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It's back! The single greatest horror film of all time, The Exorcist, is
back where it belongs: on a movie screen for the two or three generations
that have not had the chance to experience all the thrills, chills and drama
the proper way (myself included). As with any reissue of a classic film,
the
movie has undergone some tweaking, which (just like the 1997 reissue of
the
Star Wars trilogy) has both pros and cons.
I won't bother going into details about the plot (if you don't know what
it's about by now, you really need to get out more), but I will state that
it is a true testament to the magnificence of this film in terms of how
much
it has stood the test of time. While some of the clothes and mannerisms
seem
dated, the incredible power of its story has not. Neither has the superb
acting from Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Linda Blair and Max von Sydow.
Thanks to William Peter Blatty's multi-layered screenplay, the cast manages
to fall so far into their characters that you don't feel you are watching
a
movie. You almost feel like you are watching a documentary, which brings
a
heady degree of realism to a story few would sanely consider the stuff of
fact (although, as most of us know, the story was based on an actual
exorcism conducted in the late 1940's).
Aside from the acting and overall tone of the movie, I believe that that
it
is the underlying theme of faith that makes The Exorcist so unique. The
main
characters (with the exception of 12-year old Regan) each have a test of
faith brought before them here: with Father Karras, it is whether or not
he
is cut out to be a priest. With Chris MacNeill, Regan's mother, it is
whether or not she believes that there is a God, and if there were, why
would it allow an innocent girl, her beloved daughter, become possessed?
Blatty, along with director William Friedkin, take their time examining
each
of the characters and allow their conflicts to develop and play themselves
out amidst the sound and fury of the film's third act, the actual exorcism
(which, despite being parodied endlessly, still has what it takes to scare
the living daylights out of the viewer).
So, why tinker with something that many (myself included), considered
perfect? If you were William Peter Blatty, you would say that the film was
not exactly "perfect" in its 1973 version. This new version, which runs
approximately eleven minutes longer, is what Blatty had in mind as the
definitive cut of the movie. For the most part, the new scenes are quite
decent, mostly of the dialogue department. While these scenes are decent,
they do not really add anything of relevance and serve mostly as mere
extensions of scenes that already were effective on their own merit.
However, there are two scenes that do stand out, both for the better and
for
the worse. The best of the new additions is a short scene that long-standing
fans of the movie have labeled "The Spider Walk" in which Regan, bent over
backwards while spewing blood from her mouth, crawls down the stairs like,
you got it, a spider, and attacks her mother. If this doesn't freak you
out,
nothing will.
The worst addition to the film lies in the elongated ending of the movie,
one that ever so slightly lessens the tension and overall impact of the
film's conclusion. The ending of the 1973 version left you stunned, still
on
that horrific high that the third act had served us. This new edition, once
again put back into the film at the behest of Mr. Blatty, lessens the impact
by having a short comic interlude between Lt. Kinderman and Father Dyer.
Not
only does this extended scene dilute the wonderful atmosphere Friedkin had
been working on for two hours to build, it also insults the audience. We
know that good has triumphed over evil by watching the conclusion of the
third act. We don't need it repeated to us in a rambling final scene that
should have remained a deleted scene on a home video release supplemental
section.
Despite this change and a few others (additions of one too many new music
cues and digital effects thrown in here and there to clutter up the screen),
the stuff that makes the movie still stand at the top of the horror genre
mountain after nearly three decades is still here. This is a horror movie
with heart, soul and a brain. The Exorcist is a wonderful meditation on
faith and how belief in faith can conquer any and all evil. It is also one
incredibly scary movie, one that still manages to give me nightmares even
after three decades.
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