The Exorcist III
Encyclopedia
The Exorcist III is a 1990 American supernatural
thriller written and directed by William Peter Blatty
. It is the second sequel
of The Exorcist series
and a film adaptation
of Blatty's novel, Legion
(1983). The film stars George C. Scott
, Brad Dourif
, Ed Flanders
, and Nicol Williamson
. This is the only Exorcist film not to be distributed theatrically by Warner Bros.
, in which Warner Bros. would be the current distributor for the film.
Set fifteen years after the original film
and ignoring the events of Exorcist II: The Heretic
(1977), the film centers around the philosophical Lieutenant William F. Kinderman from the first film, investigating a baffling series of murders in Georgetown
that appear to have a satan
ic motive behind them and furthermore have all the hallmarks of "The Gemini", a deceased serial killer
.
Originally titled Legion, the film was drastically changed in post-production
with re-writes and re-shoots ordered by the studio executives of Morgan Creek Productions
, demanding the last-minute addition of an exorcism
sequence, and the film was released as The Exorcist III in order to be more commercial
. The final version differed from Blatty's vision; all of the cut footage is apparently lost
.
of someone wandering through the streets of Georgetown, a voice informing us "I have dreams... of a rose... and of falling down a long flight of stairs." The point of view shows a warning of evil about to arrive later that night at a church. Demonic growls are heard, leaves and other street trash suddenly come flying into the church as a crucifix
comes to life. It then cuts to Lieutenant William F. Kinderman (George C. Scott
) at a crime scene
, where a 12-year-old boy named Thomas Kintry has been murdered. Kinderman then takes his friend, a priest
named Father Dyer (Ed Flanders
), out to see their mutually favorite film It's a Wonderful Life
. Kinderman relates, after the film, the details of the murder of the young boy he was investigating that morning. Another murder soon takes place; a priest found decapitated
in a church. Dyer is shortly hospitalized and found murdered the next day, with the words "IT'S A WONDERFULL LIFE" written on a wall in Dyer's blood.
At each murder scene, the fingerprints at the crime scenes do not match up to previous scenes, indicating a different person committed each crime. In a discussion with the hospital staff, Kinderman relates the reason for his unease about the series of killings; fifteen years ago the vicious serial killer
, "The Gemini" (Brad Dourif
), was executed; with every victim he cut off their right index finger and carved the Zodiac
sign of Gemini
into the palm of their left hand. Kinderman noticed the hands of the three victims and verified that the Gemini's sign has been there. The Gemini Killer also always used an extra "L" in his notes sent to the media, such as "usefull" or "carefull". Furthermore, to filter out false confessions, the original Gemini Killer's true mutilations were kept a secret by the Richmond police's homicide
department; the newspapers were made to wrongfully report that the left middle finger was severed and that the Gemini sign was carved on the back of the victim.
Kinderman visits the head of the psychiatric
ward, Dr. Temple (Scott Wilson
), who relates the history of a man in Cell 11, that he was found wandering aimlessly fifteen years ago with amnesia
. The man was locked up, catatonic
up until recently when he began to be violent and claim to be the Gemini Killer. Kinderman sees that the patient resembles his dead friend, Father Damien Karras
. However the patient brags of being the Gemini Killer, expressing ignorance over who this Father Karras is, and boasts of killing Father Dyer.
The next morning, a nurse and Dr. Temple are found dead. Kinderman returns to see the patient in Cell 11, who claims to be the Gemini Killer's spirit, revealing that after his execution his soul entered Karras's dying body. The demon who had possessed the girl Regan MacNeil, was furious at being pushed out of the child's body and is exacting its revenge by putting the soul of the Gemini Killer into the body of Father Karras. Each evening, the soul of the Gemini leaves the body of Karras and possesses the elderly people with senile dementia
elsewhere in the hospital and uses them to commit the murders. The Gemini Killer also reveals to have forced Dr. Temple to bring Kinderman to him or he would suffer in unspeakable ways - Temple believed his apparent bluff, however, he couldn't take the pressure, and so he committed suicide
.
The Gemini possesses an old woman who makes a failed attempt to murder Julie, Kinderman's daughter. The possessed patient attacks Kinderman, but the attack abruptly ends when a priest, Father Paul Morning, enters the corridor leading to cell 11 and attempts an exorcism on the patient. It goes wrong and the priest is all but slain. Kinderman arrives in time and attempts to euthanise
Karras after finding the body of the priest, only to be hurled into the wall by the possessed Karras. Father Morning manages to briefly regain consciousness and tells Karras "Damien. Fight him." Karras regains his free will briefly screaming "NOOOOOOO!" and shouts at Kinderman "Bill, now, shoot now, kill me NOW--!" Kinderman fires his revolver several times hitting Karras in the chest, fatally wounding him. The Gemini is now gone and Karras is finally free. With weak breaths he says "We won Bill, now free me." Kinderman puts his revolver against Karras' head and fires. The film ends with Karras receiving a proper funeral.
