Sunday, October 31, 2010

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 183 - The Exorcist


The Exorcist is one of the scariest movies ever made and even after repeated viewings it still has the power to make me jump.

The new HD Blu-ray disc is a revelation. The picture is amazing, sharp and crisp with deep colors. Freidkin's use of "flash" visual imagery really pop out. But the new discovery is the sound. The 6.1 channel sound in HD is fantastic. There were two moments where the superb sound channeling had me jump in my seat. The first is when Father Karras is listening to the audio tape of Regan and the phone rings. The second was when Father Merrin arrives at the house to perform the exorcism. The scene is very quiet. He has just come in the door and is greeted by Miss McNeil when all of a sudden the demon cries out his name from upstairs. Well the sound channeling made the voice come from behind my left shoulder. It was so clear it felt like there was someone screaming behind me and I jumped in my seat.

I won't go into detailed review of the movie. If you have not seen it I don't want to give anything away and if you have seen it there is nothing I can say that will improve the experience. I did watch the Blu-ray extended version which includes the spider walk scene. The set also comes with the original theatrical version.

It's a great movie that has withstood the test of time and is still as disturbing as it was in 1973.

At The Movie House rating ****

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