DVD details for
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) More at IMDbPro »

All five films in the series inaugurated by The Exorcist (1973), William Friedkin’s notorious screen adaptation of William Peter Blatty's best-selling novel about satanic possession and devilish doings, in a six-disc box set. Friedkin fought with screenwriter/co-producer Blatty over the details of the original film adaptation, which became a cultural phenomenon, but decades later decided the Blatty was right after all and added back footage for The Exorcist: The Version You’ve Never Seen , which sweeps away some of the ambiguity. John Boorman directs the sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), a metaphysical dream-movie fantasy with psychedelic imagery, and Blatty himself directs The Exorcist III (1990). The rocky road to the prequel resulted in two films. Paul Schrader originally directed Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist (2005) from a script penned by William Wisher and Caleb Carr that focused on the metaphysical, and Warner rejected for not being scary enough. So they hired Renny Harlin, who wound up remaking the film practically from scratch as Exorcist: The Beginning (2004).