That was indeed the question that haunted me as my first viewing in the 90s was totally scary. In fact, if my memory is good, i watch it on a sunny afternoon as relaxed as this team of scientists and students. And then, the music, the silent threats and kills really oppressed me with the same panic that was played on screen.
Now, i tried to watch on a black night and my opinion is that ... the movie is still gripping but the fear decreases with the number of viewing. I think that the movie isn't related to this effect because it just due to memory: there is a excellent proverb for that: " once bitten, twice shy". It's a good thing finally to feel this way because without this kind of learning, mankind would have been never got out of his cave!
As i already know this dreadful church and that flashes come back slowly, the bonus of this new watching was to pay attention to new details and to use a kind of new glasses made by all the experiences i lived since the last time: Thus, i found that the basic ideas of this movie are brilliant and not used very much in horror: to choose a sacred place to hold the devil is great as it's really the last place in which you can expect fear. To expect analyze devil with technology is audacious as the failure is certain. In addition, it was cool to see that unknown or a bit familiar faces could play as good or better than the usual big names of Hollywood.
So there are still great things with this movie, even if i won't make nightmares again.
Now, i tried to watch on a black night and my opinion is that ... the movie is still gripping but the fear decreases with the number of viewing. I think that the movie isn't related to this effect because it just due to memory: there is a excellent proverb for that: " once bitten, twice shy". It's a good thing finally to feel this way because without this kind of learning, mankind would have been never got out of his cave!
As i already know this dreadful church and that flashes come back slowly, the bonus of this new watching was to pay attention to new details and to use a kind of new glasses made by all the experiences i lived since the last time: Thus, i found that the basic ideas of this movie are brilliant and not used very much in horror: to choose a sacred place to hold the devil is great as it's really the last place in which you can expect fear. To expect analyze devil with technology is audacious as the failure is certain. In addition, it was cool to see that unknown or a bit familiar faces could play as good or better than the usual big names of Hollywood.
So there are still great things with this movie, even if i won't make nightmares again.