10 Classic Movies The Directors Won't Stop Changing

The Exorcist is a series whose production has never exactly been plain sailing. The different cuts of its prequel with different directors were so distinct that they were ultimately released as two entirely separate movies (Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist).

Meanwhile, the controversial content of the original classic (which had already gone way over schedule and budget) meant that it inevitably required cuts to achieve an R-rating. Not that this stopped the movie from becoming an enormous smash hit in 1973.

The Exorcist's 1979 theatrical reissue came with little more than a higher resolution and more widescreen aspect ratio, but director William Friedkin personally made several changes for its US network TV debut the following year, replacing some of the more explicit material such as masturbating with a crucifix. Friedkin himself voiced the re-dubbed profanity-free demon dialogue ("your mother sucks c*cks in hell" becoming "your mother rots in hell").

The film's 25th anniversary in 1998 saw the release of a "Special Edition" DVD which, like some of its 1970s contemporaries in 1990s reissues, used computer morphing to smooth over some of the clumsiness in the original physical effects.

Friedkin produced a more distinct version of the movie for the less obviously marketable 27th anniversary a couple of years later in 2000. Released in cinemas as "The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen Before", it got the more sensible title of "The Extended Director's Cut" on home media.

Around ten minute's longer than the original, it was mostly actually made at the behest of writer-producer William Peter Blatty, so could more accurately be called "The Writer's Cut". It clears up some previous plot holes but slows the pace of the movie a bit too much.