Director: William Peter Blatty
Cast: George C. Scott, Ed Flanders, Jason Miller, Brad Dourif
Have I Seen it Before: Never. But I was oddly excited to get to this one, based on its reputation as fundamentally better than Exorcist II: The Heretic (1990) but, as it turned out, I’ve had recent dental work I’ve enjoyed more than that film, so that’s hardly conclusion. It also deals with the fate (for lack of a better term) of my favorite character from both the original film and novel, Damien Karras (Miller).
Did I Like It: I certainly wished I liked it more, with everything mentioned above. The problems pile up pretty quickly beyond the pitch, though. Scott lurches through the film alternately whispering and shouting at people with no apparent sense to which mode he is in at any given time, nearly to the point that I became concerned he did that for his entire career. There are a number of editing choices that feel like they may have been made with the editor under the impression that there was a bomb attached to the moviola. Also, for a film marginally about Damien Karras, I feel like the character as depicted here is somewhat divorced from the one we know from the film, and far more egregiously, depressingly underused.
But the real problem is that the film always reeks of studio interference. While “The Exorcist III” looks better on a poster, this movie isn’t about an Exorcist of any kind. The studio saw that and knew they could fix a problem they themselves created. John Carpenter was circling the director’s chair at one point, but realized his own ideas of interjecting an exorcism into this story was against the whole point, and certainly not what William Peter Blatty wanted. Cut to Blatty himself directing, and Warner Bros. becomes hell-bent on interjecting Nicol Williamson into the film. It deflates the whole third act, and leaves the entire film feeling inert at best.
And yet, I still want to read Legion… So at least there’s that.
*Maybe if that film had come with nitrous…