Horror films are always popular, but no more so than in the lead-up to Halloween at the end of October.

Warner Bros. Home Video has gotten a jump on this year’s batch of horror film releases with its 4K UHD upgrade of William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty’s 1973 masterpiece, The Exorcist, in both its original version and expanded director’s cut.

The film version of Blatty’s best-selling novel was nominated for ten Oscars including Best Picture, Director (Friedkin), Adapted Screenplay (by Blatty himself), Actress (Ellen Burstyn), Supporting Actor (Jason Miller), Supporting Actress (Linda Blair), Cinematography, Film Editing, Art Direction-Set Design, and Sound. It won for Adapted Screenplay and Sound.

As acknowledged in the current release’s liner notes, controversial and popular from the day it opened the day after Christmas fifty years ago, a frightening and realistic tale of an innocent girl inhabited by a terrifying entity, her actress mother’s frantic resolve to help her and two priest – one doubt-ridden, the other a rock of faith joined in battling evil, has been leaving viewers breathless ever since.

The exorcism in Blatty’s novel was based on a 1949 exorcism of a boy in Washington, D.C. The characters of the actress mother and her daughter are based on Shirley MacLaine and her real-life daughter. The character’s director, played by Jack MacGowran, is based on J. Lee Thompson. Blatty wrote John Goldfarb, Please Come Home, a 1965 film directed by Thompson in which MacLaine starred. MacLaine, Audrey Hepburn, Anne Bancroft, and Jane Fonda all turned down the role in the film version before Ellen Burstyn was cast.

Burstyn’s first claim to fame was as an “away we go” dancing girl on The Jackie Gleason Show from 1955-1956. Jason Miller, who played self-doubting Father Karras, was Gleason’s son-in-law from 1963-1973. Actor Jason Patric is his son and Gleason’s grandson.

Linda Blair’s Golden Globe win and subsequent Oscar nomination came before it was revealed that Oscar-winning actress Mercedes McCambridge (All the King’s Men) supplied the voice of the demon that was initially thought to have been supplied by Blair.

Although most of the key roles had multiple contenders, Max von Sydow was Friedkin’s only choice for playing Father Merrin, the exorcist of the title.

Adjusted for inflation, The Exorcist was the biggest box-office hit in Warner Bros. history and the most successful R-rated film in history.

The new release features previously recorded commentary by Friedkin on both versions, as well as a previously recorded introduction by Friedkin and a previously recorded commentary by Blatty on the theatrical cut.

Universal has previously released 4K UHD upgrades of 1931’s Frankenstein and Dracula, 1933’s The Invisible Man, and 1941’s The Wolf Man both individually and as a boxed set. On October 3, they will release 4K UHD upgrades of 1933’s The Mummy, 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, 1943’s Phantom of the Opera, and 1953’s Creature from the Black Lagoon both individually and as a boxed set. This completes Universal’s release of its eight most popular classic horror films.

On October 10, Paramount will release a 4K upgrade of 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby.

Being advertised tongue-in-cheek as “the birth of modern horror,” Roman Polanski’s 1968 film of Ira Levin’s novel is just as chilling now as it was fifty-five years ago.

Mia Farrow, in her first starring role, gave what is still the performance of her life as the young bride whose struggling actor husband (John Cassavetes) falls in with a coven of devil worshiping witches who stand by and watch as the devil impregnates her. Shockingly nominated for just two Oscars for Adapted Screenplay (Polanski) and Supporting Actress (Ruth Gordon), it won for the latter.

Gordon, previously Oscar nominated for her screenplays for A Double Life, Adam’s Rib, and Pat and Mike, and for her portrayal of Natalie Wood’s mother suffering from dementia in Inside Daisy Clover, too, gave the performance of her life.

The splendid supporting cast also includes Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Bellamy, Maurice Evans, and Patsy Kelly.

Extras include an introspective of the film, a documentary on Farrow and Polanski, the original trailer, and the 50th anniversary “Redband” trailer.

On October 17, the Criterion Collection will release a Blu-ray presentation of Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, featuring 1932’s Freaks, 1927’s The Unknown, and 1925’s newly restored The Mystic released on home video for the first time.

The Unknown, starring Lon Chaney in his greatest role, and Freaks, featuring real-life circus sideshow performers, are considered writer-director Browning’s defining works while The Mystic is considered merely a curiosity.

Browning both wrote and directed The Mystic and The Unknown, the latter featuring a young Joan Crawford opposite Chaney. Freaks is credited to six other writers.

Extras include a new documentary on Browning and a 2019 documentary on the use of performers with disabilities in Freaks.

On October 24, Warner Archive will release Browning’s 1936 film, The Devil-Doll, on Blu-ray. This one, starring Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O’Sullivan, and Frank Lawton, was one of Browning’s last films as well as one of his best. It’s a toss-up as to which is more terrifying, the shrunken human dolls or Barrymore disguised as an old lady going after his next victim.

Have a happy early Halloween!