THE OTHERS 12

2001 ★★★★✩ OUT 2 OCTOBER

DVD, BD, 4K UHD

EXTRAS ★★★✩✩ Documentary, Featurettes, Stills gallery

This 4K release offers a welcome chance to revisit Alejandro Amenábar’s elegant 2001 chiller. A ghost story for the gore-averse, it’s a suspenseful slow-burner in which Nicole Kidman’s Grace and her two young children begin to suspect their home is haunted. The kids’ apparent sensitivity to light is a contrivance that allows Amenábar to tease at what lies within the mansion’s shadowy corners, while the playful score and Fionnula Flanagan’s enigmatic housekeeper serve as fine foils to Kidman’s convincingly brittle turn.

MCVICAR 18

1980 ★★★✩✩ OUT NOW BD, DVD

EXTRAS ★★★✩✩ Interviews, Booklet

Produced by The Who Films Ltd, McVicar stars Roger Daltrey and Adam Faith, and boasts a soundtrack produced by Jeff Wayne. Is it any surprise that music plays a pervasive role in this screen adaptation of former armed-robber-turnedjournalist John McVicar’s 1974 autobiography? It’s just a shame the filmmakers didn’t go full rock opera, which might have transformed a perfectly solid biopic into something exceptional. Extras find Daltrey discussing his transformation into a movie hardman and McVicar reflecting on his relationship with his estranged son.

THE EXORCIST 18

His mother does what in Hell?

1973 ★★★★★ OUT 29 SEPTEMBER CINEMAS

The 50 years since William Friedkin’s diabolical chiller left its first audiences confounded back in 1973 have seen Jason Miller (Father Karras), Max von Sydow (Father Merrin) and William Peter Blatty (screenwriter) all leave us. That Friedkin himself has now gone to join them brings an added poignancy to an anniversary reissue that will grow all the keener when David Gordon Green’s sequel makes its October debut.

Mercedes McCambridge, who died in 2004 at the same age her director did, isn’t the first name that comes to mind when considering The Exorcist’s dearly departed. The Oscar-winning radio star is never seen in Friedkin’s blood-curdling adaptation of Blatty’s 1971 novel and was not initially given a credit: a bone of contention when the film became a hit, though Friedkin later insisted it had been at her own request.

When Linda Blair’s possessed Regan speaks, though, it is McCambridge’s voice that emerges from her lips. And it is surely a testament to the chain-smoked cigarettes and guzzled raw eggs that went into her croaky rasp that the malevolent Pazuzu remains as terrifying as its utterances are unprintable. Friedkin created a masterpiece full of sinister menace, grotesque effects and the oppressive dread of the unknown. When it came to dialogue, however, the devil got all the best lines.

THE VERDICT While the shock factor’s diminished, Friedkin’s horror landmark still has the power to compel you.

THE WICKER MAN 15

1973 ★★★★★ OUT 25 SEPTEMBER 4K UHD, STEELBOOK, DIGITAL

EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentary, Featurettes, Stills galleries, CD, Booklet, Posters, Postcards

What do you get the Wicker Man obsessive who thinks they’ve seen it all? Try this handsome five-disc boxset, which packages multiple cuts (theatrical, director’s, final) in 4K and Blu-ray alongside features old and new, including an exclusive EP, with contemporary artists such as Katy J. Pearson covering music from the timeless pagan-folk soundtrack, and a booklet with new essays including words from veteran Total Film-er Rosie Fletcher. It’s a beautiful tribute to one of British cinema’s enduring cults.

JAWS 2 PG

1978 ★★★✩✩ OUT NOW 4K UHD

EXTRAS ★★★✩✩ Documentary, Deleted scenes, Interviews, Storyboards, Trailers

‘I don’t intend to go through that hell again,’ states Amity Island police chief Martin Brody in this follow-up to Steven Spielberg’s 1975 box-office sensation, seemingly echoing Roy Scheider’s own thoughts about returning to the role. We’re glad he did, as his presence elevates the material, bringing some compelling human drama to an otherwise slasher-adjacent sequel involving a scarred underwater killer terrifying a group of teenagers. Thanks largely to the lead, it’s the one Jaws sequel that doesn’t bite.