The Exorcist
Can it still turn heads?

As a first-time viewer of The Exorcist in the year 2000, I walked into the film with a specific mindset, one that was probably very similar to the rest of the crowd. I was expecting and wanting to be scared out of my wits; to be sitting in a puddle of my own feces by the time the end credits rolled.

Only, I wasn't scared. And I'm pretty bummed out about it.

I am not blaming the film for this. Not one bit. I simply must accept that The Exorcist is a film that has become dated. A 70's movie, by and by, and something that I think could only be truly, properly appreciated in the time that it was first released. I wish I was alive in 1973, but instead, I had to be born in the year of... of... Grease! I base this aged-film conclusion on my experience of seeing The Exorcist on its recent opening weekend, with its AA rating in Canada. That means that anyone who is fourteen or older can be admitted, and that was what the house was filled with: eager young teenagers, who like me, were suckers for the hype and promise that this was the scariest movie ever made!

Most teens didn't know how to react to The Exorcist. They yawned and fidgeted impatiently through the opening sequence in Iraq, they could not stop giggling through Regan's profanities. They bowled over with laughter when Father Karras loses his self-control and punches out the demon during the film's climax. It felt as though we were all watching a fucking Farrelly Brothers movie!

Today's younger audience is much more jaded. They've been tainted by the parodies, the rip-offs and the crappy sequels of The Real Thing. Religion is not what it used to be. The film's controversial content -- exorcism, accompanied by all its blasphemies, obscenities and graphic shocks, do not seem to be as taboo as they once were. We are less liable to be shocked by a little girl saying "Your mother sucks cocks in Hell!", because Cartman says such stuff on a weekly basis on South Park. Scary means the thrill-a-minute ride of Scream. Forget thoughtful conversation, character development and Catholic philosophy. More spinning heads! More pea-soup vomit! More subliminal cuts, so as to undermine their power as being subliminal in the first place!

I wanted to get up and yell, "Shut up and pay attention!" It's the unhurried pacing that allows for the identification and empathy for our protagonists, Chris McNeil and Father Karras played wonderfully by Ellen Burstyn and Jason Miller, respectively. Like any genre of film, if you don't care about the characters, the horror will have no genuine purpose. Above all, this is an extraordinarily well-acted movie and well cast too. Linda Blair's Regan has the sweetest little baby face, and her transformation into a nasty demon (with the aid of Mercedes McCambridge's voice) totally plays on that innocent look. And Max Von Sydow! The man knows religion. He hung out with the Grim Reaper in The Seventh Seal, played Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told and Satan in Needful Things. There is no one better to play the movie's title character. The forces of evil are afflicting these characters' minds and souls! Doesn't anyone care?

Well, the audience I watched The Exorcist with didn't. I felt so depressed leaving that theater, that I immediately went out and rented the original, so I could watch it more thoughtfully -- quiet, alone, in the dark, right before bedtime. It also allowed me to compare the originally 1973 version to this new director's cut, which is some 12 minutes longer. With a much clearer head, and with either version, I can honestly say that The Exorcist is one of the most emotionally draining films that has ever been made. It is not the scariest movie of all time, but it is an intensely disturbing one, and the more I sit and think about the themes and ideas behind it, the more freaked out I get. Unlike the Wes Craven School of Horror, The Exorcist takes itself very, very seriously, and that is part of its emotional staying power.

Among the additions are five new scenes, including Regan's infamous spider walk, a very jarring moment that could easily have been left out, as well as some minor things, such as music cues and an increased number of subliminal, one-frame flashes of a white-faced demon's grinning face. The story, however, remains the same. Father Merrin (Von Sydow) uncovers something evil in Iraq, after which we're introduced to different characters living on the other side of the world. Actress Chris MacNeil has rented a home in Georgetown so that her 12-year-old daughter Regan can be with her on her latest movie shoot. One morning, Chris wakes to hear noises in the attic; only a few days later, Regan is acting so psychotically that medical doctors diagnose her with a possible brain lesion. Elsewhere in the city, Father Damien Karras, a local priest and psychiatrist, is losing his own faith in the wake of his mother's death. When Chris finally approaches him about the possibility of Regan being possessed, he looks doubtful... until he walks up those flight of stairs and meets the ailing Regan for himself. In comes Father Merrin, to perform the long, drawn-out exorcism ritual.

The most effective addition to this new version is a brief dialogue exchange between Karras and Merrin sitting on the hallway steps during a break in the exorcism. Initially, it was just a moment of silent glances between the two men. Now, they raise the question as to why Satan would choose this one harmless American girl to torment -- a question my rational mind was continually asking throughout the first half of the film. Merrin theorizes that the devil is trying to make them despair in the possibility that God does not love humanity. With this brief line, the devil's target is no longer Regan, but the priests as well.

The most detrimental addition is a different ending. Director William Friedkin has said that they put this end coda back in because too many people believed that the devil actually won in the original ending. I disagree. The original final shot of the exorcist steps leaves you thinking about the fall of man, not that there is no hope. The new conclusion just leaves you flat-out confused.

There is a nice little rule of thumb about the re-release of director's cuts into movie theatres, especially ones that advertise themselves so ominously as The Version You've Never Seen! William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty may have their own reasons, but the studio has another. They want to milk us again for another ten bucks. As Roger Ebert puts it, the additional scenes "provide an excuse for the theatrical re-release, and will help sell the video, even to those who already own the earlier version. That is not good enough. If the changes don't make the film better, they should not have been made." (Lucasfilm Ltd., are you listening out there?!).

Do these additional 12 minutes justify a re-release of The Exorcist? Not really. But this is not my specific criteria on judging the movie. This re-release is a good thing -- for those like myself who had never seen it before, or maybe for those who were deprived of it in England, where it was banned for 15 years. Now that its been out for a few weeks, maybe the dumb, popcorn-filled crowd has filtered out. This is your chance to enjoy it quietly, for its sheer artistic and cinematic power.

DROOL FACTOR: The abstinent priesthood-thing aside, Father Damien Karras is hot. Jason Miller is a sort of like a hybrid between Gabriel Byrne and Sylvester Stallone from his early Rocky days.

GROSS-OUT FACTOR: Pretty high. Massive amounts of vomit spewed into people's faces, for one. A 12-year-old girl masturbating with a crucifix, for two. Expect to feel most uncomfortable and squirmy however, when Regan undergoes a spinal tap and several excruciating medical tests from doctors. There are later scenes in which Regan is thrown about on her bed by an unseen force, suggesting that this poor innocent child is being brutally raped, but the imagery in these medical tests do just as much damage, if not more: injecting needles, her whimpers in pain when they're inserted into her, blood spurting orgasmically from her neck... it's pretty damn hard to watch.

STRONG CHICK FACTOR: Chris McNeil stands out as quite the strong single mother. She manages to stick through the family crisis alone (I think demon possession counts as a crisis, don't you?), and does everything she possibly can to help save her daughter. Burstyn's dismayed reactions and breakdowns to Regan as she gets worse and worse really bring out your sympathy for both characters. Some critics believe that poor Linda Blair was simply being exploited in sickening ways. I don't know about that. It's specifically through her casting that makes The Exorcist so dreadful, so powerful, and so bloody disturbing; that it had the audacity to put Satan into the body of a little girl! It's hard to believe that anyone might get off on seeing her tortured in such a way, and I'm absolutely certain that this was not the intent.

-- Julie Ng

The Exorcist was released nationwide on September 22nd.

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