, director of The Exorcist, attached to direct. Despite the critical and commercial failure of the previous sequel, Warner Bros.
were keen to proceed with Blatty and Friedkin's plans for another Exorcist film. Blatty said that "Everybody wanted Exorcist III...I hadn't written the script but I had the story in my head and Billy [Friedkin] loved it." However, Friedkin soon left the project due to conflicting opinions between him and Blatty on the film.
The project went into development hell
and Blatty wrote Legion into a novel instead; published in 1983, it was a bestseller. Blatty then decided to turn the book back into a screenplay. Film companies Morgan Creek
and Carolco both wanted to make the film; Blatty decided upon Morgan Creek after Carolco suggested the idea of a grown-up Regan MacNeil giving birth to possessed twins. Blatty offered directorial responsibilities to John Carpenter
who liked his script. However, Carpenter backed out when it became clear that Blatty really wanted to direct the movie himself. As per the stipulations for his deal with Morgan Creek, Blatty was to direct the movie himself, and it was to be filmed on location in Georgetown. Carolco would instead do a parody of the original Exorcist, titled Repossessed (see below).
, who played the part in The Exorcist, had died in 1976. Oscar-winner George C. Scott signed up for the role, impressed by Blatty's screenplay: "It’s a horror film and much more... It's a real drama, intricately crafted, with offbeat interesting characters, and that's what makes it genuinely frightening."
Several cast members from Blatty's previous film, The Ninth Configuration
(1980), appear in The Exorcist III; Jason Miller
, reprising the role of Father Damien Karras from The Exorcist (billed only as "Patient X" in the end credits); Ed Flanders
, taking on the role of Father Dyer previously played by William O'Malley; and Scott Wilson
.
There are also cameo appearance
s by basketball players Patrick Ewing
, John Thompson
, model Fabio
, ex-Surgeon General C. Everett Koop
, television host Larry King
and Samuel L. Jackson
.
of the film on time, and only slightly over budget. However, four months later, Morgan Creek informed Blatty that a new ending had to be shot. Blatty said that “James Robinson
, the owner of the company, his secretary had insisted to him that this has nothing to do with The Exorcist. There had to be an exorcism.” 20th Century Fox ponied up an additional $4-million in post-production - to film an effects-laden exorcism sequence featuring Nicol Williamson
as Father Morning, a character added just for the new climax and Blatty had to make the best of it in the narrative while racing to complete the film. Blatty confirmed that when the possessed Karras speaks in an asexual voice, saying, "I must save my son, the Gemini," that this in fact is either a returned Pazuzu
or, as Blatty put it, "Old Scratch
himself" taking control. This ties in to the revelation earlier in the film that the Gemini was sent into Karras' body as revenge for the Regan MacNeil exorcism. The altered voice in the climax is deliberately similar to that of Mercedes McCambridge
, who provided the voice of the original demon in The Exorcist, and the role is essayed in The Exorcist III by Colleen Dewhurst
, who was uncredited (in real life, actress Dewhurst was twice married to, and twice divorced from, actor George C. Scott).
One shot missing from the re-filmed climax - but which features in the trailer - shows Karras/the Gemini "morphing" through a variety of faces. It was left out of the film because Blatty wasn't happy with the special effects work.
On the climactic exorcism scene, Blatty later said, "It's alright, but it's utterly unnecessary and it changes the character of the piece.” Although at the time, Blatty told the press that he was happy to re-shoot the film’s ending and have the story climax with a frenzy of special effects, the truth is that this compromise was forced on him, against his wishes:
Working on the film, Brad Dourif recalls "We all felt really bad about it. But Blatty tried to do his best under very difficult circumstances. And I remember George C. Scott saying that the folks would only be satisfied if Madonna
came out and sang a song at the end!" Dourif feels that "The original version was a hell of a lot purer and I liked it much more. As it stands now, it's a mediocre film. There are parts that have no right to be there.
The execution-style ending that Blatty pitched to the studio - which was in the shooting script and actually filmed - differs radically from the ending of both the novel and the first screenplay adaption developed from the novel. The novel ends with the Gemini Killer willingly dropping dead in his cell after his hated father, a Christian evangelist, dies a natural death from a heart attack. As his motive for killing was always to shame his father, the Gemini's reason for remaining on earth no longer exists and he kills Karras in order to leave his host body. In Blatty's original screenplay adaptation, the ending is similar to the novel but it suggests that the Gemini's death in his cell is not self-induced but instead forced supernaturally by the death of his father. The Gemini's motives for committing crimes are also given further context via a long series of flashbacks earlier in the screenplay which portray his childhood and relationship with his alcoholic, abusive father.
on August 17, 1990. Unlike its predecessors, it was distributed by 20th Century Fox
instead of Warner Bros.
