The Exorcist III (1990)
- written January 2004
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Bill Kinderman is a cop looking for a dead man, or more specifically a dead soul. The Gemini Killer died 15 years ago and yet someone is copycatting his deaths with such accuracy, the only explanation seems to be he has been resurrected. But with the death of his friend, Bill must seek out a few psychos in the mental ward who made hold the key to it all!!!!
Overall: There are 3 films which most horror film viewers universally disagree with me on. This being one of those 3 films (“Evil Dead 2” and “The Changeling” are the others). I’ve decided to re-write my review to take into account these disagreements and the fact I’ve seen the film a few more times since my original review from 1999. It’s not a scary film. Somehow there are people out there who find this film scary which leads me to believe they found “Scary Movie” to be actually scary. And that would be sad. The movie was I think an “ok” sequel. We do make reference to part 1, this story taking place 15 years later, and still involving Father Karras. But we’ve now switched our Demons, switched our motives and added a “Fallen” premise to it: a demon that switches bodies! And the film continually switches between the identities of who exactly is in prison: Father Karras or the “Gemini Killer” in the flesh. So the film tries to be sneaky but comes off as failing to achieve much other than telling us Patrick Ewing is the Angel of Death. For all those reasons above...this film doesn't work. But don't think I'm not aware that Blatty was trying to make his own film and the studios made him do this to get the product marketed and released. Still...regardless of what Blatty's original premise was, the studio still released this film. Surprising to me is many people enjoy this film. And maybe if you kill the references that do exist for the 1st 2 films, re-title it...the film might stand on its own. Might...but doesn't. It's still too chatty and too much of copy-catting previous works. P.S. Hope you didn’t miss the appearances of C. Everett Koop and Larry King. Comparison: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest meets Patton |
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