Blu-ray Review: William Friedkin’s The Exorcist on Warner Home Video

Warner celebrates the stalwart horror landmark’s anniversary with an impressive package.

The ExorcistGod, or at least the idea of a god, is an omniscient presence that’s also suspiciously absent in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. The faith is kept alive in the film’s perpetual use of religious iconography, implying a worldly sense of spiritual belief, but the way in which the various priests conduct their pietism, most exemplified by Jason Miller’s brooding church psychologist Damien Karras, practically render their convictions as moot. At one point, Karras openly doubts his career choice after seeing firsthand the anxieties of his patients.

Of course, the devil is another story. It manifests itself within poor 12-year-old Regan McNeil (Linda Blair), turning a figure of pure innocence into a bile- and vulgarity-spewing demon who goes unnoticed by divine intervention. Friedkin and William Peter Blatty, adapting his own bestselling novel, forgo the easy psychological introspection that’s found in a crisis of faith, instead externalizing the conflict as a physically draining test of human will power and endurance. The filmmakers turn this aspect back on the audience as well, crafting a slow-burn exploitation picture built on his use of overpowering subjectivity—a uniquely uncomfortable spectrum of exaggerated lights, sounds, and colors that assaults our most primal fears on a purely visceral level. It’s telling that, when the protracted exorcism rolls around, it’s not a battle between God and devil, but devil and man.

Friedkin announces his impressionistic intentions with the Iraq-set prologue. A striking image of Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) walking by a row of praying Muslims conveys a universal belief of the world operating under a higher power, yet the forceful soundscapes, jarring cuts, and bizarre asides of fighting dogs suggest the vacancy of divinity where evil thrives.

Advertisement

Von Sydow’s presence alone is an inspired decision, as his role in The Exorcist draws a direct association to his work with Ingmar Bergman and the Swedish auteur’s trademark wrestling matches with faith. This near-silent opening also establishes the film’s preference for tone and theme over story: The horror is mostly dictated through its masterful atmosphere and ellipses, which carefully eliminates exposition and character detail to subconsciously put the viewer in a state of unease and preparing us for the overt frights that occur later on.

With the exception of Karras, the characters are broadly drawn, with minimal insight into their individual identities (Regan’s cherubic features are enough to sell her purity). That, though, is by design. It may seem like Friedkin and Blatty’s empathy is slight given the way the characters suggest pawns in a game, the lack of context also invites us to project our own emotions onto them. For one, it’s hard not to feel for Regan’s actress mother, Chris (Ellen Burstyn), as she begins to entertain the idea that she’s incapable of helping her daughter.

The Exorcist more or less plays out as a classic chamber piece, though one that’s ruthlessly stylized. Lee J. Cobb’s appearance as Detective Kinderman even explicates the film’s fresh, unsettling brand of horror: Although he’s the closest we get to an actual audience surrogate, Cobb’s presence as a cop who loves to “critique” film in a movie that was a turning point for the horror genre is especially poignant given that this was one of the veteran character actor’s final performances. One can’t help but wonder what Kinderman would think of The Exorcist itself.

Advertisement

The Exorcist truly makes the audience feel its characters’ sense of spiritual abandonment, which it savvily connects to the idea of science as a cure-all and how a false promise can lead individuals down the road of discontent. The medical treatments that Regan is subjected to early on in the film come to feel as horrifying in their own way as Mercedes McCambridge’s demonic voice. After enduring her daughter’s prolonged medical treatments, and realizing that as her vast wealth and connections are getting her nowhere, the agnostic Chris becomes open to the “radical course of treatment” that Merrin can perform on Regan. Therein lies the root of The Exorcist’s nature: In the absolute absence of scientific or spiritual comfort, it takes sheer human fortitude (from the film’s characters and audience) to overcome the most intrinsic of fears.

Image/Sound

Both the 1973 theatrical and 2000 re-release versions of the film are included here, and both emanate off the screen in exceptional clarity and highlight the care and attention involved in the 1080p upgrade. The Iraqi sequence and final exorcism set piece, where every chilled breath is startlingly visible, particularly stand out in their immense detail. There’s an imbalance of color in some scenes, but as William Friedkin experimented wildly with his palette, that’s not a fault of the transfer. The film is also notable for its atmospheric and palpably dreadful soundscape, and the DTS surround mix is fittingly immersive, enhancing every small grunt or growl to rich effect.

Advertisement

Extras

Warner Home Video certainly pulls out the stops for the 40th anniversary of The Exorcist, even if most of the extras are lifted from previous releases. As noted above, both versions of the film are included, with the 1973 theatrical version constituting Friedkin’s original vision and definitive cut. The 2000 “Director’s Cut” is more or less “Blatty’s Cut,” as Friedkin wanted to appease screenwriter William Blatty by tacking on hokey expositional and mawkish sequences that reveal too much of what the 1973 version decidedly withheld. Friedkin is his traditionally candid and revealing self on two audio commentaries, overshadowing Blatty’s own track in the process. A host of featurettes are included, including the 70-minute BBC documentary “The Fear of God,” which exhaustively recounts the making of the film. New for this release are “Beyond Comprehension,” where Blatty somewhat blandly reflects on 40 years of The Exorcist, and “Talk of the Devil,” a 20-minute doc featuring footage from 1973 of one Father Eugene Gallagher explaining the exorcism incident that ultimately became Blatty’s inspiration for his novel. Gallagher may be a droll speaker, but the short is nevertheless an interesting watch. Rounding out the package are more trailers, TV spots, and radio ads than you’ll ever need, sketches and storyboards, and a short interview with Friedkin and Blatty. Also includes is a a hardcover booklet featuring a lengthy excerpt about the making of The Exorcist from Friedkin’s memoir The Friedkin Connection.

Overall

The Exorcist still gets under the skin after 40 years, and, a lack of new extras notwithstanding, Warner Home Video celebrates the stalwart horror landmark’s anniversary with an impressive package.

Score: 
 Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Mercedes McCambridge  Director: William Friedkin  Screenwriter: William Peter Blatty  Distributor: Warner Home Video  Running Time: 122 min  Rating: R  Year: 1973  Release Date: October 8, 2013  Buy: Video, Soundtrack, Book

Wes Greene

Wes Greene is a film writer based out of Philadelphia.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.