"The Exorcist" has been hailed by many as potentially the scariest movie of all time, according to an article on Movie Pilot. Audiences then and now viewed the film with such fright that some fainted, others vomited and many walked out of the film due to its sheer terror. (See video below.)

But more to the fact, the gore and violence that gave other horror movies of the time headlining notoriety, such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," was conspicuously absent in this film. The original release of the movie focused less on the gore and more on the self-depraved actions of a possessed young girl who behaved in such a manner under the influence of the demon that viewers were shocked to their core.

Just consider the era it came from. The film was released in 1973 and was based on a 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty. Movies at that time, which still remain popular to this day, are "The Godfather," "Rosemary's Baby," "The Omen" and "The Amityville Horror." All four of those films were in some way horror or violent movies and they have become American cinema classics. Some might even say that "The Exorcist" paved the way for "Omen" and "Amityville," popularizing the genre to the extent that viewers were attending showings of their films as a matter of artistic vision.

The original film featured a young Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil, the adolescent child who becomes possessed by the entity she let loose while playing the Ouija game she found in her basement. Ellen Burstyn starred as her mother, Chris MacNeil, an actress in the Georgetown area filming a movie when the strange events start to occur with Regan.

Although theaters needed to accompany their viewers with "barf bags," the movie would go on to gross over $232 million in the U.S. alone, according to Box Office Mojo. On the supernatural thriller list, it is only second to the 1999 M. Night Shyamalan classic "The Sixth Sense." But when adjusted for ticket price inflation, "The Exorcist" made over $898 million in the U.S., which is ranked the 9th highest grossing movie of all time in terms of ticket sales.

Watch the video of the audience reactions: