A short review of the DVD, The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen

I read the novel, The Exorcist, when it first came out around 1971 and thought it was pretty good. Remember there wasn't much out at that time: Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin, The Other by Thomas Tryon, and Hell House by Richard Matheson. When I saw the film adaptation of The Exorcist a couple of years later, I thought it was the most frightening movie I’d ever seen. In fact, it still holds up today after almost forty years as one the scariest films ever made, and it’s certainly in my top five category. Now, I'm talking about the original theatrical release, not this newer version with an extra twelve minutes added.

I’ve seen the theatrical version a dozen times or more over the years, plus “The Version You’ve Never Seen” at least twice. I think the theatrical version is definitely the stronger of the two. The deleted scenes that were added to the newer version should have remained deleted, but the studios saw a way to make an extra buck and went for it. This reminds a lot of the DVD for Jaws, which has gone through several variations over the years—Full Screen, Wide Screen, the Theatrical Release, the Director’s Cut, The Version You’ve Never Seen, Blue Ray, etc., etc. If there’s a way to make some additional money off of an old movie, the studios will do it in a heartbeat.

Just a sidebar here, but when I saw the original film in the theater, I remember thinking to myself that the actor, Max Von Sydow, was fantastic for a man his age. I actually thought he was in his seventies. That’s how good he played the role of Father Merrin. He had the movements and body language down pat on how to play an elderly person. I know because I’m now an elderly person and walk much the way he did in the film.

Of course, the person I most identified with at the time was Jason Miller’s character, Father Karras. I nearly went into the priesthood, but didn’t believe my faith was strong enough to endure a lifetime of it. I had doubts about God and the Church, and still do to this day, though I’m much wiser now than I was at twenty-one. All the main actors in this film gave Oscar worthy performances, especially young Linda Blair who played Regan and the most difficult of the roles to play.

The difference between the theatrical movie and this version is about twelve extra minutes of film. Some of the previously deleted scenes are okay and add to the story, but the Regan “upside down spider walk” scene down the stairs with blood pouring out of her mouth wasn’t needed in the movie, nor the DVD, other than as a deleted scene. I mean Regan’s mom, Chris, had just been told that the director of the movie she was in, Burt Dennings, had been killed and was attempting to come to grips with that when Regan comes down the staircase in an unbelievable contortion of the body. So the Regan scene was really anti-climatic.

One thing I didn’t like about this particular version was the multitude of images representing demons that are subliminally placed throughout the movie. After the first couple of one-second images, it started to make me a little angry. I don’t understand what the purpose was, other than to distract the viewer’s attention from the plot. It didn’t make sense to me.

There were some other scenes that were added to the film to make it longer such as the one on the stairs between Father Merrin and Karras. Then, there’s the scene when Father Karras is in the library, listening to the recording on the tape recorder of Regan’s normal-speaking voice. There’s also a scene in the doctor’s office where Regan is starting to tell the doctor off during her examination. Most of these added scenes don't make the film stronger, but rather lessen it to various degrees, taking away from the sheer quality of the original production. Sometimes scenes that are edited out of a movie are done so because they slow the film down.

I actually tried to find the theatrical version of the film, but this was the only one I could buy on Amazon. Take my advice. If you want a classic horror film for your library, try and find the original version of The Exorcist somewhere. Don’t settle for this bloated version and the few extra minutes of film.

Less I forget, there are a few extras on this disc other than the commentary with William Friedkin. Everything other than that is written out, which is also something I don’t enjoy seeing on a DVD. The reason for this is my own poor eyesight and having to stand in front of the television set to read the information. I’d rather just skip it.

Last, I will say I got DVD for a really good price. It wasn't more than five dollars, which isn’t bad for a decent movie.