A closer look
Director William Friedkin completely cut the infamous spider-walk sequence from the original 1973 theatrical release of The Exorcist, deeming it too technically flawed because the wires suspending the contorting stuntwoman were far too visible on camera. It took twenty-seven years and the advent of digital wire-removal technology for the scene to finally be restored in a director's cut, instantly becoming one of the most viscerally terrifying moments in the entire horror genre. It is absolutely wild to think that audiences went nearly three decades without seeing a possessed girl scurrying down a staircase backwards like an aggressive crustacean, all because the director was slightly annoyed by the lighting on a few suspension cables. It proves that even when you are dealing with demonic possession and flying pea soup, the most frightening thing to a perfectionist filmmaker is a continuity error involving a poorly hidden piece of rigging equipment
