Press Release Shout Factory Press Release: The Exorcist III (1990) (4k UHD) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Synopsis​

Experience William Peter Blatty's original vision of his novel Legion with this director's cut of The Exorcist III.
For more than fifteen years, Police Lieutenant Kinderman (George C. Scott) has been haunted by the death of his friend Father Damien Karras. Now, on the 15th anniversary of the exorcism that claimed the priest's life, Kinderman's world is once again shattered when a boy is found decapitated and savagely crucified. It's just the beginning of a nightmare series of bizarre religious murders.

When a psychopath claiming to be the infamous Gemini Killer admits responsibility for all the murders, Kinderman is confronted with a horrifying truth that he cannot begin to explain ... the man does know intimate details that only the true killer could possibly know. There's only one problem ... the Gemini Killer died in the electric chair fifteen years ago!
The Exorcist III is author/filmmaker William Peter Blatty's vision of what followed after The Exorcist. Also included in this set is Legion, a Director's Cut of the film long thought lost.

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[titch]

What - they didn't bother with The Exorcist II: The Heretic?

 

[darkrock17]

What - they didn't bother with The Exorcist II: The Heretic?

Turkeys don't deserve 4K, WB will likely release said turkey along with all the other films in a big box of junk 50th anniversary collection set later on this year.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Maybe its easier to skip to Legion since Warner doesn't own it (or any of the following films for that matter).

 

[Patrick McCart]

Turkeys don't deserve 4K, WB will likely release said turkey along with all the other films in a big box of junk 50th anniversary collection set later on this year.

Looks like Shout! Factory has taken over distribution of Morgan Creek from Sony in the US and that would include III and both versions of the prequel.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Shout! only has Exorcist II and III (which they're licensing from Warner and Morgan Creek respectively). Beginning and Dominion are currently with nobody actually.

 

[darkrock17]

Shout! only has Exorcist II and III (which they're licensing from Warner and Morgan Creek respectively). Beginning and Dominion are currently with nobody actually.

Both Beginning and Dominion have been Sony's since 2020, just looked it up over on bluray.com

 

[Lord Dalek]

Both Beginning and Dominion have been Sony's since 2020, just looked it up over on bluray.com

Both are OOP.

 

[darkrock17]

Both are OOP.

Amazon has it in stock

 

[JoshZ]

The "Legion" Director's Cut of Exorcist III has a considerable amount of footage sourced from VHS dupes of production dailies, since the original film elements were long since lost. It was very distracting to watch on Blu-ray. I can't imagine that upscaling to 4K will help in any way.

The original theatrical cut looked good on the Shout! Factory Blu-ray and is the only reason to even consider this for UHD.

 

[Alex...]

Exorcist II was terrible.

 

[cineMANIAC]

I'm only interested in the "hybrid" Director's Cut and there are no usable elements for a rescan for 4K so this'll be an easy pass. I like the film but not enough to buy again for what I expect to be just a marginal uptick in PQ. I still haven't even watched my Shout Blu despite being terribly interested in checking out the long version but those VHS-quality inserts scare me.

 

[JoshZ]

I'm only interested in the "hybrid" Director's Cut and there are no usable elements for a rescan for 4K so this'll be an easy pass. I like the film but not enough to buy again for what I expect to be just a marginal uptick in PQ. I still haven't even watched my Shout Blu despite being terribly interested in checking out the long version but those VHS-quality inserts scare me.

The Legion cut is an interesting curiosity, but (at least in its current state) cannot supplant the theatrical cut as anyone's primary viewing option for the movie.

As flawed as the theatrical cut may be, I feel it's a rare case where studio interference actually made some improvements to the film. The opening of Blatty's cut is a confusing mess, and that version basically ends on a shrug. (The exorcism in the theatrical cut is a little cheesy, but the movie needed something there.) Bringing back Jason Miller as Father Karras also adds a great deal to the film. He's not in the Legion cut at all (despite the opening and end credits still claiming so).

