Susan Granger’s review of “THE EXORCIST”: THE VERSION YOU’VE NEVER SEEN
So what’s new about William Friedkin’s horror-thriller? You’d be surprised. Adapted from William Peter Blatty’s best-seller about demonic possession, it’s quite an eye-opener particularly viewed from a PC-2000 perspective. Like when Linda Blair, playing a “normal” 12 year-old whose body is possessed by the Devil, stabs her crotch with a crucifix while screaming a blasphemy. Would that scene get an R-rating from the MPAA today? One wonders. So much is in the eye of the beholder. So, let’s go back to 1973, when “The Exorcist” was first released. Still reeling from the sexual revolution of the ’60s, Hollywood was striving for candor and honesty, finally free from the restraints of the Hays Office and Breen Code. Now, as then, the graphic, anti-religious language is the primary shocker. The new version includes 11 minutes of new footage with enhanced sound. In one of the added scenes, a younger priest (Jason Miller) asks an older priest why Satan would harm an innocent girl. The older priest replies that Satan has only one purpose: “The point is to see ourselves as an animal and ugly…to reject the possibility that God could love us.” Plus, there’s a scene in which Blair does a crab walk down the stairs, upside down on all fours, bleeding from her mouth and screaming loudly. And there’s a more positive ending in which an atheist detective (Lee. J. Cobb) feels closer to God for having known the exorcist priests. Apparently, Blatty, a devout Roman Catholic, always wanted this final message of good conquering evil, while Friedkin opted for people to reach their own conclusions. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Exorcist” (2000) is still a gruesome, intense 8. It will always be remembered as the movie which launched a new genre of pop culture horror films.
