The Exorcist III
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| The Exorcist III | |
|---|---|
 Original 1990 theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | William Peter Blatty |
| Produced by | Carter DeHaven |
| Written by | Novel & screenplay: William Peter Blatty |
| Starring | George C. Scott Brad Dourif Nicol Williamson Jason Miller Zohra Lampert |
| Music by | Barry Devorzon |
| Cinematography | Gerry Fisher |
| Editing by | Peter Lee Thompson Todd Ramsay |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) |  August 17, 1990 |
| Running time | 110 min. |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Exorcist II: The Heretic |
| Followed by | Exorcist: The Beginning |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Exorcist III (also known as The Exorcist III: Legion or Exorcist III: Legion), is a 1990 horror movie directed by William Peter Blatty and based on Blatty's novel Legion, the sequel to Blatty's original Exorcist novel. It stars George C. Scott, Nicol Williamson, Ed Flanders and Brad Dourif.
The movie is a sequel to The Exorcist and skips past many of the events of Exorcist II: The Heretic. It takes place in Georgetown fifteen years after the events of the first film, in which a young girl named Regan was possessed by a demon.
The Exorcist III is the subject of much discussion, notably because the film was drastically re-written and portions were refilmed when the studio became unhappy with the more psychological scares that writer/director William Peter Blatty had chosen in favor of head-spinning and pea soup. The fabled "lost cut" has been passionately debated by fans and film historians alike, and is the topic of an upcoming study by writer Erik Kristopher Myers,[1] whose 2008 book will reveal the whole story behind the film's development, and publish never-before-seen images and interviews with Blatty, Brad Dourif, Mark Kermode, John Carpenter, and many others associated with the film.
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[edit] Synopsis
Set 15 years after the events of The Exorcist, Lieutenant Kinderman (Scott) is a philosophical police detective who was briefly involved in the case of Regan's possession. He has to investigate a string of grisly murders that appear to have a satanic motive behind them, and furthermore have all the hallmarks of a serial-murderer known as the Gemini Killer. The most baffling thing is that the Gemini Killer was executed years ago.
The evidence eventually leads Kinderman to the psychiatric ward of a mental asylum where an already disturbing case takes a shocking twist.
Although it did not match the success of the original, it is nonetheless held in slightly higher regard than Exorcist II: The Heretic. The slow pace and emphasis on dialogue in The Exorcist III is cited as a reason for both liking and loathing it by horror fans.
Basketball player Patrick Ewing and model Fabio have cameo appearances in a dream sequence, while John Thompson appears in a long shot. Ex-surgeon general C. Everett Koop and television host Larry King appear as themselves in a local Georgetown restaurant when Kinderman has lunch with Father Dyer. The film also includes early appearances by Angela Bassett as a nurse and Samuel L. Jackson as a blind man.
[edit] Production Notes
- Originally, Blatty wanted this film to follow events from the first Exorcist film, but not be a direct sequel. He wanted the film to have the same title as the book (Legion). During production, the film was referred to as Exorcist: Legion (without the numerals). Morgan Creek changed the name to Exorcist III: Legion and also wrote and shot a new scene where an exorcism takes place in the mental ward. The original trailers refer to the film as The Exorcist 1990 (with the logo being the word "The" with "Exorcist" beneath it in a wider font and "1990" beneath it in the same narrow font as "The" making the image of a crucifix. Eventually the subtitle "Legion" dropped completely and the film was released as The Exorcist III.
- Blatty attempted to contact friend William O'Malley to reprise his role as Father Dyer from the first film; however, O'Malley was busy and could not take up the part. Blatty then hired Ed Flanders, who was originally supposed to appear as the warden, Dr. Temple.
- Some of the scenes refer to Blatty's original novel The Exorcist, such as Father Dyer's complaint about becoming addicted to lemon drops, because the students who go to confessional have it on their breath to hide the odor of marijuana.
- The film picks up 15 years from where the original 1973 Exorcist film left off, not referencing the events of the first 1977 sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic.
- Inconsistency: Blatty's first Exorcist novel was published in 1971 and released as a film in 1973; his sequel novel Legion first saw print in 1983. If you take into account only events as depicted in these respective films, they span at least 17-years (1973 - 1990), between the time Father Damien Karras purportedly died in the former film, and resurrected in the latter.
- The poem uttered by Patient X is Sonnet 72 by John Donne ("Death be not proud, though some have called thee".)
[edit] Additional Cast
- Zohra Lampert, who played Kinderman's wife, is best known for her lead role in another well-remembered horror film, 1971's Let's Scare Jessica to Death.
- Viveca Lindfors plays the mental patient who disguises herself as a nurse and attempts to decapitate Julie, and is better remembered as Aunt Bedelia in the Father's Day segment of Creepshow.
- The elderly woman wearing a veil, and shown being escorted to the Holy Trinity church is (uncredited) actress Teresa Wright.
[edit] Reshoots
The film had two major changes after production at the request of the studio:
- Jason Miller was hired because the studio wanted someone from the original movie to be included. Miller was the logical choice since the other two character alumni from the original film, Kinderman and Father Dyer, were played respectively by Lee J. Cobb (who had since died) and William O'Malley (who only took the role in the original film as a favor to Blatty, and who was not available to reprise the role). Unfortunately, actor Brad Dourif had already been hired to play Patient X, so some reshooting and editing was needed. Miller played the Patient X / Karras identity and Dourif played the James "The Gemini Killer" Venamun character. All of Dourif's lines as Karras were reshot with Miller.
- The Father Morning scenes were spliced into the film because the studio wanted an exorcism in the film to make the title relevant. This was less cleverly included, and there is quite a bit of discontinuity, especially during the final scene in which Morning's body vanishes and reappears.
- There is some confusion among fans as to what exactly happens in the reshot "exorcism" climax. According to Cinefantastique magazine (February 1991), "20th Century Fox ponied up an additional $4-million in post-production - to film an effects-laden exorcisim sequence featuring Nicol Williamson as Father Morning, a character added just for the new climax."
- While doing online publicity for the re-release of The Exorcist in 2000, William Peter Blatty explained that the new climax, which differs from that of Legion was mandated by the studio in order to add more action and overt horror to the picture, and that he had to make the best of it in the narrative while racing to complete the film. He confirmed that when the possessed Karras speaks in an asexual voice, saying, "I must save my son, the Gemini," that this in fact is either a returned Pazuzu or, as Blatty put it, "old Scratch himself" taking control. This ties in to the revelation earlier in the film that the Gemini was sent into Karras' body as revenge for the Regan MacNeil exorcism. The altered voice in the climax is deliberately similar to that of Mercedes McCambridge, who provided the voice of the original demon in The Exorcist, and the role is essayed in The Exorcist III by Colleen Dewhurst, who was uncredited. In real life, actress Dewhurst was twice married to-, and twice divorced from- actor George C. Scott.
- The originally-shot climax of the film, which hewed much closer to the ending of Legion, can be glimpsed in the theatrical trailer, in which Karras/the Gemini is shown "morphing" through a variety of faces.
- Interestingly enough, actor Nicol Williamson was already known to Blatty prior to directing this film; in passing, actor Williamson is mentioned in Blatty's novel Legion. Incidentally, Williamson appears in Excalibur (film) as Merlin.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Exorcist III at the Internet Movie Database
- TheNinthConfiguration.com - A website dedicated to William Peter Blatty, The Ninth Configuration & Legion
- The Exorcist Fansite
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