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I have to admit, I always wanted to see the demonic footage with Blair's original voice. But think about this too….Blair was not the only actor/actress to have to have her voice overdubbed simply because her personally delivering the lines was not acceptable.
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Ray Park as Darth Maul. David Prowse as Darth Vader.  Both those actors had to have their voices overdubbed. I heard the undubbed versions of those characters, and the voice overs were a must. LOL!
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Now, as far as Blair as a young actress at the time, I thought she did awesomely.  As the unpossessed Regan, she was natural in her acting.  And the sweet conversations between Regan and Chris were just touching. So naturalistically performed. They sounded like real conversations, and not scripted dialogue. A compliment not only to the actors, but in Friedkin's directing skills.
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I also felt that on a visual level, Linda did a tremendous job portaying the possessed Regan. She may not have had the voice for the demon, but her physical acting abilities in this aspect of the character have been unmatched since 1973.Â
I always wondered, in one scene, where possessed Regan is laughing during a break in the exorcism (where Merrin is having to “go to his corner” after round one, so to speak), Blair looks quite convincing, especially with that little “grunt” in the midst of her laughter, how did she come to that laugh. I remember hearing on the blu-ray that Friedkin would do things like tell Blair little jokes, or do funny things to get her to get comfortable both with him as a director, and with her role as Regan.  So, I wondered, at this time, was William Friedkin (or someone off camera) telling jokes to Linda, or doing something funny, making her laugh genuine?
Hi, Father Bowdern.
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I'm glad to be here. So great to meet so many other fans of this film.
I loved the original theatrical cut of The Exorcist, but they really pushed it to 11 with the 2000 cut. I am a big fan of the 2000 VYNS.
I can share a funny story about the cut.
Back in 2001, I used to live in Schoolcraft, MI, back in the woods with a couple of roomies (both of whom were out at the time). I decided to pop on my recent proud purchase of The Version You've Never Seen. (I sooooo wanted to see this in the theater as my sort of revenge for the movie haunting me for so many years, but I never got the opportunity.)
I knew the spider walk scene was going to be restored, but what I did not expect were all the nice subtle digital touches (the quick flashes of Captain Howdy beside Chris, and superimposed onto Regan's face during the psychiatrist interview, and Pazuzu on Regan's wall when Chris steps out of the room for a moment.) For me, those just pushed the film to a whole new level of creepiness, just when I didn't think it could get any creepier.
Well, halfway through the movie, I was hungry, and decided to step out to grab some snacks. (Keep in mind, this is around 2 in the morning….I'm a musician so I keep non-standard hours…LOL).   At the time, I had a van with all the windows in the back painted black. (The van often hauled my band's equipment, so the black painting was necessary to block out peekers/potential thieves).  Ok, so I hop in the van, and I'm driving out of the woods, on the stretch of road heading to the closest Meijer store (think a Michigan Wal-Mart superstore if you will).  The road is dark, and the windows behind me are black…leaving the back of the van EXTREMELY darkened.  As I'm driivng down the road, the hair on the back of my neck seems to want to stand up, and chills are running up my spine….almost as if I'm expecting a clawed or clammy hand to just barely stroke the back of my neck to scare the hell out of me. And it was hard to shut the movie out of my mind.
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The original film was a feat unmatched in scary movie history, and it was only trumped by The Version You've Never Seen. I have never, in my 41 years of existence on this planet, found The Exorcist's equal in terms of technical accomplishment (in the scary movie realm, that is), or in terms of emotional and psychological impact. :) TVYNS is an example of how to revisit a movie and do it right!
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Thanks again, for the kind welcome, Father Bowdern.
Captain Howdy said:
Justin said:
I deleted all my recent uploads by accident. Will re-upload soon!
Oh, shit!
Oh, double shit!
Father Bowdern
I think it's unfair to expect that any 12 year old girl could muster a voice of demonic menace whether she's a good actress or not. I thought she did fine but no matter what she did, it would always be that little girl voice.
