"The Exoricst" series

Sesudra

Picked up the complete Exorcist series for €20 the other day,has the original film,2 and 3 and the two prequels.All in all,a very mixed bag!

The original film swings wildly between being actually upsetting(i.e the medical test scenes) and hilarious(Regan giving her mam a slap and sending her flying across the room,or grabbing a doctor by the goolies).

The sequel is meant to be one of the worst films ever made and though its no classic,is enjoyable.

The Exorcist 3 is my fav of the bunch,a really creepy murder/police procedural with a bit of possession thrown in.comes off the rails a bit at the end but great stuff still!

the prequels-AWFUL!

faceman

The Exorcist is a personal fav of mine, i wrote a piece about it in college.

Some pointless trivia for you.

The fantastic Lee J Cobb plays det. kinderman in the first movie and the same character is played by george c scott in number 3. Cobb played Juror 3 in the original 12 Angry Men and Scott played the same juror in the tv version remake! (Yes i am a nerd!)

Anyway Blatty (the writer of the novel) and Friedkin (the director of the first one) had a big difference of opinion on a number of items in the movie, one of which being the ending. Friedkin wanted the ending to have no moral uplift or little sign of hope. A case of "life goes on". Blatty wanted the ending similar to the book where new relationships are formed giving a new sense of hope.

Blatty was given the opportunity to direct the third film and well, it was poor to say the least. however it does have that one frightening scene that was excellent. see clip below. (which is a massive spoiler!) of course watching the scene without watching the movie takes away its impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH8ynu0jRvY

The second movie was directed by John Boorman who ironically turned down the opportunity to direct the first movie because he did not like the film's concept. The second movie is awful.

Getting back to the first movie, the medical scenes, while some feel were there to disgust with it's grotesqueness, serves a very important plot point, demonstrating what the mother had to go through before realising she had no hope and turning to religion for help. (She was a atheist)

The voice of the demon, Mercedes McCambridge and the stunt double for Linda Blair were not credited in early versions of the movie because Friedkin wanted the film to appear as realistic as possible! Her interview on Mark Kermodes's "The fear of God" is very interesting but unfortunately is cut from the dvd releases. (It was shown on BBC2 in its entirety)

She explained how they would restrain her to a chair, and feed her raw egg, whiskey and ciggarettes to strain her throat to get the desired gender neutral voice of the demon. Excellent stuff!

The less said about the prequels the better!!

Karl Hungus

I'd never been able to sit through the second film. Got the box set myself, and at some point I may try to give it another chance. I do remember watching the 3rd film many years ago, and liking it. The prequel, I believe it was the Paul Schrader version, was an absolute chore to sit through.

You just cannot beat the original film, it's brilliant and I've watched it so many times over the years, and it hasn't tired on me yet.

Basq

faceman wrote: »

Her interview on Mark Kermodes's "The fear of God" is very interesting but unfortunately is cut from the dvd releases. (It was shown on BBC2 in its entirety)

I still have my VHS version of 'The Exorcist' 25th Anniversary for this reason alone... it has 'The Fear of God' documentary after the film.

Absolutely fantastic documentary.. could be wrong but am pretty sure the interview with Mercedes McCambridge is on that.

Crash

That scene that faceman linked reminds me heavily of the detective going up the stairs in Psycho - very nicely built up suspense.

krudler

Love the first one, 2nd is one of the worst films ever made, 3rd is one of the most underrated, prequels are awful

MooseJam

whats the actual name of the third one , is it the exorcist 3 or is there some other name

Basq

MooseJam wrote: »

whats the actual name of the third one , is it the exorcist 3 or is there some other name

From Wikipedia:

The Exorcist III (also known as The Exorcist III: Legion or Exorcist III: Legion)

Decuc500

Exorcist III is one of the best horror movies I've seen. It's very suspenseful and contains some really chilling images that have stayed with me since I've watched it.

I always compare it with Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. Both way underrated and both scary as hell.

redfan

basquille wrote: »

I still have my VHS version of 'The Exorcist' 25th Anniversary for this reason alone... it has 'The Fear of God' documentary after the film.

Absolutely fantastic documentary.. could be wrong but am pretty sure the interview with Mercedes McCambridge is on that.

is it not on the dvd?

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=663
the american dvd 2 discer has it ...
im going to look in to getting that . was going to buy the crappy regular edition for 8euro the other day. cheers for the comments ...
redfan

Basq

redfan wrote: »

is it not on the dvd?

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=663
the american dvd 2 discer has it ...
im going to look in to getting that . was going to buy the crappy regular edition for 8euro the other day. cheers for the comments ...
redfan

I think it's on some versions of the DVD..

This one on Play has it but the Director's Cut hasn't it.

It's on the copy in The Collection anyways.

redfan

i ordered the region 1 2 discer just now. if you read reveiw on the link the douc is longer than the region 2 edition..

sure ill lend it to you if you want to see it on dvd mate.. redfan

Basq

Must check which version I have on the VHS later.. have a feeling it's the 75 minute version, as opposed to the 54 minute version.

redfan

thats a pretty big difference 15mins in a douc can make it completly different


. i had a mate years ago ed king . he ran a horror tron . does anyone remember that.?
was great pity i lost touch. we had some great laser discs and rare stuff.
ahh the good old days.