I have recently been considering something that didn’t cross my mind until very recently, but it must be really hard to be a sequel. Everyone involved, no matter how excited they are for the project, must be really apprehensive about going in. No matter what there are people who will automatically hate a sequel just because it exists. As horror fans, however, we shouldn’t be too judgmental because a good portion of the genre is filled with sequels. While not every sequel is good (hell, maybe not even half) and even less are fantastic so when I come across one that is great I feel the need to share my findings.
Obviously, I’m years late to the party on The Exorcist III but I just never got around to it especially after seeing how stupidly bad The Exorcist II: The Heretic was. But my completest blood couldn’t let that stop me so when the anthology Blu-ray set came out recently I decided to pick it up. Admittedly I had one other reason for picking up this set but we’ll get to that.
The basic story of The Exorcist III follows Kinderman, the cop from the first film and now played by George C. Scott, who is investigating a series of murders that seem to meet the MO of the Gemini Killer (Brad Dourif) who was put to death by electric chair 15 years prior. Copycat right? Well it would seem the details of the killings had been substituted with fake ones in order to weed out people who were pretending to be the killer. Kinderman soon finds out that man who fits the description of Father Damien Karass, previously thought dead has been in solitary confinement in the “disturbed ward” of a hospital for years. However, the man doesn’t claim to be the Father Karass he claims to be the Gemini Killer.
I won’t spoil you on how Karass may or may not have survived but they actually work it in quite nicely. Which is a perk you get when William Peter Blatty, who wrote the book and film of the first and also the book “Legion” which this is loosely based on, is directing the film. It’s nice to have a writer actually get to make his vision come alive instead of an outside perspective. Though with every studio production there is always that “too many cooks” problem and in this case the addition of “The Exorcist” title. Blatty wanted to keep the original book title and plot that didn’t include so much actual exorcism but the studios insisted on the inclusion of everything Exorcist including additional footage shot. There is also additional footage that was cut but has since been lost. A fan edit by the original title does exist where it cuts out a majority of the exorcism stuff and it apparently very much resembles the original cut.
The Exorcist III should be looked upon as a sort of secret legend in the horror genre. Not only did it sneak under the radar as a really fantastic film but it’s also genuinely frightening in a way that the original film does not hold up today. This is in part because of Blatty’s great directing but also because it was Jeffery Dahmer’s favorite movie. As an Akron, Ohio native I am inclined to know everything about Jeffery Dahmer’s life. One of those facts includes Dahmer’s admiration of Brad Dourif’s portrayal of the Gemini Killer. Knowing this prior to watching the film only made it more disturbing to me as I tried to pick out what he could have latched onto in the Gemini Killer. Obviously, Gemini’s hobby of keeping parts of his victims after he killed them stuck with Dahmer.
Side note: Dahmer was also a big fan of the Emperor in Star Wars so I guess my childhood is dead.
The Exorcist III is such a criminally underrated movie that I actual sort of feel bad that I didn’t check it out sooner. It chilled me to the bone, including the confessional scene from hell and a creepy old lady crawling about like a fly on the ceiling. I won’t spoil the biggest scare though, it needs to be experienced unspoiled. I’m making a declaration to spread the good word about this movie and I can’t wait to show it to others who have missed out. Blatty only directed one other movie by the name of The Ninth Configuration about a doctor sent to treat AWOL US soldiers in an insane asylum. I just moved it to the top of my Netflix list so hopefully it’s another knock out.
Oh! And one more thing that I thought was a funny coincidence: It appears the Brad Dourif spent the years of 1990 to 1992 playing characters trapped within other character’s bodies.
What’s everyone else think?
