The Exorcist coming to HD DVD
Source: AV Science Forum
It would appear that William Friedkin’s The Exorcist will be making its way to HD DVD at some point. Amazon.com have added it to their catalogue, and they’re generally very cagey about what they include on their site, which suggests that it’s in the pipeline. There’s no release date yet - perhaps this year, perhaps next - and you can’t order it yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it becomes in stock.
As you probably know, I haven’t been this film’s greatest proponent. I’ve seen it three or four times now, and found myself liking it a little better each time, but I’ve never been absolutely wild about it (you can read my most recent throughts on it from back in May 2006), but I’m currently reading William Peter Blatty’s novel upon which the film was based (thanks, Lee!), and two things are quite apparent. One, the film is extremely faithful to the book (I’m not sure whether that’s necessarily a good or a bad thing). Two, it’s a damn good book, and, given the aforementioned faithfulness, I think a fourth (or is that fifth?) rewatch of the film would probably seal the deal for me.
Now, with an HD DVD release seemingly imminent, I’m not going to rush out and by an old-fashioned DVD, but will instead bide my time until the high definition version comes out. Warner have something of a history of not announcing HD DVDs until the very last minute, so it could be mere weeks away… although, of course, it could be much longer. One thing’s for sure: I really hope they release William Friedkin’s original theatrical cut rather than that clumsy monstrosity Blatty hacked together back in 1998, complete with ridiculous CGI “scares” as well as mood- and pace-killing scenes and lines of dialogue that were left out for a good reason. “The Version You’ve Never Seen”? More like “The Version You’ll Wish You’d Never Seen”.
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