(though some distribution rights would later revert to WB). The film was released only a month before the Exorcist parody
, Repossessed
, starring Linda Blair
and Leslie Nielsen
. Blair claimed that Exorcist III was rush-released ahead of Repossessed
, hijacking the latter's publicity and forcing the comedy to be released a month later than was originally intended.
reports 59% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based on 27 reviews, with a rating of 5.4/10. British film critic Mark Kermode
called it "a restrained, haunting chiller which stimulates the adrenalin and intellect alike" and New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby
said "The Exorcist III is a better and funnier (intentionally) movie than either of its predecessors", while PEOPLE Magazine's Ralph Novak began his review with, "As a movie writer-director, William Peter Blatty is like David's Lynch's good twin. He is eccentric, original, funny and daring, but he also has a sense of taste, pace and restraint. Which is by way of saying that this is one of the shrewdest, wittiest, most intense and most satisfying horror movies ever made." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
gave a negative review, stating "If Part II sequels are generally disappointing, Part IIIs are often much, much worse. It can seem as if nothing is going on in them except dim murmurings about the original movie — murmurings that mostly remind you of what isn't being delivered" and called The Exorcist III "an ash-gray disaster [that] has the feel of a nightmare catechism lesson, or a horror movie made by a depressed monk." Ironically, it was "Entertainment Weekly" that years later cited the film as the "#8 scariest movie ever made."
In the British magazine Empire
, film critic Kim Newman
claimed that "The major fault in Exorcist III is the house-of-cards plot that is constantly collapsing." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called The Exorcist III "a handsome, classy art film" that "doesn't completely work but offers much more than countless, less ambitious films."
and Blatty protested against:
from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, for Best Writing (William Peter Blatty
) and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif
) and Best Horror Film. It was also nominated for Worst Actor (George C. Scott
) at the Golden Raspberry Awards.
An upcoming book titled The Evolution Of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III: From Concept To Novel To Screen by author Erik K. Myers will purportedly reveal the story behind the film's development, and publish never-before-seen images, the original script, studio notes, various drafts of the story as it has evolved, and interviews with Blatty, Brad Dourif, Mark Kermode, John Carpenter, and many others associated with the film. Myers in an interview said that The Exorcist III "has sort of turned into horror genre’s equivalent of Orson Welles
' The Magnificent Ambersons
, in that it was originally a very classy film that the studio hacked apart and turned into a commercial piece [...] I'm basically trying to chronicle how a film can get away from the author and be transformed into a purely commercial product."
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
thriller written and directed by William Peter Blatty
William Peter Blatty
William Peter Blatty is an American writer and filmmaker. The novel The Exorcist, written in 1971, is his magnum opus; he also penned the subsequent screenplay version of the film, for which he won an Academy Award....
. It is the second sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
of The Exorcist series
The Exorcist series
The Exorcist film series consists of five horror films based on the fictional story from the novel The Exorcist, created by William Blatty. The films have been distributed by Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox....
and a film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Blatty's novel, Legion
Legion (novel)
Legion is a 1983 horror novel by William Peter Blatty, a sequel to The Exorcist. It was made into the movie The Exorcist III in 1990.Like The Exorcist, it involves demonic possession...
(1983). The film stars George C. Scott
George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
, Brad Dourif
Brad Dourif
Bradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is an American film and television actor who gained early fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and has since appeared in a number of memorable roles, including the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, Younger Brother in...
, Ed Flanders
Ed Flanders
Edward Paul Flanders was an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Donald Westphall in the television series St. Elsewhere.- Biography :...
, and Nicol Williamson
Nicol Williamson
Nicol Williamson is a Scottish-born English actor who was described by English playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando".-Early life:...
. This is the only Exorcist film not to be distributed theatrically by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, in which Warner Bros. would be the current distributor for the film.
Set fifteen years after the original film
The Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
and ignoring the events of Exorcist II: The Heretic
Exorcist II: The Heretic
Exorcist II: The Heretic is a 1977 American horror film and the sequel to The Exorcist , directed by John Boorman from a screenplay by William Goodhart and starring Linda Blair, Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, Max von Sydow, James Earl Jones, Ned Beatty and Kitty Winn...
(1977), the film centers around the philosophical Lieutenant William F. Kinderman from the first film, investigating a baffling series of murders in Georgetown
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Georgetown is a neighborhood located in northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years...
that appear to have a satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
ic motive behind them and furthermore have all the hallmarks of "The Gemini", a deceased serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
.
