<P> Director Martin Scorsese placed The Exorcist on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time . In 2008, the film was selected by Empire Magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies Ever Made . It was also placed on a similar list of 1000 films by The New York Times . </P> <P> The Exorcist was available on home video from the early 1980s in the UK . After the British Board of Film Classification created the Video Recordings Act in 1984, the film was submitted for a home video certificate . James Ferman, Director of the Board, vetoed the decision to grant a certificate to the film, despite the majority of the group willing to pass it . It was out of Ferman's concerns that, even with a proposed 18 certificate, the film's notoriety would entice underage viewers to seek it out . As a result, all video copies of The Exorcist were withdrawn in the UK and remained unavailable for purchase for more than a decade . </P> <P> Following a successful re-release in cinemas in 1998, the film was submitted for home video release again in February 1999, and was passed uncut with an 18 certificate, signifying a relaxation of the censorship rules with relation to home video in the UK, in part due to James Ferman's departure . The film was shown on terrestrial television in the UK for the first time in 2001, on Channel 4 . </P> <P> Roger Ebert, while praising the film, believed the special effects to be so unusually graphic he wrote, "That it received an R rating and not the X is stupefying ." Some theaters provided "Exorcist barf bags". </P>

When was the exorcist released in the uk