"Exorcist III" from 1990 - weak but watchable.

The other shot, in retrospect, is more silly than scary, but it involves the old woman crawling around on the ceiling (see pic at top of the thread), which kinda alludes to Regan's fabled "spider walk" scene in the first film.

George C. Scott's heroically histrionic speech to the demon at the climax ("I believe in Murder...I believe in Cruelty & infideltiy...") was sampled to nice effect on the Cop Shoot Cop b-side, "We Shall Be Changed," for implausibly select few of you who might give a rolling rat fuck.

http://saltsaltsalt.hp.infoseek.co.jp/movie/EXORCIST%20III%20REGION/jpg/EXORCIST%20III%20REGION_02.jpg

Fuck me! I need a cleaning lady like that!

Has anyone managed to see Paul Schrader's Exorcist prequel yet?

Yeah, it is quite well done -- the payoff being indelibly jarring (although the details of what the killer does to the nurse -- i.e. a multitude of rosary beads in lieu of innards -- is also a bit over-the-top).

one of the greatest horror films ever.

We need more horror films from insane auteurs like Blatty, and far less from mildly demented hacks like Roth.

I wonder what the original film was like before they added all the Exorcist stuff? The ending in the released version is weirdly abrupt.
Has anyone managed to see Paul Schrader's Exorcist prequel yet?

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Thursday, November 3, 2005 10:50 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

SPOILERZZSGPOIH

Apparently they cut out a little dialogue (but gee, we still have plenty of loopy dialogue in it anyway), and in the original ending, there's no exorcism, Kinderman just walks into the cell and kills Patient X.

And Patient X was originally all Dourif (even though that doesn't really make sense if he's supposed to be inside Karras' body).

I think the studio's decision to make them use Jason Miller as Karras actually adds a cool tension to the scenes where they flip between the two actors. The exorcism feels really pasted on though, and there's too many effects in it-- the original exorcism in part 1 had a lot of pacing and tension that built up, but in this one it's just them trying to spend 4 million dollars in as short a period of screen time as possible.

I would have liked this movie a lot better had they completely removed the Exorcist connections (being that it came from a novel titled Legion). Some parts of it were good but it went into LOL territory fast by the conclusion.

BULL SHIT. this film was horrible.

I just wrote abt it a month ago on this thread:

Since there's really nothing else on this thread I'm just going to talk about movies I've recently seen.

one thing that I can't defend is the photography. It has that dull, neutral palette that a lot of films from around 1990 had. Yeah yeah, they were filming under florescent lights a lot, but the whole film is just so sterile looking in a way that doesn't add anything to the mood.

guys i love this movie so much

everything about it is so good but i would like to shout out george c. scott's dream of heaven

the infinite establishing shots that precede almost every scene

the vials of blood

the bit where the possessed lady crawls along the ceiling gave me serious terrors the first time I watched this. and almost anything with george c. scott in is worth a re-watch.

Look at me twelve years ago talkin shit about shit I didn't know shit about, haha. Now I'm older, wiser, fatter and have seen Exorcist III. Life comes at you fast.

Anyway, it's a decent movie. Worth it for the hallway scare alone.

Plus ANGEL FABIO

One of the more surprising reputation revivals out there.

I dunno -- I remember at least a couple of contemporary reviews giving it some cred, at the least for the nurse station scene.

Shout Factory is having a big sale through the end of this month, and their Exorcist III Blu-Ray is a two-disc set that includes a director's cut that's apparently substantially different.

idk if i'd call it substantially different, but there's a lot of additional dialogue, a considerably expanded interrogation scene between scott and dourif. the entire exorcism scene is subtracted so it just sorta ends with scott shooting dourif which is maybe even stranger and more arbitrary than the exorcism the studio insisted on. all of the additional scenes were sourced from vhs dailies bc the original footage was lost, so the quality of the picture shifts dramatically throughout

i watched the ninth configuration the other day and that movie rules too

I had to roll back my pitch a little after mentioning to my excited sister that there was a pseudo-sequel to The Exorcist that she'd never heard of.

The Ninth Configuration is such a cool and strange little movie. Blatty must have been an interesting dude.

Love Ninth Configuration! And refreshingly it doesn't seem to be part of the film dork canon, so I don't have to muddle my head with other people's takes on it.

In fact I love it so much I should probably see Exorcist 3 sometime

I can't believe it got multiple Globe nominations and won for screenplay. Must have been a slow year.

In fact I love it so much I should probably see Exorcist 3 sometime

― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, September 26, 2017 10:49 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hell yeah you should

just rewatched Exorcist III and my lord I forgot how absolutely insane this movie is

my only complaint is the abrupt ending

reading brad's comments above, neither ending sounds great but tbh the studio mandated one was probably the right way to go

Ok, I just remembered I went on a date senior year of high school with a goth girlfriend and saw a double bill of Exorcist III and Nightbreed at a drive-in. All I remember was my raging teenage hormones and that we had a really short friend who resembled the Berserkers.

is this true?

