Repossessed

by Jenine_J_.l_k_e_Je_r__________

_ staff writer

The famous head-spinning and demon -possessing film that scared our parents in the 70's is back.

If you were expecting a whole new and updated version of the "Exorcist," then the "Version you've never seen" will make you sadly surprised. Director William Friedkin's new cut of the 1973 fright-flick classic contains only 11 minutes of extra footage added to the original.

The movie begins with a little girl named Regan, played by Linda Blair, who all of a sudden starts acting very strange. Her movie-star mom, played by Ellen Burstyn, visits numerous doctors to help her child. However, the doctors feel young Regan has the signs of hyper- activity disorder. When they finally realize that Regan's problems are more bizarre they look for help in a higher power. Given no other recourse, Regan's mother seeks out the help of the Catholic Church to perform an exorcism. An exorcism is an attempt to revoke an evil sprit from a person's body. Jason Miller and Max von Sydow play the two priests who spend several grueling hours trying to remove the demons out of the child's soul.

The only significant differences between the original and new cut version is the addition of longer hospital scenes and the earnest doctor offering an unexpected prescription of Ritalin.

Junior Tina Hadley said of her reaction to the film, "I thought the film was actually comical at some parts. Some of the vulgar comments that the little girl was making were priceless."

I personally felt that $8 was too much money to spend on 11 minutes of uninspiring "new" footage. It seemed obvious to me the only reason those scenes laid untouched for 27 years was because they added little to the story line. They were not effective in portraying the horror of the situation.

My advice to you is to make it a Blockbuster night.