Purely Joyful Movie!

Excellent adaptation.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One might imagine that, after the debacle that was The Exorcist II, the franchise would have returned to the head-spinning and vomit spewing of the original, but to writer/director William Peter Blatty's credit, he tries something a little different with The Exorcist III, his film's serial killer plotline more akin to The Silence of the Lambs for much of the time. The nearest the film comes to William Friedkin's 1973 classic is with the brief special effects laden exorcism scene in the final act, which was forced upon Blatty by the film's producers.The majority of the film sees George C. Scott's cop Kinderman investigating several gruesome murders that mimic the modus operandi of The Gemini Killer, who was executed in the electric chair fifteen years earlier. Kinderman's enquiries lead him to cell eleven of a secure hospital ward where a patient who resembles dead priest Father Damien Karras claims that he is the Gemini Killer, having possessed Karras's body as he died.Sadly, as original as the majority of this film is, it also proves frustratingly dull for much of the time, with a glut of exposition heavy dialogue, an extremely slow pace, and only one decent scare (the much lauded hospital hallway scene) to keep the viewer from nodding off. As out-of-place as the studio sanctioned exorcism undeniably is, at least it's entertaining, which is more than I can say about George C. Scott's character complaining about a carp in his bath.

The original is a masterpiece. The second is one of the worst major Hollywood film of all time, so where does the third one fit? Kinda of right n the middle, leaning more towards the bad. First, the film is dull, VERY dull. You'll with the time every 10 minutes or so wondering how come nothing has happened yet. Jut stick with the original.

The Exorcist III isn't nearly as brilliant as the first movie, but compare it to the sequel, it's a masterpiece. This is what I call sluggish film that you'll need a lot of patience to get to the good stuff. Well, the whole movie is kind of like that. Every time I think something is going to progress with the story it jumps right back. Luckily it doesn't do that too often and it's only for build up (i guess).But it's not to say that "The Exorcist III" doesn't have it's scary parts, because it really dose. There's moments that are so eerie and quite shocking that the movie quickly cuts away to next scene so you don't even have a reaction or a thought of what you just seen. The movie takes a few minutes of silence as the scene plays on and then BOOM! And this actually did get to me. A great example of this is the Nurse scene which is one of the scariest scenes in movie history. During the scene you really don't get a sense of damage, but more of a safe feeling as every thing seems to be alright, until the horror kicks in. And I know that sounds very similar to every horror movie that use it's scars, but I think those movies get it completely wrong of how to make the build up and the scare executed in a way that it's effective. I think this is something that's missing in horror today.Brad Douriff is in this movie playing The Gemini killer and he's freaking amazing. This is one of the best performances I've seen from Douriff and it just proves of how talented this guy truly is. I would go as far to say it's Oscar worthy and he isn't in the movie that much. He's so creepy and frightening that he steals the show.But the actor that I thought was going to steal the show was George C. Scott, which is sadly not the case. He's a great actor and he was excellent in "Patton", but I found he's performance in this to be a bit over the top. I mean, I don't think he was RAZZIE worthy bad or anything, but he over reacted in the wrong parts. It came off a bit laughable. It's until the very end when he gets to shine as he's really giving it he's all. I give him that.The interesting thing I found out about the movie (after i finished watching it) was that the author of the book William Peter Blatty wrote & directed this. You know when you hear people complaint that when a movie adaptation isn't as accurate to the novel it's based on. Well, it's kinda refreshing (to me) for an author to make the movie that he wanted to see. And I can say that he exceed in a few parts even if the whole thing feels a bit disjointed, and that goes to the writing.Overall rating: "The Exorcist III" while not great, but at least gets back to it's roots of having a dark and unsettling atmosphere, something that was missing in "Exorcist II". The movie is honestly worth watching just for Brad Douriff performance.

Ignoring what an abomination Exorcist II was, Wm. Peter Blatty returned to his long dormant sequel to The Exorcist, with this well cast thriller, concerning a cop investigating a series of brutal killings whose Modus Operandi is that of a serial killer executed 17 years earlier. He learns of a catatonic asylum inmate who claims to be the real killer, and who bears an uncanny resemblance to the long thought deceased Father Damian Karras.Blatty, forced by the studio to cast Jason Miller from the original film, does a great job of integrating his character into the story, in almost a Jekyll and Hyde/ split personality situation. The literary screenplay, while occasionally verbose, is very well written, giving the audience plenty of psychological stimuli, mixing detective story, thriller, and horror genres, along with some quite witty banter to relieve the tension, and give the audience a chance to catch their breath.This is a good horror, without being as intentionally gruesome as the first film. Subtle, intellectual horror, venturing deep into the corridors of this Jekyll/ Hyde villain's twisted mind, and ultimately giving closure to the first film's story, yet it still gives us a few shocks, with the killer jumping up being the nurse, with shears in hand, the white sheet covering him brightly lit, with a quick musical crescendo, which echoes for several seconds being my favourite scene in the film. I think this is my favourite in this trilogy, although I am reducing its score a bit due to the studio interference, which occasionally results in some choppy editing. Curiously though, the climactic exorcism (which was also forced on Blatty by the studio) really does seem out of place. Blatty should have been allowed to keep his original low key ending.