And Regan’s bedroom was actually the inside of a freezer. The painful screams of Blair and Burstyn are real - they were being yanked all over the set by stunt harnesses which caused both injuries and pain. He slapped some actors right across the face before important scenes. He fired guns into the air to get a frightened reaction. It’s what is not seen that is most interesting, such as the old Hollywood directorial tricks William Friedkin used to get a reaction. And in the end, two old men find friendship in the aftermath. A priest must show weakness before showing great sacrifice. What follows is a haunted house of scares that have been imitated ad nauseum (pun intended) so many times that we know the beats: head spinning, pea soup vomit, masturbation with a cross, blood, strange voices, levitation. When Regan (Linda Blair) intrudes on one of her mother’s boring parties, pisses on the floor and tells an astronaut “You’re gonna die up there.” PS - Want to know more about that guy? Then you should watch The Ninth Configuration. When do we realize something is wrong? When it is too late. Scenes of Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) acting take precedence over the sad life of Father Karras, who has to deal with the death of his mother and his increasing lack of faith. What’s striking is that how long the movie takes to get there. ![]() Inspired by William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel, which itself was inspired by the 1949 exorcism of Roland Doe (“The Pope’s Exorcist” Malachi Martin claimed that he was the inspiration, a point that Blatty denied) the legends around this film - it was a cursed set, it’s filled with subliminal messages - supersede a very simple fact: this movie is frightening as hell, even 40 plus years later.ĭo I even need to tell you the story of how Pazuzu finds its way into an Ouija board and into the soul of the daughter of an actress? Probably not. Sneak into a quiet, late night screening, give yourself over to it, believe, and you will be terrified.What do you write about a movie that pretty much created modern horror? Sure, you can point to Night of the Living Dead and even Carnival of Souls as starting points, but from a mainstream blockbuster perspective, this is where the rules of modern supernatural horror begin. Watch it with a popcorn audience raised on rollercoaster rides like Scream and people will laugh. The Exorcist, in any form, is not about cheap shocks or easy thrills. From dog fights to rustling leaves, every nuance of noise contains the power to disturb. Even better, the sound, which has always obsessed Friedkin, now comes at you from all angles. Digital cleaning has given shape and (horrific) form to the subliminal images peppered throughout. The 11 minutes aside, what really makes this version worth catching on the big screen is the enhanced print. The effect of the added footage is to enrich and deepen a movie which is all about atmosphere in the first place. The running time now stands at a generous 128 minutes, for the story is slight - little girl starts acting crazy, mom gets desperate, and so calls in an expert - but Blatty was right to stand firm. ![]() ![]() ![]() Even the mythical ‘spider walk’ sequence is really just a quick, sharp jolt to give fresh impetus to the growing crisis. And what do a quarter of a century’s worth of arguments amount to? Tidying, basically - a few plot holes covered up, a more measured build-up to the climax, some neat detail. Strictly speaking this is not the director’s cut as most of the changes were made at the behest of writer/producer William Peter Blatty, who has fought for this version since 1973. And so, after years of being unable to see the film in any (legal) form, we can watch the devil and his favourite director at work on the big screen for the second time in just two years. Instead, he waits a couple of years for the less celebrated 27th anniversary and then produces a spruced up print with 11 extra minutes in the form of a ‘Director’s Cut’. Typical of the errant genius of William Friedkin is that he failed to ready a new version of his ‘70s masterpiece for the 25th anniversary re-release.
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