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September 25 - October 1, 2023 Page 9 "Loki" - Season 2 (Disney+ — Oct. 6, Season Premiere) In the aftermath of the shocking Season 1 finale, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter b-15 (Wunmi mosaku) and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophia Di m artino), Judge Renslayer (Gugu mbatha-Raw), miss minutes (Tara Strong) and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose. word search solution With a new 90-minute format, this daring game show returns with a new group of castaways and 30 extra min- utes of content for "Survivor" fanatics back at home, catching every detail as castaways try to outwit, outplay and outlast their opponents for a shot at a million dollars. Season 45 of "Sur- vivor" begins Wednesday, Sept. 27, on cbS. 90 minutes still not enough? binge Season 44 of "Survivor" by visiting cbs.com/shows/survivor/ meet Gerry Turner: 72-years-old, widower, looking for a partner. In this "bachelor" spin-off, Gerry will meet age-appropriate women who long for days filled with pickle ball and shop- ping at costco, encouraging this se- nior single to let love back into his life. Hosted by Jesse palmer, the series premiere of "The Golden bachelor" airs Thursday, Sept. 28, on Abc. cast details can be found at abc.com/ shows/the-golden-bachelor WebLinks InFocus For multiple reasons, it's an ap- propriate time for "The Exorcist" to make a return. The Halloween season is ideal for a showing of the 1973 scare classic – which AMC presents Saturday, Oct. 7, and the timing of the film's return also serves as a tribute to its director: Wil- liam Friedkin, who died in August. (In fact, Turner Classic Movies also is slated to show the picture as part of a Friedkin tribute on Nov. 26.) William Peter Blatty adapted his own Washington, D.,C.-set best seller for the screen version, tracing the plight of young Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair, then a novice performer), an actress' (Ellen Burstyn) daughter who becomes a target of demonic possession. Friedkin and Blatty build the unsettling feeling gradually, initially presenting Regan as a happy and reasonably ordinary child … until she crashes a party given by her mother and tells an astronaut guest, "You're gonna die up there." It gets worse from there – a lot worse – as the physical effects of having the devil inside her give the previously cherubic Regan a truly horrifying ap- pearance, prompting the recruitment of the troubled Father Karras (portrayed by playwright Jason Miller) to drive out the demon (who has the throaty voice of Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge). Ultimately, he doesn't believe he can handle the job alone, so the much more experienced Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) is brought in to share the dan- gerous duty with him. Lee J. Cobb, Jack MacGowran and Kitty Winn are among other prominent cast members. Though themes of "The Exorcist" have been borrowed and even parodied since – also in some sequels, one of which ("The Exorcist: Believer") is about to hit theaters, and a Fox tele- vision series that ran for two seasons – nothing quite like it had been seen before, and news reports of audience members fleeing or fainting were bountiful during its initial theatrical run. The tale's religious overtone also stirred controversy, as it had in print form, though the immediacy of a visual representation seemed to push certain buttons even harder. The success of "The Exorcist" also played out in some surprising ways, one being its music. Such established composers as Lalo Schifrin and Bernard Herrmann had been involved along the way, but in the end, Friedkin went with a combination of classical selections and "Tubular Bells," a contemporary instru- mental by Mike Oldfield that became a major chart hit. In its 50th-anniversary year, "The Exorcist" remains a singular movie ex- perience that even basic-cable exposure (and editing) can tamp down only so much. Even now, some viewers surely will want to leave the lights on for it. moviereview By Jay Bobbin Linda Blair and Max von Sydow in "The Exorcist" "The Exorcist" stirs up scares again on AMC

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