[Pazuzus Petals]

Hello, everyone.  This is a very interesting site and you have some really interesting commentaries.

 

I share what seems to be the consensus opinion about TVYNS here— that the CGI intrusions are superficial and gratuitous and do nothing to enhance the storytelling.

 

On the other hand, upon recent viewing of the original cut, there is one aspect about TVYNS that I realize I prefer.  I like having more not-quite-possessed Regan (whatever else one thinks of Linda Blair's acting) for comparison and to make the descent-into-possession more gradual and logical.  In the original cut, we seem to go from Regan wanting a horse to Regan peeing on the floor and telling an astronaut he's going to die sort of just-like-that.  Then Chris complains to her doctors about “all these weird things” her daughter's been doing— like what?  Weird things, plural?  The astronaut scene is the only weird thing she's seen at that point in the original cut.  Does showing up in Chris's bed count?  Presumably that's the night Regan desecrates the Virgin Mary statue, but Chris doesn't know that.

 

The old maxim in film is show, don't tell.  It just seems that in TVYNS there's a little more showing Regan getting weirder and weirder and with more of a contrast there is more of a disturbance.  Upon my recent viewing of the original cut, my thought was, gosh, if I didn't already know the premise of the film preordains her to be possessed, I would just say she's a moody 12 year old girl with urinary incontinence, which is not that big of a deal.

 

Thoughts?

[fraroc]

nice to see ANOTHER new member!

 

But anyway….that is one of the reasons why I prefer TVYNS. 1. the spiderwalk  2.the enhanced sound effects making everything sound more viceral.  3. The fact that it follows the book more.

[Justin]

I too prefer having the extra scenes in the film, and I feel the same about wanting more pre-possession Regan. That's why I wish they'd kept the “funny noises” scenes in – they would have helped show her gradual mood changes without giving the audience too much too soon.

But I can't overall favour TVYNS or EDC because of all the silly new “subliminals,” sound effects, music queues, and colour grading which destroy the gritty realism that Friedkin was going for in the original 1973 version.

[Pazuzus Petals]

Oh, I completely agree with that.  Would that there could be a Phantom Edit of TVYNS— we keep the stuff that actually enhances the storytelling, and throw out the silly crap.

[epicwin123]

I have never thought of the films that way. Once I get back home to my DVDs, i'll have a movie night to watch and compare the too. Because at the moment, I like the oringal, but not really sure why.

[Author]

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