Originally titled Legion, the film was drastically changed in post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
with re-writes and re-shoots ordered by the studio executives of Morgan Creek Productions
Morgan Creek Productions
Morgan Creek Productions is an American film studio that has released box-office hits like Young Guns, Dead Ringers, Major League, True Romance, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The King and I, The Crush, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and others. The studio was co-founded in 1987 by James G...
, demanding the last-minute addition of an exorcism
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...
sequence, and the film was released as The Exorcist III in order to be more commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
. The final version differed from Blatty's vision; all of the cut footage is apparently lost
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
.
Plot
The film begins with the point-of-viewPoint of view (literature)
The narrative mode is the set of methods the author of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical story uses to convey the plot to the audience. Narration, the process of presenting the narrative, occurs because of the narrative mode...
of someone wandering through the streets of Georgetown, a voice informing us "I have dreams... of a rose... and of falling down a long flight of stairs." The point of view shows a warning of evil about to arrive later that night at a church. Demonic growls are heard, leaves and other street trash suddenly come flying into the church as a crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
comes to life. It then cuts to Lieutenant William F. Kinderman (George C. Scott
George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
) at a crime scene
Crime scene
A crime scene is a location where an illegal act took place, and comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence is retrieved by trained law enforcement personnel, crime scene investigators or in rare circumstances, forensic scientists....
, where a 12-year-old boy named Thomas Kintry has been murdered. Kinderman then takes his friend, a priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
named Father Dyer (Ed Flanders
Ed Flanders
Edward Paul Flanders was an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Donald Westphall in the television series St. Elsewhere.- Biography :...
), out to see their mutually favorite film It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
. Kinderman relates, after the film, the details of the murder of the young boy he was investigating that morning. Another murder soon takes place; a priest found decapitated
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
in a church. Dyer is shortly hospitalized and found murdered the next day, with the words "IT'S A WONDERFULL LIFE" written on a wall in Dyer's blood.
At each murder scene, the fingerprints at the crime scenes do not match up to previous scenes, indicating a different person committed each crime. In a discussion with the hospital staff, Kinderman relates the reason for his unease about the series of killings; fifteen years ago the vicious serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
, "The Gemini" (Brad Dourif
Brad Dourif
Bradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is an American film and television actor who gained early fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and has since appeared in a number of memorable roles, including the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, Younger Brother in...
), was executed; with every victim he cut off their right index finger and carved the Zodiac
Zodiac
In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...
sign of Gemini
Gemini (astrology)
Gemini is the third astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the Zodiac between the 60th and 89th degree of celestial longitude. Generally, the Sun transits this area of the zodiac between May 21 to June 20 each year...
into the palm of their left hand. Kinderman noticed the hands of the three victims and verified that the Gemini's sign has been there. The Gemini Killer also always used an extra "L" in his notes sent to the media, such as "usefull" or "carefull". Furthermore, to filter out false confessions, the original Gemini Killer's true mutilations were kept a secret by the Richmond police's homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
department; the newspapers were made to wrongfully report that the left middle finger was severed and that the Gemini sign was carved on the back of the victim.
Kinderman visits the head of the psychiatric
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
ward, Dr. Temple (Scott Wilson
Scott Wilson (actor)
Scott Wilson is an American actor.-Movies:Wilson appeared in such films as In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Gypsy Moths, The Great Gatsby, The Right Stuff, A Year of the Quiet Sun, Malone, Dead Man Walking, The Grass Harp, Junebug, The Host, Monster, Young Guns II, Pearl Harbor, and...
), who relates the history of a man in Cell 11, that he was found wandering aimlessly fifteen years ago with amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
. The man was locked up, catatonic
Catatonia
Catatonia is a state of neurogenic motor immobility, and behavioral abnormality manifested by stupor. It was first described in 1874: Die Katatonie oder das Spannungsirresein ....
up until recently when he began to be violent and claim to be the Gemini Killer. Kinderman sees that the patient resembles his dead friend, Father Damien Karras
Damien Karras
Father Damien Karras, SJ is a fictional character from the novel The Exorcist, its sequel Legion, and their film adaptations.Father Karras was one of the priests who exorcises the demon from young Regan MacNeil. He is a Jesuit psychiatrist suffering a crisis of faith...
. However the patient brags of being the Gemini Killer, expressing ignorance over who this Father Karras is, and boasts of killing Father Dyer.
The next morning, a nurse and Dr. Temple are found dead. Kinderman returns to see the patient in Cell 11, who claims to be the Gemini Killer's spirit, revealing that after his execution his soul entered Karras's dying body. The demon who had possessed the girl Regan MacNeil, was furious at being pushed out of the child's body and is exacting its revenge by putting the soul of the Gemini Killer into the body of Father Karras. Each evening, the soul of the Gemini leaves the body of Karras and possesses the elderly people with senile dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
elsewhere in the hospital and uses them to commit the murders. The Gemini Killer also reveals to have forced Dr. Temple to bring Kinderman to him or he would suffer in unspeakable ways - Temple believed his apparent bluff, however, he couldn't take the pressure, and so he committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.
