Hallo-Watch: The Exorcist III (1990)

Watched:  10/15/2023

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  William Peter Blatty

Way, way back in the 1980's my brother and I went on a spree of renting "movies you should watch" that included Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and The Exorcist.  It was... a lot for my 14-year-old self, and it was quite the impactful set of viewings as we watched the movies in pairs but over just 2 weekends.  

I can't remember which I watched with The Exorcist.  What I do remember is that there was a lightning storm while we watched it, and at some key point in the film I pushed back the curtain in the living room to look at the weather, and lightning hit nearby, making me see my own reflection in the glass, and I about wet myself.

The movie worked.  I won't say The Exorcist is my favorite horror film, I've only seen it twice.  But I get why it's held in such high regard and in no way do I dispute those arguments.  

Following that viewing, I was told "nah, the sequels are bad, and don't watch them", so I did not.  But this last month with the release of Exorcist: The Believer, aficionados popped out of the woodwork to discuss the franchise, and it seemed that folks were in agreement that The Exorcist III, based on the novel Legion by Exorcist novelist and screenwriter William Peter Blatty - and written and directed by same, was a slam dunk.

Again, I'm hard pressed to disagree.

There are a lot of ways to do horror.  You can have monsters popping out of the dark, you can chase around co-eds, you can have werewolves or dudes who just like a good stabbing... all of these have examples I'd point to that are examples of amazing movies.  But there's a difference between "I jump when something makes a noise" and creeping, existential horror - the stuff we now vaguely call "Lovecraftian" because "uncanny" is now for X-Men.

Some stuff is just spooky.  And it doesn't need a single slamming shutter or drooling monster to make it so.  One of the scariest moments I can think of in a movie occurs in the Dana Andrews flick Night of the Demon (aka: Curse of the Demon).  It's the uncanny vibe of a guy in clown make-up talking ever so calmly to Andrews, and the audience realizing "oh.  shit.  This might all be real."  

you're gonna wanna watch the whole movie, but here you go

Exorcist III, to me, until the last moments, exists in this realm in its way.  We know going into an Exorcist film that the demons are real, that eventually our doubters will see the reality of the situation or wind up dead.  But this movie brings us along, slowly and with greater horrors in its way than the first.

We're not relying on spinning heads and green vomit.  Our demon is seemingly shackled, but also somehow still killing people.  We aren't getting the frenetic howls of the first film, we're getting monologues as the careful detective lets the maniac talk - and the reality of what is happening becomes more real by the sentence.  

What's curious about Exorcist III is the the pacing.  

Blatty took the stony countenance of George C. Scott, who looks at least ten years older than he really was at the time of filming, and understood the depths just his eyes could convey without a word or movement.  And the movie is largely that.  This isn't desperation and flying beds.  It's ranting in the face of an unbeliever trying to make sense of any of it as the work-a-day world continues around him, trying to solve an unsolvable series of murders.

It's a slow, chilling build that never quite lets up, and increases in pace in increments, not the usual leaps from act to act.  But this pacing is to the film's advantage - when things do get out of control in their microbursts, it has all the more impact.

The film is designed in multiple ways - from that pacing to the white interior of the hospital to framing to rich sound design.  There's great care taken, from the starch in the nurses uniforms to the echo in our killer's voice.

Scott plays a police lieutenant who was friends with Father Damien from the first film, but who lost his faith - likely as a result of Damien's death (it's never explained).  He's a cop at the end of his career, and he has seen some shit, not least of which was the Gemini Killer, a serial killer who was active at the same time as the events of The Exorcist.   He hangs out with a different parish Jesuit with whom he has a complex friendship, both open about their faith or lack thereof.  

A child that Scott knew is brutally killed, and other events begin to unfold.  Scott traces them back to a local hospital where Scott's priest friend is getting a work-over and staying for a few days.  

Much of the film takes place around the hospital, which contains a psyche ward, which may contain a cell with a person who is actually Father Damien.

The slow boil of the film, punctuated with horrors and given shape by three-dimensional characters, is noteworthy.  The silence of the hospital and its white walls gives shape to Scott's growing dread.  It's a place of healing and doing good by others, turned into a hunting ground.

That said, the movie also has scenes that are absolutely bananas - not least of which is a dream sequence in which Scott seemingly walks through a triage/ welcome-area that seems to be the gates to Heaven.  And features NBA all-star and Georgetown alum Patrick Ewing as the Angel of Death, a pre-fame Fabio, and others.  

I will confess, I found the last ten or fifteen minutes of the movie surprisingly pedestrian and a little confusing based on what we'd seen previously.  What I did not know, until a glance at the wikipedia entry, was that Morgan Creek forced Blatty to reshoot his ending.  Which... yeah.  That's going to do it.  Apparently there's a hacked-together director's cut I'll want to check out some time.

Anyway, glad I finally checked it out, and those of you who told me to do so can nod knowingly.

Fun fact:  in the summer of 1989, I toured Georgetown University as my uncle, who lived in DC, wrongly believed my grades and ambitions could take me to Georgetown, which I knew mostly as a basketball school.  During that tour, I saw the open grave used during the filming of this movie from the film's final seconds.  The tour guide was completely wrong about what happens at the grave (he said it exploded) so me asking people about it has always led to baffled looks.