The Exorcist III (1990)

I was surprised to find The Exorcist III coming up on lists of favorite horror movies.  I know I've read William Peter Blatty's book Legion, and that was sometime after I originally saw the movie in the early 1990s.  Largely I read Legion not because I remembered anything specific about Blatty's film, but rather because The Exorcist itself was a great book.  To be fair I don't think I've ever read anything by him except the two novels and, suffice it to say, I remembered pretty much nothing about Legion as well.

I think part of the problem was the marketing on the movie.  After John Boorman's laughable The Exorcist II: The Heretic no one had attempted to carry on the series.  Even the Italian rip-off versions pretty much dried up.  Linda Blair, who had played Regan MacNeil in the first two movies, had a slapstick movie with Leslie Nielsen called Repossessed scheduled to come out around the same time as Blatty's film.  On his end, although the book was meant to be a sequel to The Exorcist (evolving from a script that was supposed to be the second film) with one of the ancillary characters, Detective Bill Kinderman, becoming the lead in an investigation into a series of strange murders, he didn't want any reference to the the second movie either.

Morgan Creek Entertainment, who produced the movie, were the ones that insisted on calling it The Exorcist III rather than Legion, and spending money to reshoot a number of scenes in order to throw in an exorcism so audiences wouldn't be confused about there not being one in the movie.  Blatty, afraid that they would hire someone that would further mess up the film, agreed to do it, and was partially redeemed before his death by the missing footage from his original cut being found so that his version could somewhat be reconstructed.   

On my end I could not remember any reason why a person would want to see the movie beyond the first one, and only William Friedkin's original cut because Blatty's version of The Exorcist, released in 2000, expanded on Kinderman (played by Lee Cobb in the original), but not much beyond that other than include the excellent "spider-walk" sequence and make the movie 20 minutes longer than it had to be.  So, with all the current goodwill toward The Exorcist III, I decided to see if I had been missing something, particularly since I remembered nothing past George C. Scott being the lead and Jason Miller briefly returning. 

Lieutenant Bill Kinderman (Scott) receives a case where a young boy was murdered and mutilated, with his head removed and replaced by one from a statue of Jesus.  This is on the day of his usual annual meeting with Father Dyer (Ed Flanders) to commemorate the death of Father Damien Karras (Miller), who allowed the demons possessing Regan to enter him before killing himself to end the possession.  The killing is soon followed by that of a priest (Harry Carey, Jr.), murdered in his confessional, and then the death of Father Dyer in a strange manner while in the hospital.  All the deaths have one thing in common: they appear to fit the pattern of the Gemini Killer Jay Vennamun (Brad Dourif), who had been executed for his crimes 15 years prior. 

The puzzling thing is that all the fingerprints from the linked cases are different.  Kinderman starts to follow a thread when a catatonic patient, Mrs. Clelia (Mary Jackson), is found outside Dyers's room.  Through Dr. Temple (Scott Wilson), the psychiatrist in charge of the isolation unit where the more violent mentally ill patients are kept, he is introduced to a patient that arrived catatonic 15 years prior and has recently awakened.  The discovery of the patient leads the atheistic Kinderman to face certain spiritual realities while also trying to end the current round of killings, to the point of employing the help of exorcist Father Morning (Nicol Williams). 

Neither the book nor the original cut of Blatty's film, which is now available under the title The Exorcist III: Legion, featured an exorcism.  While Williams hams up the part it is obviously stitched in, with the character of Father Morning mentioned in some extraneous exposition and the priest himself pretty much not interacting with anyone other than "Patient X", as he is referred to.  Other than allowing the studio to add in some special effects and try to get fans of the original - many of whom, if they cared, had read Legion - in the seats.  It didn't work as the taint of the second movie was overpowering, as well as the fact that almost any Exorcist movie ended up with the label "troubled production."  

The title is a huge problem as well.  Blatty's ending in both the book and as intended for the film makes sense in the context of everything that happens before it, with the latter most likely being settled on because it makes for a better visual sequence than the book's ending would have provided.  At the time I had seen the original movie once and, like someone in their late teens, didn't get much out of the story other than the actual exorcism scenes.  Since sequels usually provide more I believe that is what I originally hoped for.  Instead the story was something completely different, especially knowing nothing of the Zodiac killings on which the Gemini Killer was partially based on.  

The Exorcist III is not a special effects extravaganza, except for the tacked-on scenes, and is not a rote slasher sequel or cash-in.  It is a well-thought-out supernatural police procedural dwelling on questions of faith and the nature of evil, as well as the question of what happens after we are gone.  Where the original story involves purely demonic evil, The Exorcist III explores human evil, albeit still with nods to the supernatural.  Watching this I was able to see that, even though this was nowhere near the hit that it was supposed to be, it was heavily influential, both on David Fincher's film Se7en as well as Stephen King's End of Watch, the last in his original trilogy of books featuring detective Bill Hodges, a character not too removed from Kinderman and facing a similar threat.  

Despite some weird asides - a dream sequence in which Kinderman encounters angels and acquaintances in a sort of purgatory that has the archangel Gabriel fronting a swing band being the most memorable - I can understand why the reception to this movie has changed over the years.  Even in its original theatrical form it is an atmospheric and effective study, with Scott and Ed Flanders having great chemistry and Brad Dourif putting in one of the best performances of his career.  In the end Blatty knew what he was doing and should have been left alone to do it.  Dourif's performance, as well as one of the best kill sequences in any movie - largely featuring a static camera shot for most of its length - make this a unique, and quite mature, horror film that for a number of fans has aged better than the original.  I personally disagree with that sentiment, although I can understand if someone was introduced by the 2000 version rather than the original 1973 one.  Then again, knowing Blatty's intention with this movie makes it quite clear that they can easily be separated as two movies taking place in the same universe, with viewing of one not necessary for the enjoyment of the other. 

The Exorcist III (1990)

Time: 110 minutes

Starring: George C. Scott, Brad Durif, Ed Flanders

Director: William Peter Blatty