Those prone to superstition and urban legends might say that The Exorcist, despite being one of the most successful and influential horror films ever made, is under curse that made other films directly related to it constantly failing for almost a half a century. They are most likely to say that the curse manifested first with Exorcist II: The Heretic, 1977 film which, despite being most commercial of all sequels or prequels, has unenviable reputation of one of the worst films ever made. This state of affairs was quite frustrating for William Peter Blatty, author of the original novel and script for the first film. He tried to set things right with the script for the third film, which would completely ignore events in Exorcist II. The result was 1983 novel Legion which seven years later received screen adaptation under title The Exorcist III, also written and directed by Blatty.
The plot is set in Washington D.C. fifteen years after the events depicted in first film, an exorcism of McNeills home which claimed life of Jesuit psychiatrist Father Damien Karras (played by Jason Miller). The protagonist is character who was actually minor character in the first film – police Lieutenant William F. Kinderman (played by George C. Scott, replacing Lee J. Cobb, who died in 1976). He is faced with series of brutal ritualistic murders that give away modus operandi of James Venamun a.ka. “The Gemini Killer” (played by Brad Dourif). The problem for Kinderman is that The Gemini Killer had been caught and executed for his crimes. One of the mysterious killer’s victims is Kinderman’s good friend Father Joseph Dyer (played by Ed Flanders, replacing William O’Malley from original film), who was killed while recuperating in hospital. Kinderman is convinced that perpetrator could be among hospital’s mental patients. One of them, held in isolated cell as “Patient X”, looks uncannily like Father Karras. But when he tries to communicate with him, Kinderman discovers that he body is actually possessed by the spirit of The Gemini Killer, who received aid by demon exorcised fifteen years ago, now creating murderous mayhem in order to exact revenge.
It was unrealistic to expect The Exorcist III to match quality of the original, but Blatty succeeded in making the third film better than the second. Although that doesn’t represented much of achievement, Blatty should be commended for solid work as director. He very consciously decided to try something different; unlike The Exorcist, which was straight horror film, The Exorcist III functions as a combination of police procedural, horror and some serious drama. Blatty, who had previous directorial experiences with adapting his novel The Ninth Configuration, employs style which is at times cold, mechanical, many times theatrical (with much of the plot taking place in single hospital or single room), but at times also shows great deals of imagination, like Kinderman’s dream sequence in the first half of the film or in suspenseful scene of nurse being targetted by killer near the middle. Despite relatively slow pace, The Exorcist III relies heavily on strong cast, especially formidable George C. Scott who skilfully depicts protagonist as combination of brilliant detective and embittered old man. Brad Dourif is even more impressive as unapologetically evil psychopath who obtained supernatural power. Jason Miller, on the other hand, appears too little to repeat the impact from the first film (allegedly because of serious drinking problem he was suffering during production). Blatty, however, makes a mistake by having both Dourif and Miller portraying Patient X in a way that would confuse less perceptive parts of the audience. The worst thing, however, appears at the very end with overproduced and unconvincing exorcism scene featuring character of Father Morning (played by Nicol Williamson) that looks very much like it was artificially inserted in the film. This is what actually happened during production, with studios arguing that film with the “exorcism” in title has to feature such scene and Blatty reluctantly submitting to such demands. The result is interesting but flawed film that could be nevertheless be recommended to the more curious fans of the genre and the franchise.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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