William Friedkin's seminal horror classic The Exorcist has lost little of its impact over the years, and Warner's 25th Anniversary Edition DVD is a marvelous example of what the format can bring to a classic film. The picture quality is excellent throughout, although the early Iraq-set scenes are now particularly striking, and all the better in glorious widescreen. It is the sound as much as the visuals that makes The Exorcist so terrifying, so it is a relief that the Dolby 5.1 audio track is utterly faultless. The special features, located on the second side of the disc, are thorough, if not always a match for the main feature in terms of quality. There are, for example, not one but eight original theatrical trailers, and while those for The Exorcist are interesting (and in the case of the flash-image one, genuinely scary), the disc would probably be better off without a trailer for the silly sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic. Also included are some rather bizarre television spots and some sketches and storyboards that are well worth a look. Brief excerpts of discussions between Friedkin and screenwriter William Peter Blatty illustrate the difference in vision between writer and director, notably over the ending (the original, more upbeat version of which is also included). There are commentary tracks by both Friedkin and Blatty, but both are somewhat disappointing. When Friedkin isn't rambling he is simply relaying the action with no background or insight, while Blatty's commentary, though better, has so little correlation to what is happening onscreen that it could hardly be called a commentary at all. By far the best special feature is "The Fear of God: 25 Years of the Exorcist," an outstanding documentary featuring revealing interviews with all the main protagonists. As well as detailing the film's troubled shoot and Friedkin's extreme methods of direction, it also includes missing scenes such as the famous "spider-walk" sequence. This is not quite a perfect DVD, but it is much closer to perfection than most DVDs get.