Retrospective: The Exorcist III/Legion (Patreon)

The Exorcist III has a confounding and tormented relationship with The Exorcist. William Peter Blatty clearly wants to direct an adaptation of his novel Legion rather than to assiduously fashion a reverent sequel to one of the greatest horror films of all time. While Friedkin's The Exorcist was a documentary of intangible Evil creeping into modernity, Blatty's The Exorcist III is more like a Thomas Harris novel committed to film. It's a D.C.-based detective story in which a policeman tracks a serial killer with an extravagant modus operandi and nebulous ties to the supernatural, culminating in a series of interrogations with the killer (although having the killer be at large and imprisoned simultaneously is decidedly not a Harris-type idea). The film also has a stronger understanding of D.C. than its predecessor — in the first ten minutes of the film, I said out loud "they remembered that D.C. is a Black city!"

Both films — written by Blatty — wrestle with the intrusion of Evil into contemporary life. Secular cop Bill Kinderman (played by the late great Lee J. Cobb in the original film and brilliantly replaced by George C. Scott) fills the role of his exorcist friend Father Damien Karras in this movie, tasked with fighting a supernatural child predator. The confounding part is that the culprit appears to be Karras, who died on D.C.'s favorite stairway 15 years before and also seems to be locked in a loony bin. In less capable hands, this bizarre and frankly absurd premise could have turned out to be another The Exorcist II, but Blatty's writing and filmmaking make it work. The movie showcases Blatty's great comedic chops more than the first Exorcist movie, despite the regrettable but necessary absence of Burke Dennings (Kinderman's monologue about a carp swimming in his bathtub and Father Dyer saying "Jesus loves you; everyone else thinks you're an asshole" are particular highlights). The movie is often genuinely scary (setting a horror movie in a hospital is a savvy move), with one of the great jumpscares in horror history. Brad Dourif and George C. Scott deliver some of their best performances (arguably, Dourif delivers several performances). Kinderman's struggle to confront the same evil that vanquished Father Karras is gripping, turning the original movie's caustic and funny police detective into a still caustic and still funny noir detective haunted by guilt.

The studio-mandated changes to The Exorcist III are a spectacularly mixed bag. On the one hand, the choice to have Jason Miller reprise his role as Karras makes no sense, as the Karras from the original film pops in and out of the movie seemingly at random (contradicting the decidedly non-Friedkin aesthetic of the rest of the movie). Similarly, the choice to have an exorcist unrelated to any of the proceedings come in and fight the Gemini Killer is a bald deus ex machina. Parts cut from the Legion version of the film leave the movie somewhat nonsensical at times, and deprive us of some great moments like the implication that the Gemini Killer is privy to Kinderman's dreams. On the other hand, casting Nicol Williamson as the exorcist who comes out of nowhere just about salvages that plot thread, and the final sequence is genuinely riveting. It also saves the movie from the bathetic and tensionless ending of Legion, and any excuse to enjoy a performance from the brilliant but rarely seen Jason Miller again is a valid one. To truly appreciate The Exorcist III and Legion, you have to see both: two halves of an inchoate but improbably satisfying outing with Evil.