...

Upon it's initial release, there was rumours and stories of people fainting, people getting sick, and women miscarrying, all because they saw the controversial film, The Exorcist.
At any rate, this negative push, much of which was made up to try and boycott the film for it's blatant blasphay (which rather ironically was written by William Peter Blatty, a devote catholic), did the complete opposite and made the film a box office smash hit AND an Oscar winner!!!

Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, and tranlated to the big screen by the man himself, said novelist was somewhat disappointed with the final film version as director William Friedkin insisted that several sequences be omitted.  This caused a major rift between the two, one which would last 20 odd years.

After the smashing success of the Star Wars Trilogy re-release, which updated the film to todays standards in special effects and digital sound, someone came up with the idea to re-tweak The Exorcist.  A much older and wiser William Friedkin decided not only would they tweak the effects and sound of the film, BUT he'd also reinsert the 27 year old seqences that in 1973 he originally didn't like but Blatty did, all because he had a change of heart over them (of course the fact he hadn't had a hit film for so many years had nothing to do with it :)

So in addition to the Regan (Linda Blair) spinning head and vomit gyser, we get the infamous spider walk sequence, additional character development, and the Blatty preferred ending. (chapters that contain the additional footage have been asterixed * on the inside sleeve of the DVD cover)

....

VIDEO
Released way back in 1973, the film stock used for The Exorcist was rather grainy, and I personally liked the added grittiness on show, but at times it was excessive, even for my tastes.  This brand spanking new Anamophic Widescreen Transfer, which is now of a mild [and correctly levelled] graininess, looks absolutely wonderful.

Black Level is excellent and shows a very good level of shadow detailing, Colour Saturation is very well balanced throughout the film, with what I would say is a deliberate slight mutation of the colour palette.
Sharpness is uniformy good, with little to no signs of aliasing and edge enhancement

In Fact the picture on a whole has a very natural, and very appropriatre look and feel about it, which has wisely been spread across two layers of an RSDL DVD.  The Perfect Layer Change occurs at 52:02 (the beginning of chapter 22), and is virtually undetectable as it's a static shot of a closed door to Regan's Room. 

...

AUDIO
aaaaaH, this is my favourite part of this review.  Not only was this audio remixed for a second time utilising multichannel sound, BUT it was remixed for Dolby Digital Surround EX.  On board are 2 Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX tracks in English and Italian.
Warner have also seen fit to include a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Track (not a common occurance with Warner titles either).

While the 5.1 EX mix does reveal the dated fidelity of the audio, it has none the less been cleaned up ever so well and has a fuller body that most audio tracks of its era.
The Front soundstage is nice and wide with good clean sound.  Dialogue is well integrated into the mix with a good level of intellegability, though can on occasions sound Post Dubbed in it's tonality...no real biggy though.
As for the surround usage...WOW.  Most remixed soundtrack are often overbaked, or undercooked when redone in 5.1, but this one works incredibly well with the onscreen action and has very good directionality.  The added Back Surround Channel of the Surround EX mix gets as much of a workout as it's two Side Surrounds and so the spread across all three Surround channels can be quite chilling at times with damn fine positioning so that come sounds right up over your head and scare to good effect :)

...

EXTRAS
Compared to the 20th Anniversay release, this is somewhat of a disappoint in the extras department. I do wish Warner would have made this a 2 disc release so as to incorporate the truly excellent doco included previously.

What is on offer here, is mostly padding, with the exception of the new commentary by William Friedkin.  (Given this is the NOVELISTS preferred cut of the film it would have been nice to put both Friedkin and Blatty on a comm track)

• Audio Commentary with Director William Friedkin.  Not bad, but another voice or two would have helped move it along a little
• TV/Radio Spots.  4 TV Ads and 2 Radio Spots
• Theatrical Trailers 2 trailers, both of which are only Dolby 2.0 Surround
• Cast and Crew Listings
• Awards Listings.  Yes this is a horror film that actually won quite a few awards :) including best sound and Screenplay at the Oscars

What an excellent film on offer here, and with a complete systems overhaul offers a fabulous piccy and terrific sound for it's age.  Well worth the effort.

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver : Denon AVC-A1SE THX Ultra (Dolby Surround EX, DTS-ES Discrete)
Speakers:-
     Mains: Quadral Amun
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Surrounds Left/Right: M&K SS500 (Dipole)
     Surrounds Back : Polk RT/fx (Diplole)
     Subby: M&K V125 

- Review Posted 6th November 2001

*  jpeg files for internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by Warner Home Video