CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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PRO
There are directors working today who could still do a great job on an Exorcist ‘revisioning’. I know I personally would be extremely excited if David Fincher or Paul Thomas Anderson were signed on.
CON
The director might rely on CGI special effects and that would be awful.
PRO
If it’s more like the novel then it will be better than the original movie. Sorry but the novel is like my life. 😉
PRO
It could return some people of a later generation to revisit the classic masterpiece. To me, this is the greatest pro. There are many, many, many young people who have never witnessed the Exorcist, simply due to its age. Many will rent the old one to compare it and (gasp!) may even pick up the novel. It could “reawaken” the demon, so to speak.
CONS:
iamnoone, the original will lose its effect if a viewer sees it after watching the remake. They will know what happens to Regan and how the whole plot develops, thus removing the thrill of watching it for the first time. It would make it a very pointless exercise.
How many people watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, or Amityville Horror remake, and then rushed out to watch the original because they were suddenly huge fans? Not many.
How easy is it to rent the ORIGINAL TCM? You have to wade through 15 copies of the remake to find it in any video store I’ve been in.
Picking up the book, I agree with – but to be honest, its the film I care about and love most.
PROS:
Longer movies are more tolerated nowadays. This gives the chance to follow more closely and include some things that were left out of the novel in the original film.
(But, Sof; how can you say that? They could have it exactly like the novel, but hire the most horrible cast and crew that do a total whack job of it. Just because it has everything the novel has, isn’t going to make it any good as a movie.)
Also, CGI isn’t such a horrible thing if used correctly. What I’d have in mind for a ‘today’ version of the head spin (which wouldn’t actually be a head spin like the original) would probably require a light use of CGI. It could also help with the change in Regan’s facial features, giving her a more sick, skeletal look (Linda looked too chubby).
They really the only positives I have to say about a remake.
CONS:
Well firstly, I completely agree with everything Cap has said. And I don’t really think that most teens nowadays will go and watch the original. Many don’t even know of its existence and think The Beginning is the original. Then there’s those who don’t know of any Exorcist films, and then will then think that the remake is the original. And if it – and it’s most likely to – sucks, then it will ruin THE EXORCIST name.
And, being a young fan of the film is hard enough with most generalizing teens for being too stupid to appreciate the original. With a horrible remake using the same name, when I say The Exorcist is my favorite movie no doubt I’ll get a few funny looks.
I also really don’t believe they will hire a director that will take a remake seriously either. They’re not going to remake it to please all the older folk because the older folk have the original. A remake will be made to rake in the average teeny boppers.
“They could have it exactly like the novel, but hire the most horrible cast and crew that do a total whack job of it”
Ju, that’s why they need to hire a good director and crew. In the novel, you can use your imagination and when you watch the movie you watch the result of Friedkin’s imagination. It’s a lot different than my vision, so if they hire a good director who loves the novel and wants to make it justice, I won’t have any problem with a remake.
I never said CGI was a horrible thing, but it would be in The Exorcist, because the story and characterization
is what should be important.PROS:
Make it a mini-series, you can show the movie in 2 parts. Of course, some scenes will be edited or filmed for the TV version, but when it comes out on DVD, you can make it more graphic. Make it like it was written in the novel. I wanna see Karl’s drug addicted daughter and Burke being murdered by the demon Regan.
CONS:
If you make it a theatrical film, they will probably use some young director that won’t understand what The Exorcist is all about. The director will probably think it’s all about pea soup vomit and heads spinning with flashy MTV cuts. I say, let’s wait another 25 years if they make a re-make. I don’t want no Weinstein brothers involvement or the guy that directed the Transformers. I want the remake the way the novel was written, you can’t beat the original, it was made well, so that you are scared.
PROS:
Instead of making it closer to the novel, maybe this could be an oppertunity to re-make the film with a fresh modern view. Making the film more relevant to todays cinema goers.This may also revitalise the franchise & could get Morgan Creek to release Legion.
CON:
From an English perspective, living in a secular country I can’t see a re-make having the same deep in grained impact on people like the oringinal had.Even if someone does make a re-make as good as the original, due to “tortue porn” films being so popular I doubt the re-make would scare anyone. People are to desensitized today.
PRO
They could make the film longer and add extra scenes, we could also get to see some disturbing things that we never saw in the original.
It would generate interest in the original again and hopefully expose a whole new generation to the magic of The Exorcist.
CONS
If they give it to some idiot to remake it would be a tragedy. The individual doing the remake needs to have a special understanding of the original and realize that it is sacred to all of us therefore the task should be approached with utmost care and respect.
CON
Only a garbage director could be handed this project, because any director with respect for the original would quickly realize the original cannot be topped or even equaled today. You just simply cannot get the same effect from todays desensitized audiences. So, any director who signs on thinking they can do better is likely both of two things:
1 – An idiot, and
2 – Clearly in it for the dollars and the dollars only.But aren’t they all?
You just simply cannot get the same effect from todays desensitized audiences.
This is unfortunately true and it doesnt apply only to movies but our society in general. Now I dont know if any of you guys are heavy metal fans like me but if you are you only need to look at the metal bands to see how far and how extreme it has become, I mean back in the early 70’s Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper were extremely shocking, then in the early 80’s along came Venom, then mid 80’s Bathory,Mercyful Fate, then in the late 80’s real Satanic bands like Morbid Angel. As the 90’s came along we had Nordic Black Metal exploding into the mainstream, it was the most evil, extreme and sick form of music to emerge from the depths of hell. Today there are a million ‘Satanic’ bands out there and the shock value has totally worn of.
If Venom’s classic and influential Black metal album Welcome to Hell {1981} were released today it would sound like a joke. That would also be a problem with any remake however even this would not stop me from wanting to see it.I agree with most you have already written. Maybe the only way to make an interesting remake would be to add another perspective… The Exorcist never shows the horror from Regan’s point of view (actually the novel doesn’t do it either)… But I really think it would be even more terryfying to see the poor Regan hearing the noises for the first time and so on…
I actually think this would make it less terrifying and more ‘dumb-fuck’ proof, which is what most horror films are subject to these days for the average movie-goer. The filmmakers do all the thinking for you. It’s boring.
At least The Exorcist had/has us thinking when we view it.
Watching Regan hear the noises and slowly becoming possessed would be “oohhhh I think something freaky is going to happen…. BOOM! It did!! Wow, that looked awesome! Now what? Credits? OK, thanks for the popcorn…”
*sigh*
I really like the gradual onset of Regan’s illness/possession in the novel. We never see her hearing the noises. They always cease at the moment Chris enters the room. Chris thinks that her daughter is doing it all. When Regan is silently staring at the ceiling, complaining of the noises, Blatty never wrote that Chris was listening to them too.
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