The Exorcist III (1990)
William Peter Blatty
"I believe in disease. I believe in injustice and inhumanity, torture and anger and hate... I believe in murder. I believe in pain. I believe in cruelty and infidelity. I believe in slime and stink and every crawling, putrid thing...every possible ugliness and corruption, you son of a bitch. I believe in you."
As we come to the end of our exploration of the three main Exorcist films, I'm struck by what a strange journey it is to watch all three films within as many days. What begins as a simple enough story about a sick child and her increasingly distraught mother balloons into a tangled rat's nest of half-cocked story lines and an army of illogically conceived characters that interact with each other like they're NPC's in a badly written RPG. But then it all settles down into a tightly intimate, darkly comic, and absolutely chilling exploration of violence and evil with Exorcist III.
Not satisfied with the direction that Exorcist II took, William Peter Blatty (who wrote the original Exorcist novel, along with the screenplay for the first film) began to shop around a new entry to the series, but found little interest. It was lost in development hell for a period of time, before Blatty gave up and turned his screenplay into a novel called Legion. It was a hit, and this prodded the studio to put it into production, with Blatty at the helm.
The film is another love-letter to Georgetown and the Jesuit Order of Priests. Blatty, like the Jesuits in general, is a pragmatic man when it comes to faith. His priests are notably salt of the earth, and seem to take their vow of poverty seriously. In both The Exorcist and The Exorcist III, Blatty's priests struggle with banal everyday problems, grief, family strife, and, most importantly, their faith. Blatty's interpretation of the Jesuits is that they're like destitute sorcerers who have consciously given up their power ages ago, tapping into the ancient ways and invoking the Old God only when absolutely necessary. I'm no Catholic apologist and am usually turned off by fiction that glorifies the Church, but the priests that Blatty creates are fragile, flawed, and, above all, human. They're men who are part of something bigger and more powerful than themselves, and their despair, pain, and loneliness proves the fallibility of God while exemplifying the strength of good, decent men defending innocence.
The Exorcist III is an intensely intimate film. The movie is built upon simply constructed scenes of two characters speaking to each other, sometimes in a hallway, sometimes in a small room, sometimes tucked into a cozy booth at a restaurant. The camera is pressed into their faces, drawing the audience into a quiet and secret conversation, and we get to enjoy two actors playing off each other as if we were an unseen gnat buzzing around their heads. It's a nice call back to the underappreciated intimacy of the first film, when characters (both human and demonic) had private conversations with each other about darkly evil topics in places as common as a household bedroom.
The story (which thankfully wishes The Heretic into the cornfield) takes place in Georgetown once more, with Lieutenant Kinderman (the film-obsessed investigating detective in the first film) returning, but now played by the gruff, boisterous, and sardonic George C. Scott. There are a spate of new murders in the area that appear to be copycat crimes of a serial killer from years before who's already been put to death. The murders are horrifying affairs. Bodies are drained of all their blood, pieces are chopped off, heads are replaced by the heads of desecrated statues of Christ, and autopsies reveal that the victims are given a drug to paralyze them, but keep them conscious during the whole ordeal. It's all described with a clinical coldness that reminded me and my wife of Silence of the Lambs. The primary setting of the film is a weird ass late 80's hospital, complete with smoking doctors, smoking patients, smoking nurses, and a woefully undersecured "disturbed wing," filled with patients suffering from various degrees of catatonic dementia. Between this film and the original, you get a sense for how scary Blatty thought hospitals were. Ostensibly they're places of healing, but flesh is weak, men are venal, and God has forgotten us.
