Source France | Publisher : Warner Bros. | Release date : 11 October 2023
Video format
2160p24 – Ratio 1.85
HDR10 / BT.2020 – HEVC encoding
Master intermediate 4K
Soundtrack
English Dolby Atmos
English DTS-HD MA 2.0 (Original Theatrical Version)
Dolby Digital 5.1 (Extended Director)
English Dolby Digital 1.0 (Original Theatrical Version)
Subtitles
English
French
Rated 3.5 out of 5
Artistic : 10 | Video : 6 | Audio : 9
It is brought to the attention of our dear readers that, in addition to the specified and used viewing equipment, the rendering may differ from one installation to another, whether or not it is calibrated, as well as personal preferences and expectations may influence notation. Moreover, the images in the article are not representative of the edition tested.
Test equipment and condition (Config. HP: 5.1.4)
Video broadcaster : Philips 65OLED908 (HDR Filmmaker Mode)
Sources : Oppo UDP-203 Audiocom Reference | Zappiti Reference
Pregnant : Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar (Dolby Atmos | Dolby Surround | DTS Neural:X), SVS SB-4000
WORK - The Embrace of the Devil
Regan, a teenager, has had strange symptoms for some time. After exhausting the medical solutions, her mother consulted a priest-psychiatrist who was quickly convinced that she was possessed and that only an exorcism would be able to « cure »...
Quasi documentary in its realistic approach to gender (to which it has become the reference), Exorcist of the William Friedkin long-term contaminate the spirits by exploring without a second ounce the troubled areas at the limits of faith and madness. The staging is rigorous, the editing without fioriture, the deaf and pernicious terror, the adapted scenario of the work of William Peter Blatty evil and well-camped people (the young Linda Blair was « Owned »). Undoubtedly, this classic of horror that has just celebrated its 50th anniversary always turns its heads.
IMAGE - Large open window
Coming from a scan of the original 35 mm negatives, this uneven 4K remasterization (1/4 of the images deserve to burn in hell) arrives on the doorstep in a UHD HDR10 presentation not as solid as hoped (a rough noise goes back to the surface from time to time). Instead of frustrating revisionism (synchronization of colors and excessive smoothing of exorcism), more authenticity would have been welcome.
The silver texture is quite homogeneous outside the final scene which abuses DNR, the defects of the film have been cleaned well and the fineness of the details knows an indisputable leap forward (the makeups are for example more visible) if this is during the passage listed above (which is abnormally soft and sometimes blurred limit).
The colorimetric palette, albeit less for free bluished than on previous video releases (the 2001 DVD and the 2010 Blu-ray), unfortunately does not return to its original appearance (blue has been attenuated but remains present) even if it proves to be more realistic now (the opening in northern Iraq is relieved of its magenta drifts and Georgetown exteriors regain its grey tones). Notably, the colours bleed (again) at the climax of the narration.
The contrasts were generally carefully adjusted for blacks at increased depth (obvious in the attic) and wisely raised whites (bed sheets, surgical coats). Only here, two moments are plagued by crushed blacks (the visit to the elderly mother and the exorcism) and some light sources, fortunately the most often appropriate (inner lighting), are abnormally aggressive (the fluorescent light of the metro train).
Your mother sucks dicks in hell!
More frightening than ever in its remixing Dolby Atmos (for both versions of the film), the VO enjoys an amazing verticality (the « rats » in the attic, medical equipment, objects projected into Regan's room, etc.) without neglecting the transparency of his dialogues. Stuffed with effects to shudder and discreet atmospheres (especially in Iraq) in both front and rear, it also benefits from a rather destabilizing power (the passage of the metro) and from a threatening LFE channel (infragrave captures at regular intervals). The mythical music of Krzysztof Penderecki and Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells) breathes properly.
For fans of the original 1973 soundtrack, the VO is also presented in DTS-HD MA dual mono (film version only). Clean, clear and equipped with a serious frontal dynamic, it carillons with remarkable fidelity.
Offered in Dolby Digital 5.1 for the Directors Cut, the VF remains correctly spatialized despite a lower accuracy and a limited amplitude that the (good) bass cannot fill. As for the Dolby Digital 1.0 track of the cinema version, its dynamics are non-existent and its rendering terribly stifled. In both cases, dubbing has aged.
CONCLUSION - Beautiful day for an exorcism
Although he lost nothing of his evocative strength, this unsurpassable masterpiece that marked a milestone in the history of cinema continues to be cursed on physical media (the last 30 minutes are to be vomited). Yet, despite this risky DIY that comes to afflict (again) the crucial outcome of possession, this edition 4K Ultra HD retains all existing supplements and has a fantastic new 3D mixing. Are you going to play with the devil?
[...] unpredictable... At a thousand places therefore facilities resurrected from a genre rhymed since the Exorcist. When evil is born, nature dies! [...]
[...] 50 years later, however, is no better than the other iterations following Friedkin's seminal masterpiece. Worse still, while the latter had the decency to go to other [...]
[...] of The Next Session (Etienne): After the success of French Connection and the Exorcist, William Friedkin gives us his version of the Wage of Fear of Clouzot. Apocalyptic shooting [...]