Exorcist III (1990)

“I have dreams... of a rose, and then of falling down a long flight of steps.” – Patient X

If at first you don’t succeed, try again, right? Exorcist II: The Heretic had become so reviled as a follow up to the original, neither the director of The Exorcist nor the writer liked it, having openly ridiculed it, and audiences loathed it. So, thirteen years later, author William Peter Blatty wrote a screenplay, based on his non-Exorcist related book, Legion. But he added some bits to tie it in with the original film, and was hired to direct.

Some alarm bells here – particularly the adapting a non-Exorcist book into an Exorcist film seems a little clumsy, but on the other hand, having him direct would certainly be an improvement on John Boorman’s shabby effort. (I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know what was added or taken away.)

The resulting film is engaging at first, but soon begins to lapse into a plodding, over talky (man, some of those speeches are long) but well staged somewhat stodgy exercise that drags at times. But it’s not a write-off. It also contains one of the best executed jump scares in horror movies.

Kicking off, we’re with Lieutenant Kinderman who was investigating the deaths in the original, and was previously played by Lee J. Cobb, now recast with George C. Scott in the role. Every year, on the anniversary of the death of Father Karras, he meets up with Father Dyer to reminisce and watch a movie. Shortly after, Kinderman is called to investigate the grisly murder of a black youth, and an incident at a local church, which may indicate the presence of an evil, unearthly entity.

Are the two linked? Well, the modus operandi of the killing match the method of the Gemini Killer who was executed fifteen years earlier, even down to details not released to the public.

Visiting a nearby psychiatric ward, Kinderman is told of a patient who was found wandering the streets, suffering total amnesia fifteen years earlier. The patient, Patient X, was catatonic until becoming violent and claiming to be the Gemini Killer. Kinderman visits the patient, and sees him as his old friend Father Karras (Jason Miller) before he appears as the Gemini Killer (Brad Dourif) and brags of his killings.

Very long story short, Patient X is being “aided” by The Master, who is the same entity that possessed Regan MacNeil years earlier (this film disregards everything that happened in the first sequel) and was outraged that it was exorcised so it’s using Karras’s body to continue the Gemini killings.

But that doesn’t make sense, as Karras was pronounced dead at the scene. Thus, the whole film unravels and as beautifully filmed as it is and as wonderful an example of literary cinema as it is, becomes kind of a waste of time because it moves the goalposts.

Anyway, once again, the entity is exorcised in the final act, this time by Father Morning (Nicol Williamson) so all’s well that ends well. But I can’t shake the feeling that maybe The Exorcist is a movie that doesn’t need a sequel. I guess we’ll see when Exorcist: Believer is theatrically released (I’m writing this in late September). Maybe the third time’s the charm.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a screen grab of one of the finest moments in the film.