The Gemini possesses an old woman who makes a failed attempt to murder Julie, Kinderman's daughter. The possessed patient attacks Kinderman, but the attack abruptly ends when a priest, Father Paul Morning, enters the corridor leading to cell 11 and attempts an exorcism on the patient. It goes wrong and the priest is all but slain. Kinderman arrives in time and attempts to euthanise
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
Karras after finding the body of the priest, only to be hurled into the wall by the possessed Karras. Father Morning manages to briefly regain consciousness and tells Karras "Damien. Fight him." Karras regains his free will briefly screaming "NOOOOOOO!" and shouts at Kinderman "Bill, now, shoot now, kill me NOW--!" Kinderman fires his revolver several times hitting Karras in the chest, fatally wounding him. The Gemini is now gone and Karras is finally free. With weak breaths he says "We won Bill, now free me." Kinderman puts his revolver against Karras' head and fires. The film ends with Karras receiving a proper funeral.
Cast
- George C. ScottGeorge C. ScottGeorge Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
as William F. Kinderman - Ed FlandersEd FlandersEdward Paul Flanders was an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Donald Westphall in the television series St. Elsewhere.- Biography :...
as Father Dyer - Brad DourifBrad DourifBradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is an American film and television actor who gained early fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and has since appeared in a number of memorable roles, including the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, Younger Brother in...
as The Gemini Killer - Scott WilsonScott Wilson (actor)Scott Wilson is an American actor.-Movies:Wilson appeared in such films as In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Gypsy Moths, The Great Gatsby, The Right Stuff, A Year of the Quiet Sun, Malone, Dead Man Walking, The Grass Harp, Junebug, The Host, Monster, Young Guns II, Pearl Harbor, and...
as Dr. Temple - Nancy Fish as Nurse Allerton
- Nicol WilliamsonNicol WilliamsonNicol Williamson is a Scottish-born English actor who was described by English playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando".-Early life:...
as Father Morning - Jason MillerJason Miller (playwright)Jason Miller was an American actor and playwright. He received the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play That Championship Season, and was widely recognized for his role as Father Damien Karras in the 1973 horror film The Exorcist...
as Patient X (Father Damien Karras) - Barbara BaxleyBarbara BaxleyBarbara Baxley was an American actress of stage, film and television.-Early life:Baxley was born in Porterville, California, the daughter of Emma and Bert Baxley.-Career:...
as Shirley - Grand L. BushGrand L. BushGrand Lee Bush is an American actor of stage, television and major motion pictures.-Personal life:Bush was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Essie and Robert Bush, who was an actor...
as Sgt. Atkins - Harry Carey Jr. as Father Kanavan
- George DicenzoGeorge DiCenzoGeorge Ralph DiCenzo was an American character actor and one-time associate producer for Dark Shadows. He was in show business for more than 30 years, with extensive film, TV, stage and commercial credits.-Life and career:...
as Stedman - Tyra FerrellTyra Ferrell-Career:She appeared in Jungle Fever , which starred Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra. She also had roles in films such as Boyz n the Hood , White Men Can't Jump , and Poetic Justice...
as Nurse Blaine - Lois ForakerLois ForakerLois Foraker is a television, film, and stage actress. She was in the original Broadway cast of Godspell in 1976 and played a nurse in M*A*S*H for three years.-Filmography:* Child's Play 3 * The Exorcist III * Gremlins...
as Nurse Merrin - Don Gordon as Ryan
- Mary JacksonMary JacksonMary Jackson was an American actress. She is best known for the role of the lovelorn "Miss Emily Baldwin" in The Waltons and was the original choice to play "Alice Horton" in Days of our Lives...
as Mrs Clelia - Zohra LampertZohra LampertZohra Lampert is an American actress, who has had roles on film, television and stage. She may be best remembered for her role as the title character in the 1971 cult horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death, as well as starring alongside Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty in the 1961 romance film...
as Mary Kinderman - Ken LernerKen LernerKen Lerner is an American television, stage and film actor who is perhaps most famous for playing "Principal Flutie" in the first episodes of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Early life:...
as Dr. Freedman - Viveca LindforsViveca LindforsElsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors , better known under her professional name of Viveca Lindfors, was a Swedish stage and film actress.-Life and career:...
as Nurse X - FabioFabio LanzoniFabio Lanzoni ; born March 15, 1959), widely known simply as Fabio, is a famous international Italian fashion model, spokesperson and actor who appeared on the cover of hundreds of romance novels throughout the 1980s and 1990s....
as Angel (uncredited)
Development
William Peter Blatty, although initially had no desire to write a sequel to The Exorcist, eventually came up with a story titled "Legion," featuring Lieutenant Kinderman, a prominent character in the original Exorcist novel (though played a minor role in the eventual film), as the central protagonist. Blatty conceived Legion as a feature film with William FriedkinWilliam Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
, director of The Exorcist, attached to direct. Despite the critical and commercial failure of the previous sequel, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
were keen to proceed with Blatty and Friedkin's plans for another Exorcist film. Blatty said that "Everybody wanted Exorcist III...I hadn't written the script but I had the story in my head and Billy [Friedkin] loved it." However, Friedkin soon left the project due to conflicting opinions between him and Blatty on the film.