 

[Lord Dalek]

I would not be surprised if The Original Exoricist, III, and this upcoming sequel thing are the only Exorcists to ever make it to 4k anyway. II would have to be scanned again (for little financial gain since everybody hates II), and both The Beginning and Dominion were finished in 2k anyway (or at least The Beginning was).

 

[Kaskade1309]

Just read about this on another site....ironically in a thread that I started regarding "what was the last DVD/BD/UHD BD you purchased?" wherein a member pre-ordered this along with a whole host of other 4Ks...

I already purchased Scream's Collector's Edition Blu-ray of Exorcist III (and 2004's Dawn of the Dead, which is also slated for a 4K release from the studio this year), which replaced the original Warner snapper case DVD, and I remain wholly impressed with that 2K scan/transfer every time I watch it. The film, IMO, never looked better, and Blatty's unusual visual style really pops like never before in 1080p.

As such, I don't feel a need to upgrade to the 4K versions of Exorcist III and Dawn -- both of which weren't cheap on Blu -- though I wish I would have held out for the Dawn release for reasons related to the fact that I was replacing a Universal full screen DVD version.

At any rate, there isn't enough bandwidth or time to discuss the merits of Blatty's HORRIBLLY -- I'd dare say CRIMINALLY -- underrated genuine sequel to the first film. I am a massive fan of this whole franchise, save for Dominion, so I am very familiar with all the underpinnings of Exorcist III's production history, the so-called "Blatty Cut" (which cobbles together parts of the shooting dailies to create a vision that may have been his; it is awkward and off-putting compared to the theatrical cut, but I applaud Scream Factory for doing it for fans), the way the casting of Kinderman and Dyer bugged many enthusiasts (myself included), the outstanding if over-the-top performance of George C. Scott (irrespective of the just aforementioned casting mistake), the question of whether this was the same demon that was inside Linda Blair's character in the first film (as the dialogue coming from Jason Miller and the stand-in actor during the closing exorcism sequence didn't really match up with the rhetoric spewed by the entity in the 73 original as voiced by Mercedes McCambridge...though there were moments you were able to hear similarities in the vocal registers like when the "possessed" Karras grunts and wheezes when holy water hits him, and you can make out the way it sounds so much like the demon from the first film when it bellows "MEEEERRRRRRIIINNNNNNN!!!!!!") as well as the adaptation from Blatty's own Legion novel to the film version (I read Legion many moons ago and had some issues with the way the story was adapted, mainly in the area of confusing readers/viewers about Kinderman and Karras' relationship).

Fun Fact: If you listen VERY carefully during the scene when Kinderman visits the priest to discuss the similarities between the victims being killed, you will hear the EXACT giggle a possessed Linda Blair gives at the end of the first film (after Karras finds Merrin dead) after the priest says to Kinderman, "It may be that exorcism....the one that Damien did over on Prospect Street....the one that killed him....."

VERY eerie.

While, yes, The Heretic belongs on the "Worst Motion Pictures Ever Made" list alongside shitshows like Grease 2, there's something I can appreciate about it -- the scenes in Africa tracing the roots of Pazuzu, the oddball score, Burton's performance, et al. Like many John Carpenter films that sucked upon first viewing -- Ghosts of Mars, I'm looking at you -- Exorcist II just grows on you for reasons having nothing to do with indulging in "great cinema." I still want to pick up Scream Factory's Blu-ray of the title, but it's horribly overpriced everywhere because it's completely out of print. Maybe I'll wait for the eventual 4K release, as we're discussing here, as I think those Africa sequences would look killer with HDR.

I actually enjoyed Renny Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning, and think it was BEAUTIFULLY shot -- the widescreen DVD that I still watch looks incredibly rich, detailed, clean and sweeping, especially when the dig site sequences are on screen. There are a plethora of inconsistencies, however, connecting the events of Friedkin's original film with what transpired in Harlin's prequel, but I do prefer it over the snail's pace-endowed Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.

