The Exorcist III (1990)
This isn't quite up their with the first film but it's still good and successfully walks the line of feeling like a natural progression of the story (but skipping over the events of the hated
'Exorcist II: The Heretic'), a fitting sequel and very much doing it's own thing. You need to mentally squint a bit to get past the part about the three characters professing their life-long friendship for each other but actually having barely met (or never met, depending on which cut of the first film you saw). I don't mind a little "retconning" like that when it's needed to make the whole film work, plus these characters do belong to writer/director/author
William Peter Blatty.
Barry De Vorzon delivers an innovative music-less score, resorting to strange and unsettling synthesizer treated noises, it's very effective. Blatty's direction is classy and methodical and his dialogue is pleasingly cynical, blackly comic and lyrical.
George C. Scott rants and raves like a lunatic, growling his way through the script in a wonderful way that suggests he's having a 2-hour heart attack.
Brad Dourif is mesmerizing as the possessed serial-killer antagonist. The last act's exorcism and the sudden appearance of the priest character who performs it feels every bit the studio mandated re-shoot that it was. On it's own, it's a pretty cool sequence with physics being upended via rotating sets, wincing gore FX and stunning portal-to-hell imagery. It's more
'Hellraiser' than 'Exorcist'.
There is an upload of the 35mm trailer on youtube... neat!
After watching the theatrical cut, I immediately changed discs and watched the reconstruction of Blatty's originally intended
'Legion' cut with an insight-packed commentary by critics
Mark Kermode and
Kim Newman over the top. Unfortunately the editors only managed to find a few scraps of actual 35mm film from this early version and mostly have to resort to blurry VHS tapes. In this version, there is no exorcism and
Jason Miller (as Father Karras) doesn't appear. On the evidence here and for the most part, it might have been a slightly better version of the film but the ending is anti-climactic in comparison, so I can see why the studio wanted it re-shot. Also Miller's appearance in the TC adds some much needed emotion, heroism, closure and a stronger connection to the first film.
Death, Be Not Proud: The Making of 'The Exorcist III' (2016)
A feature-length documentary in 5-chapters about the making of
'The Exorcist III' included on the blu-ray. Unfortunately this doc came just a little too late to include the late Director
William Peter Blatty. His thoughts and feelings on the different versions and visions of the film is what you really wanted to hear. Never the less, interviewees like actor
Brad Dourif and composer
Barry De Vorzon talk with passion about the project and I love hearing about all the dramas behind a troubled production.