The project went into development hell
Development hell
In the jargon of the media-industry, "development hell" is a period during which a film or other project is trapped in development...
and Blatty wrote Legion into a novel instead; published in 1983, it was a bestseller. Blatty then decided to turn the book back into a screenplay. Film companies Morgan Creek
Morgan Creek
Morgan Creek is a stream in Mono and Inyo counties of eastern California, in the western United States.It flows from the high eastern Sierra Nevada in the Inyo National Forest, through Round Valley, to its confluence with Pine Creek near the Owens River northeast of Bishop in the Owens...
and Carolco both wanted to make the film; Blatty decided upon Morgan Creek after Carolco suggested the idea of a grown-up Regan MacNeil giving birth to possessed twins. Blatty offered directorial responsibilities to John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
who liked his script. However, Carpenter backed out when it became clear that Blatty really wanted to direct the movie himself. As per the stipulations for his deal with Morgan Creek, Blatty was to direct the movie himself, and it was to be filmed on location in Georgetown. Carolco would instead do a parody of the original Exorcist, titled Repossessed (see below).
Casting
The central role of Lieutenant Kinderman had to be recast as Lee J. CobbLee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb was an American actor. He is best known for his performance in 12 Angry Men his Academy Award-nominated performance in On the Waterfront and one of his last films, The Exorcist...
, who played the part in The Exorcist, had died in 1976. Oscar-winner George C. Scott signed up for the role, impressed by Blatty's screenplay: "It’s a horror film and much more... It's a real drama, intricately crafted, with offbeat interesting characters, and that's what makes it genuinely frightening."
Several cast members from Blatty's previous film, The Ninth Configuration
The Ninth Configuration
The Ninth Configuration, is an American-made film, released in 1980, directed by William Peter Blatty...
(1980), appear in The Exorcist III; Jason Miller
Jason Miller (playwright)
Jason Miller was an American actor and playwright. He received the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play That Championship Season, and was widely recognized for his role as Father Damien Karras in the 1973 horror film The Exorcist...
, reprising the role of Father Damien Karras from The Exorcist (billed only as "Patient X" in the end credits); Ed Flanders
Ed Flanders
Edward Paul Flanders was an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Donald Westphall in the television series St. Elsewhere.- Biography :...
, taking on the role of Father Dyer previously played by William O'Malley; and Scott Wilson
Scott Wilson (actor)
Scott Wilson is an American actor.-Movies:Wilson appeared in such films as In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Gypsy Moths, The Great Gatsby, The Right Stuff, A Year of the Quiet Sun, Malone, Dead Man Walking, The Grass Harp, Junebug, The Host, Monster, Young Guns II, Pearl Harbor, and...
.
There are also cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
s by basketball players Patrick Ewing
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...
, John Thompson
John Thompson (basketball)
John R. Thompson, Jr. is an American former basketball coach for the Georgetown University Hoyas. He is now a professional radio and TV sports commentator...
, model Fabio
Fabio Lanzoni
Fabio Lanzoni ; born March 15, 1959), widely known simply as Fabio, is a famous international Italian fashion model, spokesperson and actor who appeared on the cover of hundreds of romance novels throughout the 1980s and 1990s....
, ex-Surgeon General C. Everett Koop
C. Everett Koop
Charles Everett Koop, MD is an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and served as thirteenth Surgeon General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989.-Early years:Koop was born...
, television host Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
and Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
.
Filming
With an $11 million budget, the tentatively-titled Exorcist: Legion was shot on location in Georgetown for eight weeks in mid-1989. Additional interior filming then took place in DEG Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina. Blatty completed principal photographyPrincipal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
of the film on time, and only slightly over budget. However, four months later, Morgan Creek informed Blatty that a new ending had to be shot. Blatty said that “James Robinson
James G. Robinson
James G. Robinson is an American film producer. He is chairman and CEO of Morgan Creek Productions, a Los Angeles studio that he founded. His son David C. Robinson is the studio's vice president.-External links:...