But, in getting back to Exorcist III....what a criminally underrated horror flick that doesn't get the love or attention it deserves, tacked-on exorcism ending or not.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Something else I thought of: Scream really dropped the ball with the accompanying DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track on the regular Blu-ray of Exorcist III, as many of the incredibly visceral, effective audio cues of the remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack found on Warner's DVD were changed/altered or deleted altogether. I would say I hope Scream will "fix" this in the 4K release, but that probably won't happen, as they'll more than likely just port over the mix from the Blu-ray.

Here's the problem: on the DVD version, you can CLEARLY make out some great off-screen audio cues, such as when Dyer and Kinderman are talking in the restaurant and the waitress comes over to ask if everything is alright -- on the DVD's Dolby Digital track, you can hear her ask her question from the FRONT LEFT speaker, which makes sense because that's where she'd be standing in the scene, in relation to the camera angle that focuses on Dyer at that moment. On the Scream Blu-ray, her voice comes from the CENTER, intermingled with the other sound elements, which is downright weird. There are a number of other examples throughout the film that I could cite wherein directionality was spot-on via the Dolby remix on the DVD -- but for some reason, when Scream released the Blu-ray, these moments were crushed into the center speaker, making the whole track feel like a mono experience. Sure, there is some spread to the left and right mains, but there's almost zero surround activity that I could detect, and the whole thing comes off like a glorified mono mix to me.

I don't know what happened here, but there have been some rumors that the film's original Dolby Stereo elements were lost somewhere along the way;. whatever the case may be, the Blu-ray's DTS-HD Master Audio track seems to collapse everything into the center for the most part -- even sequences depicting thunder claps and rain, which made their way into the surrounds very subtly on the DVD, are forced into the center with a slight left/right bleed, and it almost makes me regret selling my DVD when I picked up the Blu.

Almost.

 

[Vincent_P]

The region 2 Arrow Blu-ray release of THE EXORCIST III restored the excellent original theatrical Dolby Stereo matrix surround sound mix as opposed to just offering the lacking 5.1 remix like Shout did. I don't know if they pulled that track from 35mm mag or a Laserdisc, but it sounds really nice either way. I'm watching the scene you mention above in the restaurant via the Arrow's 2.0 PCM track decoded to surround right now, and the waitress's voice comes from the left when she's off-screen as you mention, and the ambient sounds of the restaurant are audible in the surrounds throughout, giving the scene are real aural depth and presence that's lacking in the 5.1 remix. My guess is the original DVD's 5.1 track wasn't an actual remix, but rather probably used the 4.0 discreet left-center-right-surround Dolby Stereo stems, with the surround channel just split to 2-channels and bass redirected to the sub, whereas whatever Shout used was a top-to-bottom remix that "flattened" the original soundstage for some bizarre reason (the 5.1 track on the Arrow is the same "flattened" remix, and I believe the original Warner Brothers Blu-ray uses this anemic remix as well).

The Shout release also offers a 2.0 track, but it's apparently just a "fold down" of the flattened 5.1 remix, not the original, very active and dynamic theatrical sound mix as presented on the Arrow Blu-ray release.

That said, Shout Factory has been much, much better this past year re: restoring original theatrical sound mixes to their releases (see THE FOG and THE HOWLING UHDs as examples), so I wouldn't be surprised if this UHD of THE EXORCIST III fixes that oversight of their previous Blu-ray version and they at least offer the same original 2.0 Dolby Stereo matrix surround track as presented on the Arrow release.

Vincent

 

[Kaskade1309]

The region 2 Arrow Blu-ray release of THE EXORCIST III restored the excellent original theatrical Dolby Stereo matrix surround sound mix as opposed to just offering the lacking 5.1 remix like Shout did.

I wasn't aware of that; I know Arrow had a release that coincided with Scream's, but the Arrow disc is region-locked for 1080p Blu-ray, no?

If so, that wouldn't have worked for me anyway as I'm using a North American non-modded Panasonic DP-UB9000 for all disc playback.

