THE EXORCIST III: Celebrating 30 Years of an Undervalued Horror Masterpiece

 "I have dreams of a rose and falling down a long flight of steps."

By: Josh McCormack

William Peter Blatty didn't like uncertainty.

As a devout catholic, Blatty firmly believed in the concept of good and evil and furthermore fundamentally believed that good will always triumph over evil. God will beat the Devil and faith is one of the strongest weapons one can have in this eternal fight, according to the beliefs of Blatty.

This is the underlying message of Blatty's 1971 novel, The Exorcist, in which an innocent young girl named Regan MacNeil is possessed by a demon. Over the course of the tale, this demon contorts Regan's body, forces her to perform self-mutilation, frames her for murder, pushes her to attack her own mother, and is the cause of so many unthinkable actions that it forces every character in the story to ask the same question; "How can God exist if he's allowing this innocent girl to be tormented?"

No character spiritually toils over this question more than the book's protagonist, Father Karras. Damien Karras–a Jesuit priest–begins to lose his faith after the loss of his elderly mother, who he believes deserved more of his attention before her death. In the midst of his crisis of faith he is approached by Mrs. MacNeil who begs him to perform an exorcism on her daughter. 

Karras comes face to face with evil and his internal battle with his belief in the divine reaches its apex when he and the doomed Father Merrin engage in a haunting, psychological battle with the demonic presence within Regan Macneil. In the end, Karras chooses to sacrifice himself–forcing the demon out of Regan's body, into his and throwing himself out the window–in order to save this little girl. 

A priest, who after toiling with his own beliefs over the course of the entire story, chooses faith and beats the Devil in this battle. Good wins.

Like I said; William Peter Blatty didn't like uncertainty.

But that's not to say that the road to defeating evil was an easy one in the eyes of Blatty. The Exorcist (both the novel and the 1973 masterful film adaption directed by William Friedkin) is still a very dour tale. One in which the authorities of our "civilized" society have no answers to the unexplainable abuse of a child and where keepers of the faith begin to believe in the loss of God in the midst of a dark, oppressive world full of injustices. And even after the selfless sacrifice of Damien Karras, William Peter Blatty did not allow his heroic character to be free of torment just yet.

This leads us to The Exorcist III–a 1990 adaption of Blatty's Exorcist sequel Legion, published in 1983. Ignoring the events of the critically reviled 1977 sequel, The Exorcist II: The Heretic (which Blatty had practically nothing to do with), Blatty chose to write and direct this sequel which is set roughly fifteen years after the events of the first Exorcist film.

The story is an absolute doozy and definitely not what one might expect from an Exorcist sequel. The film posits that mere seconds after diving out the window in his moment of self-sacrifice, Father Karras' body was invaded by a spirit of a dead serial murderer known as the Gemini Killer who died not long before the possession of Regan Macneil. The Gemini Killer spends the next fifteen years putting Damien's damaged brain cells back together again in order to have a proper vessel to stage his return. In the meantime, murders are being committed through acts of possession by the Gemini Killer–actually named James Venamun. The inciting incident is a murder of an African American boy who has been sacrilegiously mutilated and put on display. This causes both Lieutenant Kinderman and Father Dyer (supporting characters in the original The Exorcist, now promoted to main protagonist status) to ponder questions of faith yet again and pushes them both into a dark, grim tale of despair.

To be upfront, The Exorcist III is one hell of a horror film. One of my absolute favorites. William Peter Blatty maintained ill feelings towards the film for the rest of his life due to the fact that it was heavily chastised by the studio, forcing him to reshoot a large chunk of the film, including a more dramatic final act that actually consisted of an on-screen exorcism–something that was absent from Blatty's original cut. Yet, no matter what version of the film you are watching, the overall product is incredibly effective. 

