CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Yeah, it is weird how Dominion because it has the subtitle ‘Prequel to the Exorcist’ makes it sound like it directly preceeds Exorcist whilst The Beginning is truly the Beginning in the series. People I know who usually bring the prequels up (and usually only talk about Dominion) often are confused.
Hey Hatter,
It’s a fine addition. It does take a bit of getting used to considering the editing style of ETB is way more modern than Dominion, which is one of the main reasons I like the latter because it is rightfully inspired by the classic styles of the old and like Schrader said– a film set in the 40’s should look a film that was directed in the 40’s whereas Harlin didn’t quite agree. However, the fact that Merrin is reminsicing there justifies the quick cutting. I do think the imagery there of the John Milton-style hellish flames is a nice touch. Harlin did have good visuals which is all I’ll give him on ETB. The rest I’ll look for in Die Hard 2. 😛
The 25th Anniversary of Jaws had the same problem where the 2 hour documentary that originally was on the 20th Anniversary Laserdisc was edited down to only an hour. That really upsetted us Jaws fans, so we started a petition and got near to 12,000 names or so. Universal relented and gave us a new 30th Anniversary edition with the entire 2 hour documentary. I don’t think we can do the same thing for The Exorcist since I think this forum is the only place that is complaining. 🙁
Hey Hatter,
Very nice work. I love how you did the old day to night trick. It’s also good that you made flashes apparent since that would be true in a darker light. It is a bit dark when I view it on my computer and my screen is at maximum brightness, so you need to be aware that sometimes it looks brighter on your computer or TV than others. A little brighter should be ok.
I like the added original Exorcist sound effect when the SS officer says, “God isn’t here today.” It’s a very nice addition. The dark WB/Morgan Creek logos are a nice touch too. Where is that music there from by the way? It’s very good and very effective indeed. One another suggestion: I do like it better when it does say “Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist” it just feels appropriate. 🙂
Thanks for showing this to us, Hatter!
Sounds good. I thought the gunshots were also emphasized. And boy, do those new sound effects sound like foley from the original film. About the title I see what you mean, maybe you can try and move ‘Dominion’ a little lower in the frame to center it. That might be what’s bothering me more since it looks like something is supposed to show up beneath it. Yes, editing is tiring and tedious, but it’s also about “careful care.”
Have you heard any bad press about the film already? I’ve been curious to see it myself.
I really enjoyed Friedkin’s last film, The Hunted. I thought it worked very well and was full of Friedkin’s exposes on extremes.
The film I do know is not a remake of Jeannot Szwarc’s 1975 film, Bug. That was indeed a horror film and a decent one as well. That film was definitely about insects on the attack, and strangely enough very ‘science vs. spirituality (demonic like bugs)’ in a coincidental way. Friedkin’s Bug sounds more like an encore to his Extremes in Military films as of late like Rules of Engagement and The Hunted.
Hopefully, we won’t have a repeat of Jade, which was truly a big mess. 🙁
Hi there, welcome to the non-floating asylum (obscure Jaws reference). 😛 I hope you enjoy your stay here. Happy future birthday wishes by the way! 🙂
“Rosebud…”
“What nationality are you?” “I’m a drunkard.”
“I wish you would die.” “That’ll be the day.”
“Mrs. Robinson, I think you’re trying to seduce me.”
“You don’t understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody.”
“We all go a little mad sometimes.”
“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here… this is the War Room!”
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
“We have all the time in the world…”
“Hey, sh*thead… you ever picked your feet? You ever been to Poughkeepsie, huh?”
“It’s not the years, dear. It’s the mileage.”
“Listen, you f*ckers. You screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore… who would not… let…” (starting over) “Listen, you f*ckers. You screwheads…”
“Nothing is worse than having an itch you can never scratch.” “Oh, I agree…”
“I like these calm little moments before the storm. It reminds me of Beethoven…”
“I’ll be back…”
“Get away from her, you bitch!”
“But I’m telling you and I’m telling everyone at this table that that’s a shark, and I know what a shark looks like because I’ve seen one up close! And you better do something about this one because I don’t intend to go through that hell again!!!”