I don't know if they pulled that track from 35mm mag or a Laserdisc, but it sounds really nice either way.

Indeed; I had read that these elements/stems got "lost along the way somewhere" over the years, and as such, the experience on post-VHS mediums was disappointing (save for the somewhat effective track on the DVD).

I'm watching the scene you mention above in the restaurant via the Arrow's 2.0 PCM track decoded to surround right now, and the waitress's voice comes from the left when she's off-screen as you mention, and the ambient sounds of the restaurant are audible in the surrounds throughout, giving the scene are real aural depth and presence that's lacking in the 5.1 remix.

Okay -- interesting that you brought this up because I did experiment, the last time I watched Exorcist III, with choosing the alternate 2.0 Master Audio track, and this was actually MORE satisfying than watching the film with the 5.1 option. I was able to hear, as you alluded to, the side ambience and some other cues moving left to right by choosing this track. And, the aforementioned restaurant sequence put the waitress' voice off to the front left...

However, you mentioned watching the scene via the Arrow's 2.0 PCM track (which I assume is the Arrow equivalent to Scream's 2.0 Master Audio mix) but decoded to SURROUND -- on MY setup, because I'm using a somewhat outdated Onkyo receiver from circa 2007/2008, I cannot play two-channel Master Audio signals in anything other than STEREO or DIRECT (the AVR doesn't have the processing power to apply any matrix mode to put the tracks into surround), so when I watch Blu-rays with 2.0 audio tracks, the sound plays back from the front left and right channels only. Even WITH this handicap, I was able to detect that the 2.0 Master Audio track on the Scream Blu-ray sounded MORE directional than the somewhat lousy 5.1 mix.

My guess is the original DVD's 5.1 track wasn't an actual remix, but rather probably used the 4.0 discreet left-center-right-surround Dolby Stereo stems, with the surround channel just split to 2-channels and bass redirected to the sub

Possible -- the packaging claimed the soundtrack was "remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1," per a lot of Warner's old snapper case DVD titles from these eras. All I know is that it sounded a HELL of a lot more engaging and enjoyable compared to the Scream U.S. Blu-ray.

whereas whatever Shout used was a top-to-bottom remix that "flattened" the original soundstage for some bizarre reason (the 5.1 track on the Arrow is the same "flattened" remix, and I believe the original Warner Brothers Blu-ray uses this anemic remix as well).

Christ....what a disappointment that the Arrow disc has the anemic 5.1 track as well. I can recall almost from the day it was released, the U.S. Scream disc was poo-pooed on by fans who immediately described this "glorified mono" experience of the 5.1 Master Audio track; indeed, it was described as a mix that was "crushed" or "flattened" to the center channel for the majority of the runtime.

Like I said, though, I DID detect some VERY slight bleed into the left and right mains with the Scream disc -- but it was nowhere near as engaging as when viewing Warner's DVD. It seems so weird that my preferred default selection for audio when watching this is going to be the 2.0 track (it's the opposite when I watch any of my other Scream Factory discs).

The Shout release also offers a 2.0 track, but it's apparently just a "fold down" of the flattened 5.1 remix, not the original, very active and dynamic theatrical sound mix as presented on the Arrow Blu-ray release.

Yes -- please see above with regard to my findings about this. The 2.0 Master Audio track option on the Scream release, I have found, offers more directionality than the 5.1 track, in that I can actually hear the waitress in that scene speaking from the left front portion of the room, where her voice belongs. Sure, I have to watch films with 2.0 Master Audio tracks in STEREO mode on my AVR and the dialogue is forced to a phantom center (creating a weird comb filtering effect), but it honestly sounded better than the surround mix on the Scream release.

That said, Shout Factory has been much, much better this past year re: restoring original theatrical sound mixes to their releases (see THE FOG and THE HOWLING UHDs as examples), so I wouldn't be surprised if this UHD of THE EXORCIST III fixes that oversight of their previous Blu-ray version and they at least offer the same original 2.0 Dolby Stereo matrix surround track as presented on the Arrow release.

