modern classic, milestone, masterpiece and must-see

Rating: 9/10 (10 April 2001)

The Exorcist is a classic, and a modern one at that. So what's a `Modern Classic'? How about this: a landmark work of art that stands the test of time and is immune to criticism, from generation to generation. That, at least, was what I thought until I saw the re-release in the company of a typical weekend multiplex audience. Even a masterpiece like The Exorcist clearly needs to be watched with the historical context in mind. How else is it possible to explain the audience's laughter at the film's most disturbing and shocking scenes? (A generation ago, audiences were fainting en masse.) Admittedly, the film was made in the Middle Ages  or was it only 30 years ago?  and the effects (the revolving head, say, or the strange spider-walk down the stairs), though pretty special at the time, do not bear comparison with present-day computer-generated imagery. (Anyone who went to see Dungeons & Dragons might beg to differ!) But The Exorcist is still one of the best and scariest (horror) films ever made. Maybe the giggles served only to mask the nervousness or tension that such an effective movie can create, and not just among the more faint-hearted members of a cinema audience.
This new version of The Exorcist is what they call the `director's cut'. Eleven minutes of previously unused footage have been included in what is by now, though, generally accepted as writer William Peter Blatty's version. But that is not to say that the studio too will have been perfectly happy to rake in even more money with what is already one of the highest grossing horror films of all time. Only last year, Britain saw the release and subsequent box-office success of the original 1973 cut, but only with this version do we finally get close to Blatty's vision, based on his best-selling novel.
Nothing really important has been added (or rather, nothing really important was left out in 1973). There is a stronger religious dimension, which gives the film an eerie undertone, and just a few more gruesome details to satisfy today's horror fans. With so few changes, you could really just as well get the original cut from your local video store. But the fact is that nothing beats the experience of watching The Exorcist, complete with great picture quality and surround sound, on the suitably large screens at the Utopolis.
Luxembourg's `cinéphiles' breathed a huge sigh of relief when a print of the film did at last reach the country  one day into the Cinénygma film festival, although not as part of the festival programme. (Director William Friedkin had personally refused to allow it to be shown as the festival's opening film.). Friedkin, a very popular and talented director, and incidentally creator of the best chase sequence ever shown on film (in The French Connection), now seems to be on something of a downward curve from the cult status he acquired with back-to-back successes The French Connection and The Exorcist. A flop like the politically ambiguous Rules of Engagement would be enough to put paid to most directors' careers, though Friedkin might just find his way back into the A-list of Hollywood film-makers.
Let us hope that, disappointing audience reaction notwithstanding, this timely re-release of The Exorcist will introduce a whole new group of (serious) fans to the movie  or should that be `franchise', what with the fourth instalment, Exorcist: Dominion, now apparently in the pipeline.
At the moment, The Exorcist is, alongside Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, probably your best chance of seeing a real masterpiece on our local screens. It is, after all, a milestone film, a genuine must-see, and  that very rare commodity  a universally acclaimed horror film. You just need to allow yourself to be frightened by a film that relies more on atmosphere than on shock effects.