“But he’ll find out. Sooner or later.” “Probably later.” 🙂
Ellen Burstyn without a doubt is an amazing actress. She is my all time favorite actress mainly because of her uncanny ability to make things so absolutely real and honest in her performances. When she has to give an extremely emotional moment, she plays it out still very honestly. It helps too that she is a beautiful woman. Although she wears practically no dress-up makeup except for a few scenes, she still looks great. Check her out in The Last Picture Show and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
It’s all good, Cap’n. I wasn’t being impatient. It was just one way to point out certain things while showing that the forum still had a tiny bit of traffic in terms of visits as opposed to none. 🙂
Hi Cap’n, nice improvements with the easy to find Javascript tag buttons. By the way, are the threads themselves going to have a different look or is that for something else? I’m not asking for one though I do think the topic listings were better with the font and table itself bigger like before. 🙂
What? Have you been having a lot of errors lately when you go on the internet/or this site or just for technology in general? 😛
Hi Orca75, welcome to the place “between science and superstitution– a world of darkness.” 🙂
As for this continuing thread, I think this remake craze is becoming tiresome. Practically every film out there now (almost 90%) comes from an older story that was done far better then than it can be now. The best remakes were made under the philosophy that they can offer new/alternate ideas and material that WERE NOT POSSIBLE at the time their originals were made due to the current social climate or technological limits of the time. The best example ironically is John Carpenter’s The Thing remaking Howard Hawks’ production of The Thing from 1951. Carpenter obviously LOVED the original considering he gives the film a cameo in Halloween, but his remake was able to go after Campbell’s original story about an immitator that Hawks’ film could not do because of the limits in makeup effects at the time, but they were able to pull off a good paranoia ‘afraid of Soviets’ theme like Invasion of the Body Snatchers did, so both films are good because they tackle the same story differently.
Don’t know what Zombie is going to do because this story is so simplistic, but one of the best points I’ve heard from the Jaws forum is that you can’t ever outdo Donald Pleasence’s Sam Loomis. He was such a great actor: Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, he was great in The Great Escape, and quite fascinating in George Lucas’ THX 1138. They don’t make them with talent like that anymore.
I do think you guys, Ratboy (Chum from Jaws forum), Fletcher, and Merrin make valid points, but to some extent aren’t these just gripes about surface style? I mean the real meat of any film is not the CGI, the look of anything, or any single image– it’s what they all represent when put together as a single element of the big picture, which is really all about the content and substance. I’ve been under the belief that you can’t duplicate the fears that the original Exorcist created and explored in 1973. Too much time has past, bad sequels have destroyed the possibility of continuing the impact the original had on any audience, and we’ve been desensitized by more violent and gory pictures attempting to top The Exorcist ever since.
So I do agree with what Paul Schrader said about Dominion. It’s not a true horror film because the concept of a ‘reverse possession’ where the demon is curing someone as opposed to doing harm is not fear inducing. The closest it will do to scare you is the miraculous nature of it, but in a sense that maybe is why Blatty and supposedly Friedkin liked this film: because it was SO DIFFERENT from The Exorcist. Friedkin has constantly denounced many films for blantantly ripping off and duplicating The Exorcist– even the sequels like The Exorcist III which is not the best adapted work by Blatty when compared to The Exorcist and The Ninth Configuration. So in a sense, Dominion is more of a lead-up to The Exorcist in what would come for the character of Fr. Merrin. It would probably be quite apocryphal if the film decided to make itself more like The Exorcist, which would probably cause more of a repeat of the same ‘scary’ stuff that was already done far better in the original. The problem of ETB (which attempts to scare us with the same old stuff) from what I’ve seen is that it doesn’t treat the material with as much psychological seriousness as Dominion attempts to. ETB corelates more with the styles and supposed epic showcases of The Heretic since they are virtually identical in story subplots and surface details. So to be fair, I see what you guys are getting at, but perhaps the point is to see the general picture and not nit-pick at things that may not be that important. If picking at those details were that necessary, then every sequel and following episode to any story in existence would fall pray to it not being exactly “like” its predecessor, which would mean every sequel would have to be more like a remake than the ever difficult balancing act of designing a story with new elements to progress the series along and the old for nostalgic purposes (which are somewhat pointless in prequels since the story takes place prior to the original installment), which generally decreases as the films chase other ideas as the years progress.
Jaws is the best of the bunch OF COURSE, but Jaws 2 is no Heretic. J2 was the first sequel that wasn’t part of episodic serials or a conclusion to a cliffhanger ending to get it right and most of the people who worked on the 1st did J2 as well. Besides, Jaws 2 was made in the 70’s, so was the Heretic but I’ll assume that wasn’t the point you were making.