Interesting that you brought up The Fog -- I own the steelbook limited edition Blu-ray of the film (from Scream Factory), which basically ported over the video transfer and audio mixes from Scream's original Collector's Edition release, and I was wholly unimpressed with both the audio and video. First of all, the previous "Special Edition" DVD I had of The Fog (and a subsequent DVD release before that one which had both the full screen and widescreen transfers on one flipper disc) boasted a so-called "Digitally Enhanced" 5.1 Dolby Digital remix, and this was nothing more than a slightly goosed mono track. Just about EVERYTHING came from the center -- alas, the surround option Scream put on the Blu-ray of the film contained a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 choice which seems to be the SAME disappointing center-heavy track from the DVD. I can't detect any difference between the two. It's somewhat anemic (save for some loud stinger effects when people get killed) and contains little to no bleed, even to the front channels.

This being said, when you mentioned that they "restored original theatrical sound mixes" to some titles, do you mean they simply included original mono tracks or that they "fixed" problems with surround options? If it's the latter, then I'd be tempted to pick up The Exorcist III in 4K IF they do the same for that title.

 

[Vincent_P]

Re: the 5.1 track on the DVD, notice it says "Remastered in 5.1", not remixed. Since that 5.1 track seems to have the same active channel separation as the actual original matrix-surround 2.0 track as heard on the old Laserdisc and Arrow Blu-ray release, this is why I suspect it's not an actual remix, but a repurposing of the Dolby Stereo stems. While the final Dolby Stereo delivery format is 2-channel that's then meant to be decoded to left-center-right-surround, the mixing stems are actually 4-channel discreet. I suspect that "5.1 remastering" for the DVD simply involved splitting the mono surround into 2-channels and redirecting bass to the .1 subwoofer channel. However they arrived at it, it sounds like it matches the characteristics of the original theatrical mix.

And yes, the Arrow Blu-ray is region locked, so you'd have to have a region free player to view it.

Re: the 2-channel mix on the Shout Factory Blu-ray- by all accounts, it's NOT the original, very active mix as offered on the Arrow release, but a fold-down of the anemic remix. I suspect it sounds "better" to you on playback precisely because you're simply playing it in 2-channel due to your particular limitations re: decoding 2-channel DTS to surround. If you change your player's output to PCM and then engage the surround decoding on your system, the sound will collapse back into mostly the center channel and sound very similar to the terrible 5.1 remix.

I don't have their UHDs of THE FOG and THE HOWLING so can't comment on the quality of the multichannel mixes on those, but I know they went to great lengths in both of those cases to offer the original mono theatrical mixes from the best sources available, and by all accounts they both mono tracks sound really good. I do know the Studio Canal UHD of THE FOG doesn't have the original mono track, and the 5.1 track is at the wrong pitch on that release, and I believe Shout also fixed that pitch error on their release for their 5.1 track. I also forgot to mention before, but Shout also had the audio restored on their recent UHD release of BLACK CHRISTMAS, both the original mono AND 5.1 remix, and I've heard the results there are superb, as well, and they even include a new featurette about the extensive audio restoration. Given their newfound attention to including high-quality versions of the original theatrical sound mixes on their releases like they did with these, I'm hopeful they will include the proper, original sound mix for THE EXORCIST III on their UHD like Arrow did on their Blu-ray.

Vincent

 

[TravisR]

Given their newfound attention to including high-quality versions of the original theatrical sound mixes on their releases like they did with these, I'm hopeful they will include the proper, original sound mix for THE EXORCIST III on their UHD like Arrow did on their Blu-ray.

If memory serves, Shout has generally been using the original mix as the default audio (rather than the 5.1 remix) on their discs lately too.

 

[Lord Dalek]

"Soundtrack remastered in 5.1" was Warner's standard boilerplate for years durring the snapper era. They even used it on films like Batman Returns and Under Seige that were 5.1 in the first place.