[bursyl]

Father Bowdern said:

I offer my thanks to captainhowdy.com member bursyl for leading me in the direction of yet another beating of the dead horse regarding the bloody-variant spiderwalk version.

---

You're welcome FB.  I love this site.  It's a place where I can learn a lot of things about my favorite movie and about wet linguini noodle beating.

[fatherbowdern]

Bursyl,

No problem … I love seeing new people on here to discuss this great film. The atmosphere is cordial and pleasant while steering you in a direction of thinking beyond the norm about this mysterious film (and novel). You are truly a welcomed addition.

Just watch out as this site can be very addicting. However, you can learn and see some wonderful things on here including all the things you didn't want to know about evil pasta. 

Father Bowdern

[bursyl]

I'm not that new.  I'm a member since 2006.  Mostly a reader though.  Here's one of the first things I posted :

[fatherbowdern]

Ha … I love that. There's one here (somewhere) of Father Merrin exercising in that pic!

Father Bowdern

[Justin]

I think it's entirely possible the book is just wrong. But… I still wouldn't rule out the blood being 'touched up' a little with CGI.

It doesn't look that way to me, though, after seeing all the BTS footage.

[fatherbowdern]

Free pizza and beer for everyone!

Father Bowdern

[fatherbowdern]

Justin said:

I think it's entirely possible the book is just wrong. But… I still wouldn't rule out the blood being 'touched up' a little with CGI.

It doesn't look that way to me, though, after seeing all the BTS footage.

---

I think it's entirely possible the book is correct because WB, Friedkin, and Blatty approved the content. The “Roizman Tapes” on the subject is blurry, extremely short, and has too many objects in place for a clear view. I wouldn't rule out the blood being completing done through CGI just as the vomit scene imitation was filmed.
Father Bowdern

— In complete darkness we are all the same … it is only knowledge and wisdom that separates us.

[Justin]

I just don't see any reason for them to have CGI'd it all in when they had the shot. And if that is the case, it means they would have done a third take with her coming down the stairs and then holding her empty mouth open, which seems very unlikely.

But like you said, 'we don't really know crap'. One problem is solved and another arises… like, if you squint, Hager looks like Eileen Dietz (but don't tell her that).

[fatherbowdern]

Dear God, Justin! Let’s hope that Dietz doesn't read that and start chiming in on that one, too! Now she'll be the contortionist, too (yet another leading part)!

I'm sure Hager was probably filmed a lot that day because they were also having technical difficulties (you can see that in the “Roizman Tapes” when the fishing wire harness pulls her legs upwards and out of sync). Plus, there were the alternative versions to contend with. To me, Hager looks a little exhausted climbing back up the stars after filming the bloody variant spiderwalk and there’s no telling how many times she had to do that. As an aside, I've always noticed that Hager wears heavy mascara which does make any sense … unless she has really dark, thick eyelashes, but I doubt it. It just doesn't even look like Dick Smith was trying hard on that makeup job like he with Dietz.

Honestly, I'm only adding one more thought into the pot about the entire thing being adjusted and possibly painted in by the same “vomit graphic designer” in 1973 or with CGI in 2000 because it certainly could be a possibility. Despite reading the digibook information about “add in a mouthful of blood,” I can see that as just using CGI to “digitally enhance” that scene; but that's only a guessture.

Roizman mentions the thing about the wires for the reason that Friedkin didn't want to use the scene. I'm thinking Friedkin probably felt the scene looks, well, just silly at that point in the film or ever. If Regan was bleeding internally like that, she would definitely be in a hospital for a blood transfusion. Even more silly is the concept that Blatty wrote about in the book that would never work on film; it's genuinely stupid looking when we see it on the FOG and laughable. I really don't think Friedkin was trying for the freak sideshow with either one which more than likely would have created that. He had a hard topic to work with yet made it work (that is in the original version). I always prefer seeing Regan's full-on possession stabbing her peesh with a crucifix and spinning her head 180-degrees.

Father Bowdern

[DamienKarras]

 

=-)

[fatherbowdern]

Damien,

That's it! I would love to see this one with Merrin skipping rope or doing jumping jacks or shadowboxing (sans the case in his left hand, of course).

Father Bowdern

[epicwin123]

I hate to be a party pooper, but I never liked the bloody spiderwalk. I think it kind of was put of place. I liked the one verison of the Spiderwalk that someone did on youtube, where Regan chases Sharon. Then, that is just my opinion.

[etrigan69]

epicwin123 said:

I hate to be a party pooper, but I never liked the bloody spiderwalk. I think it kind of was put of place. I liked the one verison of the Spiderwalk that someone did on youtube, where Regan chases Sharon. Then, that is just my opinion.

---

That's the one from the book. For years I honestly thought that was the original and the bloody one was a complete CGI creation until the Roizman tapes and you can see the blood being wiped off of her mouth at the bottom of the stairs. The funny thing to me is there are people all over youtube that can do this without wires. I almost wish they would just reshoot the damn scene and tweak it with the original shot….

[fatherbowdern]

I really don't think the scene works in whatever configuration and was added to TVYNS to cash in on that version. It worked to WB's advantage, but the original version is the one I enjoy the most despite the Friedkin/Blatty conversations about the EDC being the perfect cut. Rubbish. It's the same thing as put lipstick on the Mona Lisa.

Father Bowdern

[Don]

Father Bowdern said:

Don, I agree and that is a funny reply! I often wonder how Hager could have held that much fake blood in her mouth for let it rip for that a period of time.

---

I had assumed it was supposed to be her own blood (sorry for a typo on “bleeding” in my previous post) — unless she's supposed to have bitten somebody else along the way.  That she would still be at home in the next scene seems jarringly illogical.  So, I think that the bloody mouth was a bit too much.

 

I should add that I liked most of the restored scenes, as I felt they filled out the plot and the characterizations.

 

But the “subliminal” ghostly faces popping up here and there — now that was annoying.  Subliminal, my butt: I could even pick them out while fast-forwarding the movie to research this scene! 

So Friedkin figured it hadn't been scary enough, so he'd go back and add some punctuation?  That's crazy!

[Author]

Posts