, the owner of the company, his secretary had insisted to him that this has nothing to do with The Exorcist. There had to be an exorcism.” 20th Century Fox ponied up an additional $4-million in post-production - to film an effects-laden exorcism sequence featuring Nicol Williamson
Nicol Williamson
Nicol Williamson is a Scottish-born English actor who was described by English playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando".-Early life:...
as Father Morning, a character added just for the new climax and Blatty had to make the best of it in the narrative while racing to complete the film. Blatty confirmed that when the possessed Karras speaks in an asexual voice, saying, "I must save my son, the Gemini," that this in fact is either a returned Pazuzu
Pazuzu
In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu was the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi. He also represented the southwestern wind, the bearer of storms and drought.- Iconography :...
or, as Blatty put it, "Old Scratch
Old Scratch
Old Scratch or Mr. Scratch is a folk name for The Devil in the local legends of New England and pre-Civil War America. It is possible that the local legends containing this name were influenced by Faustian stories brought to North America by German immigrants.Old Scratch is also referred to in The...
himself" taking control. This ties in to the revelation earlier in the film that the Gemini was sent into Karras' body as revenge for the Regan MacNeil exorcism. The altered voice in the climax is deliberately similar to that of Mercedes McCambridge
Mercedes McCambridge
Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge was an American actress. Orson Welles called her "the world's greatest living radio actress."-Early life:...
, who provided the voice of the original demon in The Exorcist, and the role is essayed in The Exorcist III by Colleen Dewhurst
Colleen Dewhurst
Colleen Rose Dewhurst was a Canadian-American actress known for a while as "the Queen of Off-Broadway." In her autobiography, Dewhurst wrote: "I had moved so quickly from one Off-Broadway production to the next that I was known, at one point, as the 'Queen of Off-Broadway'...
, who was uncredited (in real life, actress Dewhurst was twice married to, and twice divorced from, actor George C. Scott).
One shot missing from the re-filmed climax - but which features in the trailer - shows Karras/the Gemini "morphing" through a variety of faces. It was left out of the film because Blatty wasn't happy with the special effects work.
On the climactic exorcism scene, Blatty later said, "It's alright, but it's utterly unnecessary and it changes the character of the piece.” Although at the time, Blatty told the press that he was happy to re-shoot the film’s ending and have the story climax with a frenzy of special effects, the truth is that this compromise was forced on him, against his wishes:
“The original story that I sold [Morgan Creek] (and that I shot) ended with Kinderman blowing away Patient X. There was no exorcism. But it was a Mexican stand-off between me and the studio. I was entitled to one preview, then they could go and do what they wanted with the picture. They gave me a preview but it was the lowest end preview audience I have ever seen in my life. They dragged in zombies from HaitiHaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
to watch this film. It was unbelievable. But I decided, better I should do it than anyone else. I foolishly thought: I can do a good exorcism, I’ll turn this pig’s ear into a silk purse. So I did it.”
Working on the film, Brad Dourif recalls "We all felt really bad about it. But Blatty tried to do his best under very difficult circumstances. And I remember George C. Scott saying that the folks would only be satisfied if Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
came out and sang a song at the end!" Dourif feels that "The original version was a hell of a lot purer and I liked it much more. As it stands now, it's a mediocre film. There are parts that have no right to be there.
The execution-style ending that Blatty pitched to the studio - which was in the shooting script and actually filmed - differs radically from the ending of both the novel and the first screenplay adaption developed from the novel. The novel ends with the Gemini Killer willingly dropping dead in his cell after his hated father, a Christian evangelist, dies a natural death from a heart attack. As his motive for killing was always to shame his father, the Gemini's reason for remaining on earth no longer exists and he kills Karras in order to leave his host body. In Blatty's original screenplay adaptation, the ending is similar to the novel but it suggests that the Gemini's death in his cell is not self-induced but instead forced supernaturally by the death of his father. The Gemini's motives for committing crimes are also given further context via a long series of flashbacks earlier in the screenplay which portray his childhood and relationship with his alcoholic, abusive father.
Release
The Exorcist III opened in 1,288 theaters in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on August 17, 1990. Unlike its predecessors, it was distributed by 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
instead of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
(though some distribution rights would later revert to WB). The film was released only a month before the Exorcist parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
, Repossessed
Repossessed
Repossessed is a 1990 comedy film that spoofs the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. It was written and directed by Bob Logan. The film features the original star of The Exorcist, Linda Blair, as well as Leslie Nielsen and Anthony Starke...
, starring Linda Blair
Linda Blair
Linda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic.-Biography:Blair...
and Leslie Nielsen
Leslie Nielsen
Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...
. Blair claimed that Exorcist III was rush-released ahead of Repossessed
Repossessed
Repossessed is a 1990 comedy film that spoofs the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. It was written and directed by Bob Logan. The film features the original star of The Exorcist, Linda Blair, as well as Leslie Nielsen and Anthony Starke...
, hijacking the latter's publicity and forcing the comedy to be released a month later than was originally intended.
