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
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Ellen Burstyn | Chris MacNeil |
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Max von Sydow | Father Merrin |
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Lee J. Cobb | Lt. Kinderman |
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Kitty Winn | Sharon |
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Jack MacGowran | Burke Dennings |
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Jason Miller | Father Karras |
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Linda Blair | Regan |
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William O'Malley | Father Dyer |
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Barton Heyman | Dr. Klein |
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Peter Masterson | Dr. Barringer - Clinic Director |
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Rudolf Schündler | Karl |
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Gina Petrushka | Willi |
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Robert Symonds | Dr. Taney |
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Arthur Storch | Psychiatrist |
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Thomas Bermingham | Tom - President of University |
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Vasiliki Maliaros | Karras' Mother |
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Titos Vandis | Karras' Uncle |
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John Mahon | Language Lab Director |
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Wallace Rooney | Bishop Michael |
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Ron Faber | Chuck - Assistant Director |
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Donna Mitchell | Mary Jo Perrin |
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Roy Cooper | Jesuit Dean |
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Robert Gerringer | Senator at Party |
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Mercedes McCambridge | Demon |
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Paul Bateson | Radiologist's Assistant |
| Director | William Friedkin |
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| Writer | William Peter Blatty | |
| Producer | William Peter Blatty, Noel Marshall, David Salven | |
| Photography | Owen Roizman | |
| Edition | Director's Cut |
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| Packaging | Custom Case |
| Nr Discs | 2 |
| Screen Ratios | Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) |
| Audio Tracks | Dolby Digital 5.1 [French] Dolby Digital 5.1 [Spanish] Dolby Digital Mono [French] Dolby Digital Mono [Spanish] Dolby Digital TrueHD [English] DTS 6.1 [English] DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 [English] |
| Subtitles | English | French | Spanish |
| Layers | Single side, Dual layer |
| Edition Release Date | Oct 05, 2010 |
| Regions | A |