate: fine from about 16, higher than the TV-14 suggests, because of the gore.
- Scare
- Terrifying
- Our top level for fear.
- Jump scares
- Several
- More than a couple of sudden jolts.
- Gore
- Graphic gore
- Blood and wounds shown clearly.
- Violence
- Strong violence
- Violence is frequent or intense.
- Sex and nudity
- Mild
- Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.
- Language
- Moderate
- Some strong profanity, a few f-words.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Three questions
- Is The Exorcist scary?
- Yes. The Exorcist is one of the scariest titles in the CouchRot catalog.
- How gory is The Exorcist?
- Graphic gore and strong violence. If graphic gore is a dealbreaker, skip it.
- What is The Exorcist rated, and is it OK for kids?
- For teens, mostly: it is rated TV-14, with intense fear, several jump scares and some strong language.
Cast and crew
Created byJeremy Slater
StarringAlfonso Herrera, Ben Daniels, John Cho, Li Jun Li, Kurt Egyiawan, Brianna Hildebrand
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The Exorcist is on our Scariest and Ghosts and hauntings lists.
More like this feeling
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
- “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”
- “a movie that will make me cry”
- “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers.
Five more like The Exorcist
Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.
Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.