I was introduced to Mr. Blatty after the screening and we realized that he wasn't going to have time the next morning for the interview, so we decided to do it this evening. It was suggested that we go back to his hotel and conduct the interview there. But upon arriving in the lobby, we were deafened by the Wall-Street level of volume that the packed house was producing. Suggesting that we simply conduct the interview in Mr. Blatty's room was the best thing I'd heard yet, and after ascending to his floor, and getting settled with a few drinks procured from the bar, we began chatting about some of the aspects of getting this film recut and re-released, how much more powerful the film is in it's new version and how Warner Bros. is still tip-toeing around a wide-screen re-release of this film, twenty-seven years and $400 million later. Didn't they learn ANYTHING from the STAR WARS re-release?
JOAD:
The spider-walking scene was INCREDIBLY disturbing. Very eerie and unsettling, HOW IN THE WORLD did it get left out originally?
BLATTY:
Billy cut it long ago. But of course it was part of a longer scene that he reinstated originally. When Billy first put it back in this time, it had all that other stuff, you know her sticking her tongue out like a spider and then chasing Sharon [actress Kitty Winn] around and licking her ankles - and I said, "Billy, they're gonna laugh. Bad laugh. Not nervous laugh, you know - bad, bad laugh. Don't take a chance." That kind of laugh would just destroy it. [The footage] has never been screened…
JOAD:
I've heard so much about this scene, but I was still taken surprise by the blood that gushed from her mouth!
BLATTY:
We didn't undercrank the camera or speed up the film, the stunt double actually came down THAT fast. The Blood! We filmed that accidentally. We were sitting in the room with Billy showing him all this stuff, and we finished watching the Spider-Walk scenes and then there was another scene that seemed to be starting. Then someone said, "No wait. There's another one," and down she comes. Apparently someone must have said to Billy on the set, "Hey why don't we try just one for the hell of it when she comes down opens her mouth and blood gushes out." We found it by accident. That's the one that works!
JOAD:
What did you think of the applause from the audience after that scene?
BLATTY:
I was trying to figure out why they applauded that way. That kind of applause I've heard at film festivals or screenings in L.A. where everybody is a film fanatic. And they applaud after every scene they see that they think is great. And I couldn't tell if tonight, that's what they were doing, or the other - which seems less likely - that they're really familiar with the film and they thought this was a brilliant new addition.
JOAD:
I think so. I'd heard about this scene and seen images from it for years and years. If they were of the same mind. After so much hype, the scene still took my breath away. I clapped as a thank you for pulling it off and making it more powerful than my expectations.
BLATTY:
Even for those who aren't familiar with the film. Wasn't that something? Almost everyone in the audience had not seen this film on the big screen. That bodes well at the box office.
JOAD:
How did you convince them to go theatrical as opposed to video?
BLATTY:
It took three years! They agreed and backed out, three times. They always came up with something, one was the 75th Anniversary - awful edition. After we just kept hammering, somewhere along the line, suddenly spook films starting going through the roof. Time after time after time and time again when somebody finally said, "We have the granddaddy of them all…"
JOAD:
Writing the granddaddy of them all, what do you see today that scares you?
BLATTY:
I don't go to the movies a lot. I wouldn't call The Sixth Sense scary, it's a great movie but you know, slasher films- blah…
JOAD:
It amazes me, I worked at a video store for years and I'd have all the high school kids coming in to rent the movie they'd heard about for years. They'd get THE EXORCIST, expecting blood and guts for two hours and they'd come back complaining. They didn't get it.
BLATTY:
That's right. I've heard the flip side of that coin. A teacher in Santa Barbara with a thirteen year old daughter. The daughter has friends over to watch movies. A bunch of girls watching slasher movies when finally the mother says, "Here, take The Exorcist." After about twenty minutes, the daughter comes out of her room and says, "Absolutely nothing is happening in this movie. It's not a scary movie!" "Keep watching." Then the girl came out for her mother, who had to finish watching it with them. When they'd finished, the girl screams, "Why haven't we been told about this?!?!"
JOAD:
How did you feel about the nervous laughter throughout the crowd tonight?
BLATTY:
I walked outside when Karras and Merrin met for the first time, when the demon booms out "MERRIN" from above. I told Billy when we were mixing this, "They're gonna laugh." Did they laugh?
JOAD:
No. I don't recall any nervous chuckles then. But that's always been a scene that gives me the chills. Were you able to watch the arteriogram scene tonight?
BLATTY:
No. I can't. I do not even try. I just look away. I can't. I believe that is the scene that caused the most disturbance among those who faint and literally feel ill. It is that scene. NOBODY has seen the first doctor scene. The scene where they first diagnose Regan and are prescribing Ritilin. I was bracing myself for a raucous reaction and some laughter but the crowd tonight was genuinely shocked. Not a snicker, not a giggle. I think they were shocked at how relevant the scene remains today.
JOAD:
The scene tied up so many little loose ends so quickly it's amazing it was ever excised initially. When you were filming, what scene made you say, "This is IT! We've got it!"
