The Exorcist – Extended Director's Cut

Novelist William Peter Blatty based his best-seller on the last known Catholic-sanctioned exorcism in the United States. Blatty transformed the little boy in the 1949 incident into a little girl named Regan, played by 14-year-old Linda Blair . Suddenly prone to fits and bizarre behavior, Regan proves quite a handful for her actress-mother Chris MacNeil (played by Ellen Burstyn , although Blatty reportedly based the character on his next-door neighbor Shirley MacLaine ). When Regan gets completely out of hand, Chris calls in young priest Father Karras ( Jason Miller ), who becomes convinced that the girl is possessed by the Devil and that they must call in an exorcist: namely, Father Merrin ( Max von Sydow ). His foe proves to be no run-of-the-mill demon, and both the priest and the girl suffer numerous horrors during their struggles. The Exorcist received a theatrical rerelease in 2000, in a special edition that added eleven minutes of footage trimmed from the film's original release, and digitally enhanced Chris Newman 's Oscar-winning sound work. — Hal Erickson