On the day after Christmas in 1973, Oscar winning director William Friedkin followed up his tremendous success, The French Connection (1971), with the most daring horror film ever made; an adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel "The Exorcist." Blatty, a devout Catholic, had been inspired by a 1949 Washington Post article entitled "Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held In Devil’s Grip," and carefully crafted his novel around the area in Georgetown where he attended Jesuitical Georgetown University. Although the movie barely escaped an "X" rating by the MPAA ratings board, it was treated as an "X" film in cities like Boston and Washington D.C. where children under 17 were not admitted into theaters showing the film.

Immediately after the movie was released, stories spread around the country about audience members walking out, vomiting, fainting, or suffering heart attacks. The Toronto Medical Post released an article about four women so traumatized by viewing the film that they were confined to psychiatric care. There was a rumor that two nuns in D.C. had committed suicide after seeing the film because they felt ‘evil’ had entered their bodies when they watched the movie. In the U.K., leaflets were passed out in front of cinemas asserting: "We cannot stop you from seeing this film, but you should know that it bears the power of evil!" Even now, the movie is banned from being released on video in the U.K. because: "Showings of this film have resulted in severe emotional problems for a small but worrying number of adults."

In 1974, Blatty’s novel was on every bestseller list, and the movie was a blockbuster before the idea of ‘blockbusters’ ever existed. This was a classically compelling American Gothic legend that set up an earth shattering physical and religious battle between good and evil over the possessed body of a young girl named Regan MacNeil. Regan’s possessed entity was, and is, the closest vision of sheer evil to ever appear in cinema. It was only fitting that the two exorcists attempting to save Regan’s life by expelling the demon within her offered up and ultimately sacrificed their lives, as Christ figures battling the depths of Hell. That the priests themselves were the real target of the demon’s evil is the element most underscored by the newly restored version of The Exorcist.

Many people were outraged that twelve year-old actress Linda Blair (Regan MacNeil) was allowed to make a film in which she spewed obscenities like a satanic sailor, and abused her genitalia with a crucifix before shoving her mother’s face into her blood soaked crotch. But that was just the beginning of numerous terrible episodes of head-twisting, levitating, and bile vomiting that attracted spectators in droves. Little did audiences realize that Friedkin had already severely pulled the reigns on the terrifying effect of the film by cutting out 11 minutes of (what he considered) ‘excess’ footage to bring the film to under two hours. William Blatty was furious over the cuts, believing that the movie had lost its moral center, and was upset that audiences might think that the demon had won in the end.

Judging from the hugely negative impact that Friedkin’s less disturbing version had during the initial release, the hot-shot director did himself and society a favor by taking out most of the newly restored footage. But, finally, after 25 years of constant cajoling to replace the lost footage, Blatty’s appeal was answered when Friedkin agreed to re-examine the missing scenes and became inspired to rework much of the material back in to the film. The most obvious addition is the inclusion of the much-discussed "spider-walk" scene, in which stunt woman Linda Hager descends the MacNeil stairway as the possessed Regan. She scurries upside down and backwards on all fours down the staircase in her nightgown. Between the modified sound effects of her hands and feet hitting the floor and the tag shot that ends the sequence, the vision is disturbing like no other shock in the movie.

Aside from a newly enhanced soundtrack, near subliminal images of the demon’s altered face appear along with quick-cut hallucinations during the film. While the device may seem heavy-handed and overwrought to some audiences, the device expands the horrific after effect of the movie. It’s these half-seen images that recur in the viewer’s mind days after seeing the movie.

Friedkin’s signature gritty documentary quality, which brought him great attention with The French Connection, is retained in all of its stark, natural beauty. The contrast of scenes shot in low light and overcast skies against special effects, lovingly nurtured by Marcel Vercoutere and make-up wizard Dick Smith, retain their fresh and muscular qualities. Ever surprising, too, are the pitch-perfect performances of every actor in the movie. Ellen Burstyn, who is enjoying something of a renaissance with two upcoming films (The Yards and Requiem For a Dream), gets more screen time as Regan’s atheist mother, Chris. Burstyn’s tough yet sympathetic character carries a well of emotional weight that anchors and centers the story.

Significant is an added conversation between the two exorcists in which Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) explains to Father Karras (Jason Miller) the reason that this demon has chosen to consume the young girl is to rattle the faith of those around her. Regan is not the target of the evil, but merely the most effective device the demon can use to achieve his goal. The demon might not win by the terms that Father Merrin explains to Father Karras, but in the end there is no evidence the evil that tortured Regan and those around her has been annihilated.