One of the patients in the maximum security "severely disturbed" wing claims to be the exact same serial killer (called The Gemini Killer, which is a great name) from 15 years ago, despite the fact that Gemini died in the electric chair. This patient knows the names of the victims, he knows how they died, and he has other intimate details about the murders that were never released to the public. The scenes between Gemini and Lt. Kinderman are the best in the movie, because they delve into the metaphysical horror of the series in ways that Exorcist II only dreamed about pulling off. Brad Dourif plays the killer, and he is truly excellent. As he loudly proclaims the joys of torture and murder, his eyes well up. When he threatens Lt. Kinderman with pain and misery if he does not tell the press that Gemini still lives, tears stream down his face. The mix of insane glee with otherworldly pain is evident on Dourif's face. It's powerful, disturbing, and shows off what an incredible talent he is as an actor.
Gemini and his master find fertile ground in the mental wing of the hospital, infecting the blank slates of the demented elderly with their cruel evil, and driving them to commit horrific acts of violence. Tender and frail old women become terrifying monsters, especially in one particular scene that I don't want to ruin, other than to say the nightmarish visuals are a pleasing jolt to your brain.
The craziest sequence in the film is from a dream that Lt. Kinderman has while investigating the murders. He's in a train station that is also maybe the gates of heaven, and it's populated by everyone Gemini has killed, intermingled with bureaucratic angels trying to manage the human traffic of the afterlife. Two of these angels are played by Fabio and Patrick Ewing (maybe the most famous of all the Georgetown alums), in cameos that make a sort of bizarre sense in context. Old men obsessed with Georgetown likely would see Patrick Ewing as the Angel of Death in their dreams. That's how fucked up they are!
There's a fine line to walk here story-wise. Wild dream sequences, old people committing murders, a serial killer's soul guided by a demonic master and able to escape physical restraints to commit nightly crimes could all play as cheesy, but it works on the power of the performances and the subtlety of Blatty's writing and direction. The only thing that reads a little awkward is the ending, but in doing some reading after the film, the studio more or less forced it upon Blatty. The ending isn't bad, mind you (and there's some great gory special effects to enjoy), but it feels less grounded than the rest of the film. I suppose it would be false advertising to have a movie with Exorcist in the title and not feature some sort of exorcism.
Still, The Exorcist III is, by far, the second best film in the series, and one of the most interesting horror films I have seen in a while. It's not quite on the same level as the original, but what is? This is an easy recommend for a spooky and twisted October night, and would make an excellent double feature with Silence of the Lambs.
REVIEW: Three Hail Marys and Five Our Fathers
HOW I WATCHED IT: It's free on Amazon Prime! Get watchin!
BEVERAGE: Bell's Oktoberfest. The humble Jesuit of malty craft lagers.
Not satisfied with the direction that Exorcist II took, William Peter Blatty (who wrote the original Exorcist novel, along with the screenplay for the first film) began to shop around a new entry to the series, but found little interest. It was lost in development hell for a period of time, before Blatty gave up and turned his screenplay into a novel called Legion. It was a hit, and this prodded the studio to put it into production, with Blatty at the helm.
The film is another love-letter to Georgetown and the Jesuit Order of Priests. Blatty, like the Jesuits in general, is a pragmatic man when it comes to faith. His priests are notably salt of the earth, and seem to take their vow of poverty seriously. In both The Exorcist and The Exorcist III, Blatty's priests struggle with banal everyday problems, grief, family strife, and, most importantly, their faith. Blatty's interpretation of the Jesuits is that they're like destitute sorcerers who have consciously given up their power ages ago, tapping into the ancient ways and invoking the Old God only when absolutely necessary. I'm no Catholic apologist and am usually turned off by fiction that glorifies the Church, but the priests that Blatty creates are fragile, flawed, and, above all, human. They're men who are part of something bigger and more powerful than themselves, and their despair, pain, and loneliness proves the fallibility of God while exemplifying the strength of good, decent men defending innocence.
The Exorcist III is an intensely intimate film. The movie is built upon simply constructed scenes of two characters speaking to each other, sometimes in a hallway, sometimes in a small room, sometimes tucked into a cozy booth at a restaurant. The camera is pressed into their faces, drawing the audience into a quiet and secret conversation, and we get to enjoy two actors playing off each other as if we were an unseen gnat buzzing around their heads. It's a nice call back to the underappreciated intimacy of the first film, when characters (both human and demonic) had private conversations with each other about darkly evil topics in places as common as a household bedroom.
