CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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The problem is, at least in the UK, the only way any of us got to see the film was at drunken midnight showings of knackered old film prints, because the British Board of Film Censorship/Classification had banned it from video release!
Usually people had been to a Hallowe’en party or some such and really were in the wrong mind set to watch the movie! However, the benefit of wrecked old prints was that the wires were far less visible. Even on VHS the wires weren’t too much of a problem.
Now, however we’re getting used to high quality picture and sound on our progressive-scan DVD players and upscaling Blu-Ray players with actual 1080p discs on the way.
Because of this, there’s detail showing up on screen that wouldn’t even have appeared in cinema prints when movies came out.
There’s actually a need to be careful in the clean-up of old movies because new technology is getting to be too good!
The wires weren’t intended to be obvious in the original release of the Exorcist, so for a release in a new HD format meticulous removal of them will be vital.
At the end of the day, though, people will laugh at this film if they really want to.
Horror is at its best when it treads the line of going OTT. The Exorcist treads this line very carefully and succeeds because it just about shies away from overt silliness.
So, are these the people who keep hacking this site?
I’m a Catholic and I love Blatty’s work. People as ignorant as the troll who started this thread shouldn’t even be described as ‘Christians,’ since you need to understand a bit about Christianity before you describe yourself as a follower!
Seems to me they’ve confused the words ‘bigot’ and ‘Bible!’
Reading the novel really freaked me out: in my head, I blended it with the sounds and imagery from from the film and had nightmares for weeks!
Personally, I’m amazed that they didn’t digitally remove the wires for TVYNS.
For any future Blu-Ray release of either version, painting out the wires will be essential.
Karras’s leap is reminiscent of an exorcism in the New Testament (IIRC) where demons were driven out of a man and into swine which then ran down to the river and drowned themselves!
Depends which Stacy Keach you mean. The older one died a few years ago. The one who played Mike Hammer, was originally cast, then paid off, to play Karras in The Exorcist and played Kane in The Ninth Configuration, is still alive and well!
If there has to be a remake, I’d like to see them go back to the book and bring in more material from the source. The Kinderman investigation would be particularly useful as it could set up a sequel.
I’d cast Stacy Keach as Kinderman, an unknown as Regan, Michelle Pfeiffer as Chris MacNeill, Anthony Hopkins as Merrin and would have cast Heath Ledger as Karras, had he still been alive!
Calling John Boorman, the director of films such as Excalibur and Point Blank – an acknowledged classic crime film – ‘unqualified’ and ‘boring’ is a bit bizarre!
Boorman, like many others who worked on Exorcist II, got caught up in a compromised mess, buried in misfortune and studio politics. For all the rubbishy elements, Exorcist II is absolutely dripping in atmosphere, has a great score and some fabulous imagery.
Exorcist III suffers because it came out at a time when gory horror films like the Elm Street and Friday 13th movies were prevalent. Had Exorcist III been made five years later when The X Files had become popular, it might have stood a better chance of being left intact!
Indeed the original Legion film isn’t that far off being a classic X Files story itself (given Brad Dourif’s not dissimilar role in the episode ‘Beyond the Sea!)
I think this often ill-treated series of films deserves a comprehensive anthology edition a la The Matrix.
I’m all for a definitive release of the original film including all versions, like Blade Runner is getting later in the year.
But some enthusiast needs to get archival on this series’ ass and sort out the mess of different sequels, different edits, different studios and different directors before the film stock rots in its cans!
I’d always thought that the African exorcism that ‘damn near killed’ Merrin and turned his hair white was another one that took place between Dominion and The Exorcist.
Merrin had only just chosen to return fully to the priesthood at the end of Dominion. He had successfully exorcised the Devil, but, given the respected, experienced, physically-ravaged exorcist priest he had become by 1973, there must have been a number of other encounters, possibly including Kokumo, before he met his maker in The Exorcist.
