The Exorcist (The Version You've Never Seen) (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	its only a film
Disadvantages:	is it?

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Exorcist (Directors Cut).

I'm pretty sure that by now, most people would have heard about the Exorcist film, either Film, Dvd, Video or just from memories of parents.

The later of this summary is what I'm basing my review on.
I was one of many who stood outside the cinema in the pouring rain, of the first showing of this movie, at our local cinema in the early 70's.

I thought it was quite funny at the time to listen to; Priests and Nuns outside telling us not to watch it, in fact this had an adverse effect on me, it just made me want to watch it more.

Yes at the time it was truly horrifying, and left a real chill down the spine, every time I heard a bird in our loft after that I was convinced it was the devil looking for another possession.
But time moved on, and 100's of Horror films later, it all seemed a distant memory, and then I came across this DVD, the Directors Cut, it had me intreaged, what would be different and would I notice any difference.

My son who is nearly 17 asked to watch it with me, I thought oh well, they see many demons/ghouls/ghosts etc: surely it wouldn't do any harm, after all this film is some 30+ years old, How wrong could I have been?

The Film,
Everything was as I remember it to be, Reagan (Linda Blair) the demonically posed child, Her single parent mum, struggling to come to terms with what was happening to her daughter, The hard looking boxer type Father Damien Karass (Jason Miller) who is struggling to come to terms with his faith, the Dodgy looking trench coat wearing detective and the Old Father (Max Von Sydow) on the edge of his death bed trying to perform an exorcism on the possessed girl.

Lots of foul language, spinning of Reagan's head, the vomit that stretches the length of the room, and cold stare of evil from Reagan, actually reminds me of my teenage Daughter when I tell her she cant go to the youth club,

I was doing well, not really a problem, but then! Who the bloody hell stuck in the part when Reagan walks down stairs in a crab positition, like a deranged spider, talks in Latin and then vomits lashings of blood, my God I nearly fell of the chair, my son was speechless, now I saw why this was omitted from the original film, what a terrible moment.

There is a few little bits and bobs that I thought were different, but nothing on the scale of this scene.

After watching it again, I still totally agree with its 18 rating, the fact that it leaves you believing it could really happen is still there, must send this film into the archives as one of the all time scariest movies

In the words of my son, "One HELL of a film" seems to be quite appropriate.

Rated 18

Dvd Special features include audio commentary by the Director William Friedkin, Four TV interviews and two radio interviews, with his views on the film and an insight into the making and his personnel feeling about the film.

Also a Photo stills Gallery.

Stereo sound quality.

Wide Screen.

Languages English and Italian.

Best price I can find is at Tesco Extra for a bargain price of £4.47