The story (which thankfully wishes The Heretic into the cornfield) takes place in Georgetown once more, with Lieutenant Kinderman (the film-obsessed investigating detective in the first film) returning, but now played by the gruff, boisterous, and sardonic George C. Scott. There are a spate of new murders in the area that appear to be copycat crimes of a serial killer from years before who's already been put to death. The murders are horrifying affairs. Bodies are drained of all their blood, pieces are chopped off, heads are replaced by the heads of desecrated statues of Christ, and autopsies reveal that the victims are given a drug to paralyze them, but keep them conscious during the whole ordeal. It's all described with a clinical coldness that reminded me and my wife of Silence of the Lambs. The primary setting of the film is a weird ass late 80's hospital, complete with smoking doctors, smoking patients, smoking nurses, and a woefully undersecured "disturbed wing," filled with patients suffering from various degrees of catatonic dementia. Between this film and the original, you get a sense for how scary Blatty thought hospitals were. Ostensibly they're places of healing, but flesh is weak, men are venal, and God has forgotten us.
One of the patients in the maximum security "severely disturbed" wing claims to be the exact same serial killer (called The Gemini Killer, which is a great name) from 15 years ago, despite the fact that Gemini died in the electric chair. This patient knows the names of the victims, he knows how they died, and he has other intimate details about the murders that were never released to the public. The scenes between Gemini and Lt. Kinderman are the best in the movie, because they delve into the metaphysical horror of the series in ways that Exorcist II only dreamed about pulling off. Brad Dourif plays the killer, and he is truly excellent. As he loudly proclaims the joys of torture and murder, his eyes well up. When he threatens Lt. Kinderman with pain and misery if he does not tell the press that Gemini still lives, tears stream down his face. The mix of insane glee with otherworldly pain is evident on Dourif's face. It's powerful, disturbing, and shows off what an incredible talent he is as an actor.
Gemini and his master find fertile ground in the mental wing of the hospital, infecting the blank slates of the demented elderly with their cruel evil, and driving them to commit horrific acts of violence. Tender and frail old women become terrifying monsters, especially in one particular scene that I don't want to ruin, other than to say the nightmarish visuals are a pleasing jolt to your brain.
The craziest sequence in the film is from a dream that Lt. Kinderman has while investigating the murders. He's in a train station that is also maybe the gates of heaven, and it's populated by everyone Gemini has killed, intermingled with bureaucratic angels trying to manage the human traffic of the afterlife. Two of these angels are played by Fabio and Patrick Ewing (maybe the most famous of all the Georgetown alums), in cameos that make a sort of bizarre sense in context. Old men obsessed with Georgetown likely would see Patrick Ewing as the Angel of Death in their dreams. That's how fucked up they are!
There's a fine line to walk here story-wise. Wild dream sequences, old people committing murders, a serial killer's soul guided by a demonic master and able to escape physical restraints to commit nightly crimes could all play as cheesy, but it works on the power of the performances and the subtlety of Blatty's writing and direction. The only thing that reads a little awkward is the ending, but in doing some reading after the film, the studio more or less forced it upon Blatty. The ending isn't bad, mind you (and there's some great gory special effects to enjoy), but it feels less grounded than the rest of the film. I suppose it would be false advertising to have a movie with Exorcist in the title and not feature some sort of exorcism.
Still, The Exorcist III is, by far, the second best film in the series, and one of the most interesting horror films I have seen in a while. It's not quite on the same level as the original, but what is? This is an easy recommend for a spooky and twisted October night, and would make an excellent double feature with Silence of the Lambs.
REVIEW: Three Hail Marys and Five Our Fathers
HOW I WATCHED IT: It's free on Amazon Prime! Get watchin!
BEVERAGE: Bell's Oktoberfest. The humble Jesuit of malty craft lagers.
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