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In The Grip Of Evil
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The re-release of "The Exorcist" has revived interest in the film, and to strike while the iron's hot, Winstar has released a documentary originally aired on the Discovery Channel discussing the events that inspired what many consider to be the most terrifying film of all time.
In 1949, strange events started occurring around a seemingly normal thirteen year old boy. Scratching noises would be heard with no apparent cause, his bed started to shake, odd scratches appeared on his body, he began using oddly obscene language, psychologists were baffled...and...well, if you've seen "The Exorcist" (and if you haven't, why are you reading this review?), you know the story. Eventually it's determined that the child is possessed and requires an exorcist to drive the demon from his body, but no one involved realizes how much time and effort will be required to complete the task...
The story is told by a combination of readings from a diary kept during the exorcism and the retelling of events by a priest who was present and from second-hand accounts. Though attempts are made to make "In The Grip Of Evil" seem less biased, anyone expecting to hear a balanced account and scientific explanations for what happened will be sorely disappointed. (Admittedly, such an attempt would be difficult, since these events occurred 50 years ago with only a handful of priests and relatives present...) "In The Grip Of Evil" has a more dynamic, engaging style than a sizeable portion of the flat, uninteresting documentaries I've watched, and for anyone caught up in the current "Exorcist" frenzy, it's required viewing.
Video: Again, this is a documentary, and I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the quality of the video. Some of the recreations are quite grainy, and the image pulsates, for lack of a better term -- there are rhythmic blasts of white during a number of the scenes with Robbie, which I found very distracting. The quality of the video in the interviews is also somewhat inconsistent, though not to the same extent. For the most part, the image is clear and pleasant -- particularly the style of lighting -- but a handful of interview segments are a bit too raw in appearance, particularly those with William Friedkin and one of the priests. The overall quality is below-average, though hardly unwatchable. The image is not enhanced for widescreen televisions and is letterboxed at 1.78:1.
Audio: The Pro Logic track on "In The Grip Of Evil" surpasses my usual expectations for a documentary. The music is enveloping and has quite a range...very effective and well-suited to the subject matter, but mixed properly so that it never gets in the way of the dialogue. As interviews are crucial to such a documentary, it's important that the dialogue be reproduced properly, and that's the case here -- no hiss or distortion, and the narration and some of the interviews have a pretty significant low-end punch as well. Nice job all around.
Supplements: The documentary on "In The Grip Of Evil" is only 50 minutes, but Winstar has provided enough in the way of extras to make this disc more worthwhile as a purchase. Four interviews are available separately -- three of them are with people involved with the production of the documentary, centering around creative and editorial decisions, the origin of the project, and personal takes on the subject matter. The fourth, with Father Halloran, is an extended take on what was presented in the documentary. Four newspaper articles and a transcript of the diary mentioned in the documentary are also included. Among the DVD-ROM accessible features are printable versions of the case study, newspaper articles, original letters, screen savers, desktop images for Windows users, and web links.
Conclusion: "In The Grip Of Evil" is a decent documentary that makes a nice companion piece to "The Exorcist". Although it, at least in my opinion, doesn't appear to be a disc with much replay value, the low price (online, it can be ordered and shipped for under $15) and amount of supplements make it a must-have for Exorcist completists. For those with a casual interest in the material, "In The Grip Of Evil" is recommended, though you may prefer to wait for its inevitable rebroadcast on cable. If you didn't much care for "The Exorcist", don't bother.
In 1949, strange events started occurring around a seemingly normal thirteen year old boy. Scratching noises would be heard with no apparent cause, his bed started to shake, odd scratches appeared on his body, he began using oddly obscene language, psychologists were baffled...and...well, if you've seen "The Exorcist" (and if you haven't, why are you reading this review?), you know the story. Eventually it's determined that the child is possessed and requires an exorcist to drive the demon from his body, but no one involved realizes how much time and effort will be required to complete the task...
The story is told by a combination of readings from a diary kept during the exorcism and the retelling of events by a priest who was present and from second-hand accounts. Though attempts are made to make "In The Grip Of Evil" seem less biased, anyone expecting to hear a balanced account and scientific explanations for what happened will be sorely disappointed. (Admittedly, such an attempt would be difficult, since these events occurred 50 years ago with only a handful of priests and relatives present...) "In The Grip Of Evil" has a more dynamic, engaging style than a sizeable portion of the flat, uninteresting documentaries I've watched, and for anyone caught up in the current "Exorcist" frenzy, it's required viewing.
Video: Again, this is a documentary, and I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the quality of the video. Some of the recreations are quite grainy, and the image pulsates, for lack of a better term -- there are rhythmic blasts of white during a number of the scenes with Robbie, which I found very distracting. The quality of the video in the interviews is also somewhat inconsistent, though not to the same extent. For the most part, the image is clear and pleasant -- particularly the style of lighting -- but a handful of interview segments are a bit too raw in appearance, particularly those with William Friedkin and one of the priests. The overall quality is below-average, though hardly unwatchable. The image is not enhanced for widescreen televisions and is letterboxed at 1.78:1.
Audio: The Pro Logic track on "In The Grip Of Evil" surpasses my usual expectations for a documentary. The music is enveloping and has quite a range...very effective and well-suited to the subject matter, but mixed properly so that it never gets in the way of the dialogue. As interviews are crucial to such a documentary, it's important that the dialogue be reproduced properly, and that's the case here -- no hiss or distortion, and the narration and some of the interviews have a pretty significant low-end punch as well. Nice job all around.
Supplements: The documentary on "In The Grip Of Evil" is only 50 minutes, but Winstar has provided enough in the way of extras to make this disc more worthwhile as a purchase. Four interviews are available separately -- three of them are with people involved with the production of the documentary, centering around creative and editorial decisions, the origin of the project, and personal takes on the subject matter. The fourth, with Father Halloran, is an extended take on what was presented in the documentary. Four newspaper articles and a transcript of the diary mentioned in the documentary are also included. Among the DVD-ROM accessible features are printable versions of the case study, newspaper articles, original letters, screen savers, desktop images for Windows users, and web links.
Conclusion: "In The Grip Of Evil" is a decent documentary that makes a nice companion piece to "The Exorcist". Although it, at least in my opinion, doesn't appear to be a disc with much replay value, the low price (online, it can be ordered and shipped for under $15) and amount of supplements make it a must-have for Exorcist completists. For those with a casual interest in the material, "In The Grip Of Evil" is recommended, though you may prefer to wait for its inevitable rebroadcast on cable. If you didn't much care for "The Exorcist", don't bother.
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