I was hunting the Internet for a picture of Father Karras’s mother on Regan’s bed during the climax of The Exorcist–and I came up empty*, sad to say–when I remembered something that really, really bothered me about the recent re-cut, expanded, whatever editions of the film. I actually really like all the extra scenes they added in (the crab walk!), and I recall enjoying most of the extra background images and subliminal geegaws too.
But SHEESH! Did they ever screw up the way they used this image:
I don’t think I’ve ever been as scared by a single image in a film as I was of that split-second flash during Father Karras’s dream sequence. From out of nowhere, totally silent, completely disorienting, absolutely terrifying. I completely lost my shit–and then I rewound the tape and watched it over again, simply to confirm my fear that something that freaking scary could actually exist.
But in “The Version You’ve Never Seen,” the filmmakers add in an appearance (a longer and therefore less effectively what-the-fuck? appearance at that) of that demon face BEFORE the dream sequence, in a new Regan-in-a-doctor’s-office scene right after the doc asks Regan how she feels. (FLASH! Then back to Regan: “I don’t feel anything.”) Is it me, or did this earlier, weaker placement almost completely strip the terrifying power of that image away?
* I did, however, come across the site Terror Trap, which I’m sure all you horror-savvy kids are familiar with already, but permit me to indulge my thrill of discovery.