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The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:08 pm
by DarkImbecile
The true heir to William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin’s 1973 masterpiece, The Exorcist III is a hellish horror detective story that pairs thoughtful theological themes with scenes of sheer terror.
The personal vision of Blatty (the acclaimed author of The Exorcist), The Exorcist III is set 15 years after the events of the first film and sees Lieutenant Kinderman (George C. Scott, The Changeling) investigate a series of horrific murders that follow the modus operandi of the notorious Gemini Killer... who died several years earlier in the electric chair. After his friend Father Dyer (Ed Flanders) is murdered in his hospital bed, Kinderman’s investigations lead him to ‘Patient X’, a psychopath housed at the same hospital who claims to be the Gemini Killer, and who knows intimate crime scene details. Their encounter leads to a fiery climactic confrontation between the eternal forces of good and evil...
The Exorcist III boasts some of modern horror’s most unforgettable scares and exceptional supporting performances from Jason Miller (The Ninth Configuration) and Brad Dourif (Dune). Blatty’s film is presented here in both its original theatrical cut and the recently assembled ‘Legion’ director’s cut.
4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
Original theatrical 2.0 stereo audio on both cuts and optional 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio for the theatrical cut
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Richard Wells
Illustrated collector's booklet featuring writing on the film by Lee Gambin, archival articles and reviews
DISC ONE - THEATRICAL CUT (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
4K restoration of the theatrical cut of The Exorcist III, presented in presented on 4K Ultra HD (2160p) Blu-ray in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Audio commentary by critics Alexandra Heller Nicholas and Josh Nelson
Audio interview with writer/director William Peter Blatty
Death, Be Not Proud: The Making of The Exorcist III, an in-depth 2016 documentary divided into five chapters: Chapter One: A "Wonderfull" Time, an interview with producer Carter DeHaven and members of the supporting cast and production crew; Chapter Two: Signs of the Gemini, an interview with actor Brad Dourif; Chapter Three: The Devil in the Details, an interview with production designer Leslie Dilley and more; Chapter Four: Music for a Padded Cell, an interview with composer Barry DeVorzon; Chapter Five: All This Bleeding, interviews about the additional shoot and special effects
The Exorcist III: Vintage Interviews, archival interviews with cast and crew members including William Peter Blatty, producer James Robinson, actors George C. Scott, Jason Miller, Grand L. Bush and Ed Flanders
Falling Down a Long Flight of Steps, an interview with special effects artist Randy Moore
The Exorcist III: Vintage Featurette, making-of documentary with on-set footage and interviews
Deleted scenes, alternate takes and bloopers
Image galleries
Trailers, TV spots and radio spots
DISC TWO - 'LEGION' DIRECTOR'S CUT (BLU-RAY)
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the Legion director's cut, assembled from the best available film and video elements
Legion audio commentary with esteemed film critics Mark Kermode and Kim Newman
Deleted Prologue, an alternate opening to Legion with optional audio commentary from Mark Kermode and Kim Newman
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:16 pm
by domino harvey
The true heir to William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin’s 1973 masterpiece
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:28 pm
by Big Ben
It's the true heir to the original because Exorcist II is Exorcist II although it certainly isn't a masterpiece either. It's a weird film in the sense that I get what Blatty was going for but it really, really gets weird in the end falls apart because of it. The original version was supposed to be a much more lowkey religious based thriller and instead, due to studio insistence it becomes fairly generic studio horror movie that includes a studio mandated Exorcism scene that isn't present anywhere in the novel. There are parts of the film I really like but there are parts that I absolutely do not.
I will however compliment a uniquely brilliant sequence:
The sequence with the nurse where the killer emerges from the left side of the screen as the camera snap zooms is brilliant.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:47 pm
by domino harvey
I think it’s still just me, Scorsese, and maybe Pauline Kael that prefer Part II to the original? I don’t like this one at all though, but there’s a very vocal contingent on the board that loves it
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 6:04 pm
by mfunk9786
I heard this being discussed in two different places over the last few weeks, oddly - outside of Film Twitter and this board - and the consensus was definitely that the second is very bad and the third is excellent and genuinely terrifying. I've seen neither, for the record.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 6:13 pm
by Mr Sausage
Count me among those who find the second unwatchable but the third effective and entertaining.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 7:55 pm
by The Curious Sofa
Unlike the original, which I first saw at a cinema full of hard to impress teenagers who were in hysterics over the expletives, The Exorcist III was one of the few films which truly scared me the first time I saw it. The scene with the nurse is one of the all time great horror sequences. The studio imposed scenes with Nigel Williamson’s exorcist are awkwardly integrated in the theatrical cut, so the Legion cut is a fascinating alternative. While it requires some imagination, much of the additional footage is of very poor quality and it’s basically an incomplete film, it hints at the far better movie this could have been.
