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The Exorcist:
Director's Cut, 18, 128mins
Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow,
Jason Miller and Linda Blair
Where: Nationwide
When: Now
Rating: *****
No time to read? Click
here for opinion in a nutshell.
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Tagged for years as a video
nasty, The Exorcist finally hit the rental
and DVD sales shelves last year – allowing
horror addicts the chance to savour its spinning
heads, crucifix-aided masturbation, green vomit
and foul language in the discomfort of their own
homes.
So why bother getting up off the couch to go and
see it in the cinema? Because this director's
cut adds a few more scary scenes and pumps
up the volume to auditorium-quaking levels.
Everyone must know the plot by now: Mum (Burstyn)
turns to a priest (Miller) and an exorcist (Von
Sydow) when her 12-year-old daughter Regan (Blair)
is possessed by evil spirits and becomes a monster.
We all know that the bed
levitates, Regan's
head does an unconvincing 360° turn, she pukes
pea soup and comes out with more rude words than
Chubby Brown. But in this version she also spider-walks
backwards down the stairs, while director
Friedkin adds scenes which help develop the characters
and prolong the suspense.
And suspense is what The Exorcist is all
about. Sure it's got plenty of shocks, but it's
distinguished from subsequent crash-bang-wallop
scare movies by leisurely pacing and a documentary
feel that brings you to the edge of your seat before
those shocks are delivered.
Maybe it can no longer claim to be the scariest
movie (Seven gets my vote and The Silence
Of The Lambs isn't far behind) but it remains
one of the most disturbing ever made.
Simon Button 15.11.00
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