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"A FILM THAT HAUNTS YOU FOR A LONG TIME AFTERWARDS"
- Mark Kermode, Rapture TV, 1999 -
If anyone is to thank for the video release of The Exorcist then it
has to be this guy right here... Mark Kermode has been a fan of The Exorcist
ever since he saw a trailer at the Classic in Hendon back in 1973. Although
he was only 11 years old at the time, the stark image of Father Merrin
arriving at the house on Prospect Street changed his life completely.
So much so that he would get back in line after the film just to see the
trailer again!
Mark went on to university and did a PhD. on The Exorcist and by
1989 he began interviewing members of the cast and crew, in particular
Linda Blair and William Friedkin. For the best part of ten years Mark has
written many articles on The Exorcist, for magazines such as Video Watchdog,
Fangoria, Video Sell Through, Time Out, Fear, 
Vox,
The Dark Side, and Sight And Sound, whilst also mentioning the film on
numerous occasions during his movie reviews on BBC Radio 1. Come
1997 and Mark's first book is published. Part of the BFI Modern Classics
series, The Exorcist looked at the strange stories surrounding the making
of the movie, the possibility of scenes such as the Spider-walk actually
existing and basically everything that he had researched over the past
ten years.
In November 1997, Mark contacted BBC producer Nick Freand
Jones to discuss the possibility of making a 25th-anniversary documentary
about The Exorcist which would describe how the film was made, outline
its position in modern cinema history and bring together some legendary
out takes that had been unearthed in the vaults of Warner Bros. Filming
of The Fear Of God: 25 Years Of The Exorcist began in March 1998, travelling
all over the US to interview key members such as: William Peter Blatty,
William Friedkin, Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, Linda Blair, Jason Miller,
Mercedes McCambridge and many more.
Including the out takes and interviews a 55 minute version
of the documentary was aired for the first time on BBC 2 on the 13th June 1998 and it was superb... A further 74 minute
version was screened at the National Film Theatre on October 21st 1998,
with that night also seeing the full interview that Mark titled ' Late
Night Double Bill ' in the second edition of his BFI book (with an updated
epilogue about all that was uncovered during the making of the FOG documentary)
and the missing footage in their full intended format. This version of
the Fear Of God was later put on the 25th-anniversary DVD. The night after
Mark hosted The Guardian Interview with William Friedkin also at the NFT.
This interview was part of a season of films by William Friedkin and followed
the first screening of the digitally re-mastered version of The Exorcist.
October 30th 1998 saw the theatrical re-release of The Exorcist
in the UK, the event that Mark was leading up to.
Although the film had been playing in grotty London cinemas since 1974,
the re-release was a totally new print that showed off a new stereo soundtrack.
The BBFC allowing the re-release was a minor breakthrough, but in a few
months time BBFC president James Ferman was set to retire, this meant that
the long awaited video release that Mark wanted was very possible. As planned,
Andreas Whittam-Smith took over as head of the BBFC and as predicted his
first major decision was the uncut video release of The Exorcist on February
9th 1999, Mark's mission was successful, but talking to him he has said
that he still isn't any closer to finding out what is so powerful about
the film. The whole experience for him has been, " Something beyond comprehension..."
I interviewed Mark on Friday 23rd of April outside the BBFC
for an 'Exorcist' video review, and here's what he told me:
How did you first come across the film and what impact did it have upon you?
I first saw when I was 16 years old, it was
on a re-release because when it first came out was really young. I read
the book and I heard about the film through newspaper reports, I
walked past cinemas that had a poster up and it always transfixed me, but
the most important thing is that I saw a trailer for it in the cinema,
the same trailer they've been showing for this re-release, which has that
famous image of Max Von Sydow arriving at the house on Prospect Street
and it just completely encaptured me, I thought it was such a wonderful,
magical image. Then it was about 3 or 4 years later when I finally got
to see the film, as I said it was on a re-release and it was everything
I expected it to be and I think most importantly it wasn't just a horror
film, it was a film about something, a film about man and God and families
falling apart and I've seen it hundreds of times since then and it's always
stood the test of time. 
Why in your own opinion is it the greatest movie ever made?
Well, the way that you have to judge films is by what response they create in audiences and what's so great about The Exorcist is that it's a film that gives to you what ever you bring to it. If you want it to be a horror film then that's what it is, it's really scary, it's got rotating heads in it and levitation and vomit. If you want it to be a film about the meaning of life, which to me it is, then it has all that, it's a very important, religious, serious, philosophical movie. Some people apparently want it to be a comedy and I know I've sat there with audiences laughing and thinking it's all just some kind of wild roller coaster ride, so I think it really is a film gives to the audience what they give to it and that to me is the greatest thing a movie can do, to reflect your own aspirations and fears and hopes and I really think it does that. I know that you're a fan of the film so you must have some of that yourself.
So why was the movie banned on video in the UK?
The video ban started in the eighties, it was originally available in the early eighties, a very good rental for Warners. but the Video Recordings Act came in and the law stated that they must pay special regards to suitability for viewing in the home, which meant that videos may be seen by children and rewound and so on. And James Ferman who was until recently the chief censor at the BBFC decided that the film was not suitable for viewing in the home. He explained to me that his reason for this was that it was too likely to traumatize young viewers. My own feeling is that actually you have to be quite grown up to find the film scary, because it's a very slow moving film in the early sections of it, the Iraq section and nowadays people are brought up on Freddy Krueger and Scream and they want bang, bang, bang entertainment which it doesn't give you. Now James Ferman has stood down and the new chief examiner Andreas Whittam-Smith has taken over, he looked at the film and decided that now was the time for the film to be released. Also by that point it had been out in the cinemas again and you could see that the reaction reported in 1974, people were going mad and all that sort of stuff, really wasn't applicable to today's audiences. Having said that it is important to say that it is a really scary film, and I don't think that people should casually rent it if they're planning on having a night's jolly entertainment, because it is a film that stays with you and I think haunts you for a long time afterwards.
That day Mark signed my copy of The Making Of A Classic Motion Picture.
After all, it was Mark who inspired me to research into The Exorcist...