Forgotten Horror - The Exorcist 3 (1990)
A seemingly endless series of grisly killings that bear the trademark of the mass murderer, the Gemini Killer, terrorise the district of Georgetown. To further complicate matters, even though it's been seventeen long years since the killer's execution and that fateful night of pure terror in The Exorcist (1973), the sceptical police officer, Lieutenant William F. Kinderman, is still obsessed with solving the baffling case, as the death toll keeps rising. In the meantime, in the city's high-security psychiatric institution, a cryptic inmate who bears an uncanny resemblance to the late Father Damien Karras emerges from his deep catatonic state, claiming that he has all the answers Kinderman needs. But, who is the mysterious Patient X? Does the same unholy force that tormented Regan MacNeil have something to do with the brutal demonic murders?
Despite the number 3 beside the title this is the true sequel to the original Exorcist movie. Writer/Director William Peter Blatty wanted to originally called the movie ‘Legion’ after the novel (which he also wrote) but unfortunately due to pressure from producers who wanted to cash in on the Exorcist title that didn’t happen.
After all these years it is obvious there had been various conflicts between Blatty and the studio in regards to the movie. Blatty wanted to make a straight up mystery/thriller movie but the producers thought it worked better with some gore and exorcism thrown in.
Here we are offered one of the few rare cases in movie history where the sequel really manages to out do the original. Too many times we see a sequel movie try incredibly hard to capture the same magic as the previous instalment, Blatty goes above and beyond to create a truly terrifying and gloomy atmosphere and fantastic characterisation throughout.
This movie is more plot driven and focuses a lot less on the sensationalism of SFX and gore scenes to scare the audience. It’s an extremely intelligent horror movie and you really need to watch and follow the story to be truly scared by it. Unfortunately the elements of exorcism in the movie are the weakest point and really seem like an after thought.
Brad Dourif’s performance here is truly one of the most underrated in all horror history, from his unsettling look to the eerie and magnetic monologues. While the script doesn’t hold up in certain areas, Blatty’s sense of direction really helps to hold those sections together. Between incredible set pieces and unsettling score the movie really does have it all.
In recent times we have been conditioned to see sequels as half baked attempts to cash in on the original, having the title ‘THE EXORCIST 3’ certainly doesn’t help sell the movie… however this is the true sequel to the original and even stands alone on it’s own merits.
Easily one of the most underrated and under-appreciated horror movies of all time, the attraction comes in the films many scary scenes - especially the hospital scene where it feels like the camera sits in a fixed position before we are made jump from our seats.
As I said before compared to the rest of the movie the ending is disappointing but certainly one of the best if not the best horror sequels of all time and a quality movie even if you haven’t seen the original.
Jordan von Netzer considers himself to be a horror aficionado, with a particular love for 90's slashers. He enjoys talking about anything that has to do with the entertainment industry. Fun fact, he did his final college Film & Video Studies paper over Alfred Hitchcock and Wes Craven. In 2011, he met Wes at the Scream 4 premiere and got to tell him all about it.