The reason for this is because the film is genuinely scary. I mean REALLY freaky at times. While The Exorcist is certainly a better film and frankly one of the greatest movies of the 1970s, I have to admit that The Exorcist III really gets under my skin more. From the cold, clinical cinematography to the droning, disturbing soundscape that permeates the film, The Exorcist III is oozing with a sort of biblical dread. 

It's shocking that Blatty had only directed one feature film prior to this–the 1980 dark comedy, The Ninth Configuration (which I regretfully still haven't seen)–because the author's direction here is downright inspired and ahead of its time. While the film wasn't seen by a large audience upon its initial release, I refuse to believe that future directors didn't look to elements of this film as a source of inspiration. From David Fincher's work in Seven to Ari Aster's most recent film, Midsommar, I see elements of The Exorcist III in all of these films. 

While the performances are much broader–and frankly more comedic–than the naturalistic ones that populate the original film, they work entirely for the story Blatty is trying to tell. Blatty's dialogue feels straight out of one of the novels he writes, which isn't a bad thing, it's just something that might surprise most viewers. Characters speak what's on their mind and wear their emotions on their sleeves. There are long monologues and since Blatty was a former comedy writer, there's some surprisingly funny, quippy jokes and the cast delivers them wonderfully.

And what a cast it is! Legendary actor George C. Scott takes over the reigns of Lt. Kinderman from Lee J. Cobb from the original film and while I still prefer Cobb's performance overall, Scott gives his all and its a rare sight to see a man in his early 70s leading a genre film. Alongside him is the great Ed Flanders as Father Dyer (a character previously played by an actual Jesuit priest from Georgetown, William O' Malley) who plays off of Scott wonderfully and the two actors' chemistry is one of the high points of the film. The supporting cast is wonderful too, including great character actors like Scott Glenn and Nancy Fish. It's established in the film that it's easier for the Gemini Killer's spirit to manipulate the elderly, and the older actors who play the possessed are incredible and their thousand yard stare as the camera lingers on them with a droning score by Barry De Vorzon in the background is genuinely haunting.

But if we're talking about the cast, it's time we bring up Jason Miller and Brad Dourif's dual performance as the Gemini Killer, James Venamun.  Miller–the only returning actor from the original Exorcist– gives a very complicated performance, for not only does he have to play the Gemini in the form of Damien Karras to psychologically torment Kinderman, but he also has to show signs of the tormented Karras that audiences knew before underneath. While Miller's addition was a studio decision was a studio decision, I have to admit it gives me chills. Miller's dark commanding voice is incredible and I can't imagine this film starting without his deep voiced narration saying, "I have dreams of a rose and falling down a long flight of steps."

Brad Dourif is the wild card of this movie. His performance as the true form of the Gemini Killer is one for the ages. Constantly changing his voice from line to line, there is a sense of unpredictability and utter insanity that only Dourif could pull off. The sequences in the padded cell between him and George C. Scott are the centerpieces of the movie and remind me of Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter's incredible dialogue sequences in Silence of the Lambs, which came out just a year later. It's ridiculous to me that critics bashed this film so hard upon its release and never once gave Dourif the credit he deserved for this performance. It's second only to his Oscar-nominated performance as Billy Bibbit in 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, in my opinion.

The Exorcist III is a dark film. However, what keeps me coming back to it is its sense of hope and that–without giving too much away–good still finds a way to triumph. Blatty always felt that the original Exorcist film was too ambiguous with its finale, perhaps prompting some viewers to think that the Devil was triumphant in the end. While I don't agree, some might have taken Blatty's negative thoughts as if he was trying to say the film should've smoothed out some of its edges, I don't think that's the case. The journey of our characters in both The Exorcist and The Exorcist III is not sugarcoated. Lives are lost, ungodly occurrences are common, and faith is challenged. But in the end, sacrifices are made for the greater good and good defeats evil. 

William Peter Blatty didn't like uncertainty. And while overly optimistic endings can sometimes destroy a horror film, it's what makes The Exorcist III so damn good.