While thankfully Warner is beginning to drop their snapper-case DVD package schematics due to fan backlashing, their recent DVD releases still seem....I don’t know...."cheap" in their packaging and overall presentation. Like Exorcist: The Beginning and Constantine before it, Dominion comes in a standard lightweight keepcase box with NO inside artwork or chapter listing card -- just the DVD on the plastic hub, and this just feels like a cheap shot to me being that this studio asks $20 for most of their new releases. To add insult to injury here, there is a mediocre-at-best video and audio presentation on this single disc release, although some who demo this DVD may disagree:
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
WIDESCREEN VERSION PRESENTED IN A "MATTED" WIDESCREEN FORMAT PRESERVING THE ASPECT RATIO OF ITS ORIGINAL THEATRICAL EXHIBITION; ENHANCED FOR WIDESCREEN TVs.
With no letterboxing on my screen due to Warner's "Matted" ratio speak, this was a pretty rich and colorful transfer from beginning to end, but throughout the run, I noticed film projector-like "pops" and "speckles" that littered the screen sometimes as if this transfer wasn't really "authorized" or supervised correctly for DVD playback purposes; it wasn't really as "smooth" of a transfer as The Beginning was from what I can remember, but it is by no means a bad image to look at considering you have to sit through nearly two hours of Schrader's "Father Merrin character study." And by "not bad" I mean I detected no grain or dirt, and fleshtones seemed amazingly accurate in the pinks of Skarsgard's face and the browns of the local African inhabitants in the village near the dig site.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
ENGLISH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1; SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH, FRENCH & SPANISH
Here's where the biggest letdown of the whole presentation came to fruition: this Dolby Digital track is NOWHERE NEAR even in the same league, dynamics wise, as the rumbling, loud, obnoxious DTS track found on the DVD version of Harlin's cut of the film. From start to finish, this is a downright QUIET soundtrack and mix, and if you have any ambient noises that like to break into your home theater as I do, they're gonna certainly do it and you'll easily hear them over this very subtle, subdued mix. This Dolby track almost seems to be recorded at the same decibel level as the Constantine DVD, also released by Warner, meaning it requires A TON of amplification to really heat up and get going -- dialogue intelligibility borders on non-existent sometimes depending upon where your volume is set and the overall "volume power output" of the track is weak.
In the track's defense, though, this was a film that didn't have NEARLY as many "stingers" and "shock moments" as Harlin's version did, and so the Dolby Digital mix didn't really have many moments to open up and show off -- there WERE absolute demo moments on the soundtrack, though, believe it or not, but they were sparse -- this mainly came when the possessed boy is speaking to Merrin in the church during the final exorcism sequence....the demonic voice of the possessed boy, even though action was anchored onscreen, came BOOMING from the surround channels and filled my listening room as if that demon was right there all around me; the effect was stunning and quite chilling to be honest. There was also excellent "echoing" effects on the track, just as on the DTS mix of Harlin's version, where any character speaking or yelling in the buried temple below the church had their voices expertly rendered in the rear surrounds as excellent "echo" effects for realistic imaging. More subtle sound cues were there too, such as the gentle dripping of water or clanging of shovels off in the distance in the surrounds, but these were only discernable once the master volume was raised to unusually high levels as the overall "mastering level" of this track was unbelievably weak and low. Very disappointing audio presentation for an equally unnecessary prequel story for the 1973 original, save for those moments of the demonic voices which hit the surrounds with fury as I mentioned.
SPECIAL FEATURES were limited, as they were on Warner/Morgan Creek's Exorcist: The Beginning DVD, and included:
-Commentary by Director Paul Schrader (which bored me within 10 minutes of listening to it)
-Additional Scenes (actually, they were "deleted scenes")
-Stills Gallery
No theatrical trailer was on board here, as this never made it to the theaters prior to Warner's decision to recently re-release the cut to the public.
As I said, this is a rental at best for those who are curious. For absolute DIEHARD franchise fans, it may be interesting to have this cut on hand, as I’m looking at it, for comparison purposes between Harlin's version and this one....but in the end, it was a mistake either way to make a prequel story for one of the most chilling horror setpieces in cinematic history.
From what I understand, Warner MAY be getting ready, with this release of Schrader's version, to release an "Ultimate Exorcist Box Set" which includes every film in the franchise PLUS these two prequel versions. THAT would have been cool to buy instead of buying Schrader and Harlin's versions separately; unfortunately, I have all the films (except for the G-d awful Part II) separately in my library, so a box set would make no sense for me personally.
