The Exorcist III (1990)

Genre:  Satanic
Director: William Peter Blatty
Country:  USA
Availability:  Amazon On Demand

Last night I watched one of my top 5 favorite horror movies of all time, for about the tenth time, The Exorcist III. A movie that, despite familiarity, still gives me chills when I watch it. I debated whether or not to put up a trailer because every "official" trailer that there is for The Exorcist III is misleading. Yet another example of how the studio tried its damnedest to market this movie as a scary horror movie about demons, instead of staying true to what the movie is really about, which is scary enough. More on that later.

There are no less than three different official trailers for The Exorcist III. All of which are mostly a slight variation of each other, none of which show what the movie is really about therefore maintaining its misleading expectations for new viewers more than twenty years later. While perusing YouTube for a fitting trailer to show you I came across this fan made trailer here, which is by far the best Exorcist III trailer out there, if not a little too long and a little too revealing.

The Exorcist III isn't about an exorcism. It's not about the head-twisting, split pea scares that made the first Exorcist movie so memorable. It's not about screaming and crying or chaos or shock. It's quiet. It's stark. It's compelling in its mysteries and it's chilling in its restraint. It's about old friends, and old demons, and a dead serial killer who seems to be back from the grave and killing again. And it's one of the scariest and most satisfying horror movies ever made.

But The Exorcist III was not born easily. It was first conceived as a movie idea by the author of The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty. Upon trying to write the script, the creative team dismantled due to conflicting opinions and the project fell apart. Blatty then decided to take his idea for The Exorcist III and turn it into a novel called Legion. It was a bestseller. After the book's success he decided to turn the story back into a screenplay and make the film. And then the real problems began.

After the film was complete the movie studio said, "An exorcist movie with no exorcism? Well, we can't have that. Redo! Redo!" And so Blatty had to reshoot the ending to add in a new climax scene of an exorcism. And then came time to market the movie and release it. After the commercial and critical failure of The Exorcist II (a film which had nothing to do with either the first nor the third movie and was not done by Blatty), Blatty requested that his new movie be called Legion. But, the studio insisted that the title maintain the word "exorcist" in it, and so it was done. The Exorcist III did poorly at the box office and was initially met with mixed reviews. It's not until some time has distanced us from its release that The Exorcist III succeeded in creating favorable impressions on its audience. Now it's a movie that you'll often see on those random "Best Horror Movies" lists that are so popular come October. And by all means, it has every right to be there.

The Exorcist III is gorgeous. Blatty, who also directed, had a way of capturing a scene that made something like, a building, look ominous and looming, the entire movie has Presence. And then there's the scenes of the religious iconography that solidified the film's religious overtones, giving feelings of security and yet overwhelming menace. There is also a sense of pacing that is like listening to the long whining of the wind through a small crack. It's hypnotic, sensual and eerie. It's calming in its fluidity and yet maddening in its relentlessness. The effectiveness of this measure of film making is remarkable. And it's only for the few impatient horror movie watchers that long for blood and violence and SCARES! that find fault with this method. And it's funny! Intentionally. Man, the dialog in this movie just snaps with sharpness. The characters are aware and don't miss a beat and the chemistry between George C. Scott and Ed Flanders, who play old friends, is a dynamic that helps makes this movie so rich. And you don't get any more original in an idea than you do with The Exorcist III. It's solid and daring story telling at its finest which makes not only for a fantastic horror movie, but for a timeless film.

5 out of 5 stars