???

Sorry, should have put in italics. Wasn’t a response to your post, it’s a bit from the film I love

I just watched this. Absolutely batshit. I had a great time. I could watch a film that is just George C. Scott and Ed Flanders drinking coffee in a poorly lit cafe, to be honest.

As much as I love Brad Dourif doing Brad Dourif things, the film noticeably loses something when he appears? I love how bug-eyed and insane he is, but there's too much exposition and some of the atmosphere is lost. Loved how the scenes with him and Scott were lit though.

I 100% wanted more of the death metal growling.

oh no way re: brad dourif. so much atmosphere in that thing he does

I think it's that until he appeared, I had no idea where the thing was going; I was carried by the atmosphere and the strangeness of it. It had to build toward some great monstrosity of course, but Dourif appears and, for all his horror and bile, it becomes a film I know.

I dug the switches between him and Miller though. I totally bought into Karras' desire to be released.

Exorcist II was really good, but no thread for it

Watched this for the first time

I think I liked it but damn it really made me work hard for it lol

HOWEVER. This has to be one of the most brightly lit, establishing-ass, tell-don’t-show ‘horror’ movies I have seen in a good long while.

There’s such an inherent dullness & wrongness to it that it almost distracts you from the fact that it’s kind of a 90’s MANOS?

yknow like a movie that’s inherent charm is that it thinks it’s doing something very different & much more meaningful than what it is actually capturing? idk

The actress Nancy Fish who plays Nurse Allerton. I adore all of her choices and her crazy lipstick

The exorcism at the end was very dumb especially the insane amount of lighting strike effects to bust open the floor like guys cmon

FABIO!

That long shot jumpscare in the hospital is SO good that I think it must surely be an accident. Like, the rest of this movie could not show ANYTHING else without cutting to 75 different establishing shots first so how did this incredibly restrained, patient & artful scene even come about?

Oh and I found this IMDb trivia (for a change) really fascinating & sad if true:

In an interview on the bonus features of the Collector's Edition, Brad Dourif opens up saying the reason why Jason Miller was unavailable to reprise his role originally as Karras is because he was a severe alcoholic and had developed "wet brain." This meant he could not memorize the two long monologues the Gemini Killer has. He says this led to him sharing the role with Miller in the theatrical cut. He would recite the monologues while Miller could handle the shorter lines. However, an audio commentary with William Peter Blatty makes no mention of this, simply saying Miller was "unavailable."

the exorcism scene is goofy and ott but its still 100% better than the original ending, in which george c scott just walks into the cell and unceremoniously shoots patient x in the head without a word. hilariously abrupt and anticlimactic.

Yeah the shooting scene is bad. and weirdly comedic. Like if it was extended improv & Scott just going “nah, we’re done” BLAM

Oh! Scott Temple as the Doctor was cracking me up - the way he was constantly holding the cigarette in that affected way but hardly ever smoking was so crazy

And the huge photo of himself in his office was so looooool

the 1000 establishing shots for every new location is part of blatty's style, i love it, it's like he thinks environments tell us something about people, and i don't find it particularly telling-not-showing. it's showing imo

the telling-not-showing is more the dialogue imo. Every time someone dies they tell you everything about how they were killed bc he’s too cheap to show you!
At one point I said to Mr veg if someone describes one more dead body to me without showing it to me I’M gonna jump out the window

idk that's another thing i think is good, leave it to my imagination

Remember liking it more than the original...certainly got under my skin more...some of the imagery is really unsettling esp the black child coming up from the gates of hell...the offkey humour also lends it an air of cold menace...the jump scare was also genius...very underrated imo

As time goes by I love this film series more and more, it never goes where it’s supposed to (even the first one) & none of them are perfect. It’s indicative that not only are successive sequel directors forced at gunpoint to put an exorcism in at the end but none of them even wanted the word exorcist in the title! It should be exorcist, heretic, legion, dominion, leaving audiences even more baffled but money guys hate fun. Now it’s in legacy sequel boretown with DGG and (ugh) Flanagan

(I don’t think either version of IV is actually good but including them anyway to bolster my case)

George C Scott so incredible in this. i like it more every time i see it. exorcist 2 remains awful no matter how many rewatches.

Exorcist II has the best soundtrack though, you want the best then hire the maestro himself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olqEJ6kHT84

i love dumb horror movies and i love the exorcist iii. it has its other charms but the george c scott “i believe…” scene is solidly in the “george c scott screaming moments” top 3, which is more than enough for me.