^ I totally agree … How can we only pretend she could make a demon out of her little young voice? I think Linda was just perfect in both roles. The part of the crucify says it all … she managed to get that scary look in her eyes and that was not only the make-up. Besides, I don’ t think like Sophia that the Regan of the movie should have been more similar to the one of the novel. If Friedkin had chosen Nicoletti Elmi, for example, the film would have been not so realistic … Nicoletta had maybe more similarity with the character of the book, but she had also that typical little girl face we see always in horror movies. Linda was looking totally normal, cute but normal … and this is what made the film so realistic.
I think Blair's lack of vocal abilities for the part of the demon coincides with her inabilities to perform various scenes that Friedkin surreptitiously edited prior to the film’s release; i.e., the awkwardly overacted doctor’s office visit.
Blair’s Academy Award nomination truly goes to Friedkin for his skills versus the totality of Blair’s acting performance. Holistically, Blair did not have the goods to deliver the in-depth demands of the demonic role without the vocal performance of the great actor Mercedes McCambridge. I believe if Friedkin had not thought of McCambridge, The Exorcist would have been a disaster on a comedic level regardless of the child actor chosen.
Father Bowdern
 I believe if Friedkin had not thought of McCambridge, The Exorcist
would have been a disaster on a comedic level regardless of the child
actor chosen.Right on. No one could have pulled it off using their own voice unless McCambridge herself played Regan, so I don't really get the criticism towards Linda's acting.
Mute the film and you still have a wonderful performance from a rather inexperienced little girl. Any other child actor could have made the demonic scenes laughable by going completely over the top or underplaying the whole thing, but Linda got it perfect. As Hammer mentioned, the crucifix scene is one of the best examples of that.
^Right … Father, I really don't get your point. I agree that sometimes Blair wasn't that perfect (in the previous cut doctor’s scene), but for the rest she was great. The film wouldn't have been such a success if she didn't act that well. Just look at Dietz when she tested the vomit apparatus: she is totally ridiculous. Then Look Linda in the chosen cut: she is perfect with just opening the mouth!
Simmer down guys. I have an opinion, too. … probably a little more seasoned at my age, but a different opinion than those of yours. I enjoy reading your opinions and reflections and I'm not objecting so vehemently because you have another angle.
To go further, I never gave any thought to Linda's acting performance in The Exorcist until the release of TVYNS. That's when I realized that Friedkin made the wisest decisions for the original release by cutting out the less-than-favorable performances by Blair. This includes the doctor's office visit and probably many more scenes that we are not even aware of despite BTS footage and other scenes that couldn't be used due to sound issues.
Linda Blair didn't win the Oscar because she did not perform the part in the holistic acting sense as I said above and that you pointed out by quoting me regarding Mercedes McCambrige. Without McCambridge, the part of the demon never existed until her vocal acting talents came into play. I remember the controversy all too well back then about this very issue. Ten-year-old Tatum O'Neal won the Oscar that year over Blair and other adult actresses. Neither went on to great careers. However, going back a little to other threads, to blame The Exorcist II: The Heretic as a pivotal collapse of Blair's career does not compute because she simply does not have the talents required to pull off anything other than what Friedkin let us see in his masterpiece.
This is yet another reason why TVYNS is a fiasco over the original. TVYNS, now EDC, cheapened, weakened, and made a modern mockery of a classic motion picture. On that note, I agree with Roger Ebert's critique that Friedkin was happy with his fim for 25 years and the release of TVYNS was nothing more than a marketing ploy that added 11 minutes of agonizing cutting-room fluff and unnecessary CGI elements.
Father Bowdern
Now I got it! You are actually
Father Dietz!
Anyway, I agree about the TVYNS, and of course Friedkin did a wonderful work with Linda and the rest of the crew… I even agree she wasn't perfect in some parts, but acting is not only saying the sentences in the right way, it is also catching the depth of the character in his eyes, making the right movements … and with her performance she managed to make believable what for the most of the people is totally absurd. Of course the make-up and McCambrige had a huge part in it, but as you can see with Dietz, for example, you can just turn a scene into ridiculous by overacting the horror – and even without talking. Linda was just remarkable in most of the scenes… and the documentary we see on the blu-ray just shows that it's not only the make-up that did the trick, because as soon we see Linda smiling with the demon face, she just looks like a little girl wearing an ugly mask.
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