Critical response
The Exorcist III initially received mixed reviews from critics. However, as years have passed, those reviews of the film now found have generally been positive. Review aggregate website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports 59% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based on 27 reviews, with a rating of 5.4/10. British film critic Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode is an English film critic, musician and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He contributes to Sight and Sound magazine, The Observer newspaper and BBC Radio 5 Live, where he presents Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews with Simon Mayo on Friday afternoons...
called it "a restrained, haunting chiller which stimulates the adrenalin and intellect alike" and New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
said "The Exorcist III is a better and funnier (intentionally) movie than either of its predecessors", while PEOPLE Magazine's Ralph Novak began his review with, "As a movie writer-director, William Peter Blatty is like David's Lynch's good twin. He is eccentric, original, funny and daring, but he also has a sense of taste, pace and restraint. Which is by way of saying that this is one of the shrewdest, wittiest, most intense and most satisfying horror movies ever made." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave a negative review, stating "If Part II sequels are generally disappointing, Part IIIs are often much, much worse. It can seem as if nothing is going on in them except dim murmurings about the original movie — murmurings that mostly remind you of what isn't being delivered" and called The Exorcist III "an ash-gray disaster [that] has the feel of a nightmare catechism lesson, or a horror movie made by a depressed monk." Ironically, it was "Entertainment Weekly" that years later cited the film as the "#8 scariest movie ever made."
In the British magazine Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
, film critic Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
claimed that "The major fault in Exorcist III is the house-of-cards plot that is constantly collapsing." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called The Exorcist III "a handsome, classy art film" that "doesn't completely work but offers much more than countless, less ambitious films."
Box office
The Exorcist III earned $9,312,219 in its opening weekend and grossed a total of $26,098,824 in the States, which was enough to make it a financial success relative to its $11 million budget. Blatty attributed its poor box office performance to the title imposed by Morgan Creek, having always intended for the film to retain the title of the novel. During development and production, the film went under various titles, including The Exorcist: 1990. Morgan Creek and Fox insisted on including the word Exorcist in the title, which producer Carter DeHavenCarter DeHaven
Carter DeHaven was a movie and stage actor, movie director, and writer....
and Blatty protested against:
“I begged them when they were considering titles not to name it Exorcist anything, because Exorcist II was a disaster beyond imagination. You can’t call it Exorcist III because people will shun the box office. But they went and named it Exorcist III, then they called me after the third week when we were beginning to fade at the box office and they said ‘We’ll tell you the reason, it’s gonna hurt, you’re not gonna like this – the reason is Exorcist II.’ I couldn’t believe it! They had total amnesia about my warnings!”
Awards
In 1991, the film won a Saturn AwardSaturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, for Best Writing (William Peter Blatty
William Peter Blatty
William Peter Blatty is an American writer and filmmaker. The novel The Exorcist, written in 1971, is his magnum opus; he also penned the subsequent screenplay version of the film, for which he won an Academy Award....
) and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif
Brad Dourif
Bradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is an American film and television actor who gained early fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and has since appeared in a number of memorable roles, including the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, Younger Brother in...
) and Best Horror Film. It was also nominated for Worst Actor (George C. Scott
George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
) at the Golden Raspberry Awards.
Director's cut
Despite his misgivings about the studio-imposed reshoots, Blatty however is proud of the finished version of Exorcist III, having said “It’s still a superior film. And in my opinion, and excuse me if I utter heresy here, but for me it’s a more frightening film than The Exorcist." Nevertheless, Blatty had hoped to recover the deleted footage from the Morgan Creek vaults so that he might re-assemble the original cut of the film which he said was "rather different" from what was released, and a version of the film which fans of the Exorcist series have been clamouring for. In 2007, Blatty's wife reported on a fan site that "My husband tells me that it is Morgan Creek's claim that they have lost all the footage, including an alternate opening scene in which Kinderman views the body of Karras in the morgue, right after his fall down the steps." Although, Mark Kermode has stated that the search for the missing footage is "ongoing".An upcoming book titled The Evolution Of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III: From Concept To Novel To Screen by author Erik K. Myers will purportedly reveal the story behind the film's development, and publish never-before-seen images, the original script, studio notes, various drafts of the story as it has evolved, and interviews with Blatty, Brad Dourif, Mark Kermode, John Carpenter, and many others associated with the film. Myers in an interview said that The Exorcist III "has sort of turned into horror genre’s equivalent of Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
' The Magnificent Ambersons
The Magnificent Ambersons (film)
The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1942 American drama film written and directed by Orson Welles. His second feature film, it is based on the 1918 novel of the same name by Booth Tarkington and stars Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins...
, in that it was originally a very classy film that the studio hacked apart and turned into a commercial piece [...] I'm basically trying to chronicle how a film can get away from the author and be transformed into a purely commercial product."