Watching this for the first time at 30, I have no nostalgia for it whatsoever. I was told this is supposed to be scary and it traumatized people... I don't know what to think of that. Not scary whatsoever. It's definitely drama oriented and the whole journey of "let's investigate to see what Regan has" prior to the good stuff happening is interesting. The biggest thing it has going is the characters, they're well-established in the very slow first two acts.

The tone felt completely off for me. When Regan isn't on-screen it's a serious paranormal horror with depressing subjects (especially when Chris is present). The opposite of that is when Regan is on-screen it's 100% camp, funny and ridiculous—and it never fully commits to that tone until the final 25 minutes. But even then, it's on and off with these two tones depending who's on-screen. And so, the fun I had was on and off too!

The makeup for Regan... she looks like a clown with snake eyes and i'm certain they used animal noises for the sounds she does (very clearly heard a bear at some point).

I know this is a classic but it just didn't click with me at all, I still respect it for everything it inspired.