BLATTY:
There were two times when I had that feeling. One time I was on the set and I don't know what we were shooting. Jason [Miller - Father Damian Karras] came over so excited, smoking a cigarette and watching a print he looked over at me and said, "It's a classic and we're in it!" I thought, "Jason thinks it's classic - it must be good!" Then I took my publisher, who I was trying to persuade to print up a bunch of paperbacks to accompany they film's release, to a screening and heard my chief editor say, "This is an A-picture!" I don't know what they thought we were making! The moment came when Billy called me to fly in and see it for the opening. I saw it standing up and it just blew me away. That was the moment. Because I then got Leo Greenfield, head of distribution at Warner Bros. on the telephone and said, "Leo. We just screened the picture. I believe it can do Godfather business, now, are you going to give it a Godfather release? I want you to promise you'll do this. He said, "Absolutely. If that's what you say, absolutely." The next day, I went back home to Aspen and they had an industry screening and my agent called me. I asked how it went and he said, "Well, we've got our Cleopatra. Instead of a Godfather release, we released into 22 theatres with contracts for an exclusive run for six months. Twenty-two theatres. There was a lot of screaming and pounding on tables going on until they finally saw three network news casts featured marquee shots with lines around the block, before they got the message.
JOAD:
How did you feel when you first saw Linda Blair in demon makeup?
BLATTY:
Well, the first demon test that I saw - remember the Wicked Witch of the North from the Wizard of Oz? That's what it looked like! So we had to do a huge explanation about how possessed people beat themselves up physically, how they haven't been eating, they have cardiac problems, they're emaciated and they look this way. It took some convincing to get it right.
JOAD:
What of the crucifix scenes when she was mutilating herself?
BLATTY:
The scenes were done with a double and when Linda is in the shot, she had a box filled with sand between her legs that she was stabbing the crucifix into.
JOAD:
And little thirteen year old Linda? How was she?
BLATTY:
She used to giggle after every scene. It was all one big Halloween carnival spook ride.
JOAD:
How do you feel about all of the digitized subliminal imagery added to tonight's print?
BLATTY:
I was behind all of that, yes, but I didn't know about that last Pazuzu image on the back of the door! Billy is sneaky!
JOAD:
How proud are you of bringing questions of good vs. evil to mass audiences and mass consciousness?
BLATTY:
Well, I'm not proud of it. What I wanted to do, even with the book, was nonfiction. At one point, when I couldn't get the Bishop to give the exorcist clearance to participate, I said, "Father - you do it. I'll help you, I'll get you an editor, a publisher - but you do it."
JOAD:
Is there meant to be a symbiosis of dreams as Karras has his dream of his mother and he sees the dogs that Merrin encountered at the films onset?
BLATTY:
Yes, the dogs! I feel that it's a premonition setting up their meeting. Also the scenes where he plays the demon's voice backwards, one of the voices is saying, "MERRIN!" And we don't know anything of Merrin yet from Karras' prospective. Subtly setting up their meeting.
JOAD:
After finally campaigning for ten years to get this vision brought to the big screen, what's next? Do you get to rest?
BLATTY:
No I cannot rest. I have got to shepherd this through and make sure it gets a wide-release. A wide-release depends on how well it does in the three markets it opens in on Friday. I can't believe they did this during spring break in a college town!
JOAD:
I cannot image how long the line would have been had the students been vying for seats as well! They will be back this weekend. They'll need one more escape before they get back to the real world on Monday. Will it have a platformed release?
BLATTY:
I don't think they have a firm plan in mind yet. They wanted to go region by region, until we talked them out of that - how do you get national review if you go by region? Why deprive yourself of national reviews? It will by decided by the end of this weekend, it largely depends on how we do.
JOAD:
I cannot get over how powerful this film is, seeing this film tonight was like seeing it for the very first time. I can't wait to take Harry and Annette to see it with me this weekend, they've seen it dozens of times - just like I have. Now I get to gauge their experiences with mine - to see how affected they are by it. GO SEE THE EXORCIST THIS WEEKEND… FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME!!!
BLATTY:
What did you think of the last shot? The sound? The call to prayer from the beginning of the movie, which we justify because there are minarets all over Washington.
JOAD:
I saw so much tonight that has been hidden in shadows on bad video copies. The details that I can see now, as Merrin walks through the hallways after leaving the excavation site, the flurry of activity of the Iraqi workers processing artifacts from the archaeological dig, the subliminal images throughout. This is the first time I have ever seen a film re-released with extra footage that's been done to perfection. Nothing detracts from the original and the efforts are seamlessly incorporated. Truly an experience not to be missed.
JOAD:
How do you think audiences of 1974 would have responded to tonight's print?
BLATTY:
Oh my god (closing his eyes and slowing shaking his head) Oh my god. I can't even imagine. Oh good lord. My goodness. The soundtrack was peaked for sound in the seventies! This would be too much.
JOAD:
I couldn't agree more. I hope audiences today can handle it.
Tom Joad signing off...