Exorcist II is so thoroughly nuts, it’s worth a watch.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 7:57 pm
by colinr0380
In a serendipitous coincidence
the Red Letter Media channel has done a video discussing the film today. I like their comment that the dark and despairing tone of the world shown in the film is strikingly similar to the one set in Se7en from a few years after. It even has the bad guy explaining their 'grand plans' at the end! And Brad Dourif talking about decapitation makes his later appearance in Dario Argento's Trauma, getting decapitated himself, all the more amusing!
(I'd go a bit further and say that Exorcist III makes a good double bill with Bad Lieutenant as well!)
Exorcist III has had quite an influence on later horror films too. I'd suggest the body hopping demon in that Denzel Washington film Fallen is similar to the one here. And the bizarre sight of Miriam Margolyes beating up Arnold Schwarzenegger in End of Days shows another little older lady showing supernatural strength!
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 9:30 pm
by Finch
It's a pity that Blatty's film work has been preserved so poorly, or in the case the masters of Dourif's original scenes from Legion and other footage, destroyed because Blatty was a fine filmmaker in his own right, quieter than the comparatively blunt style of Friedkin. The VHS quality of the cut material next to the restored 2k stuff makes for a very rough viewing experience but seeing Dourif's full performance is very fascinating. The Legion cut is not without its own problems: I find it lags a bit in places and the score is still overbearing and the scene of Kinderman racing to his house to catch the nurse feels a bit jarring as does the very abrupt ending but despite all of that, both cuts of the film ooze atmosphere and the Legion version doubles down on the already considerable creepy feeling of the theatrical. Neither cut comes close to matching The Ninth Configuration but just the same they're some of the most unnerving films I've come across, getting under my skin in a way Friedkin's film rarely does (apart from the sounds of the tape and the subliminal Pazuzu flashes).
And if you like the film, you've got to read Blatty's novel which it adheres to pretty closely.
Exorcist III: C+
Legion: B
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2020 6:43 pm
by Rayon Vert
There are some elements missing in the above description of the disc contents.
Disc One:
Falling Down a Long Flight of Steps, an interview with special effects artist Randy Moore
(also, FYI, the Blatty audio interview is near-feature-length, 1h40, and runs with the film - it was recorded in 2016)
Disc Two:
Brand New Legion audio commentary with esteemed film critics Mark Kermode and Kim Newman
Deleted Prologue, an alternate opening to Legion with optional audio commentary from Mark Kermode and Kim Newman
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 1:19 pm
by Grand Wazoo
Having never seen this, which cut does everyone recommend I watch first?
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 1:45 pm
by The Curious Sofa
Grand Wazoo wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 1:19 pm
Having never seen this, which cut does everyone recommend I watch first?
I'd say, watch the theatrical cut first. For all its flaws, it's a finished film and the best sequences still work. Then watch the directors cut to see what this could/should have been, without forcing it into the Exorcist mould. The director's cut is a reconstruction, often using rough footage from a variety of sources and it's more an impression of what was intended, so it's helpful to have the theatrical cut in your mind as a road map.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 2:29 pm
by Rayon Vert
Same here.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 4:08 am
by therewillbeblus
Finally watched this today (the theatrical version, not the director's cut) and it was a mixed bag, but ultimately won me over because its sincerity lives and dies within the realms of what this kind of premise should materialize as in its right-sized approach. I appreciated the shamelessly batshit bandaid-ripping activity, with gruesomeness contained in brevity rather than drawn out into some attempt at an art film or dramatic spectacle like its predecessors. The third installment embraces the camp and cutthroat unhinged horror, in a manner that respectfully ventures just outside of an internal logic with surreal setpieces. It's concisely economic and brutal, yet cartoonishly delicious and narratively berserk, with a just-barely-cathartic ending that sells these strengths hard. The detective angle offers a sideways entrance into the gonzo territory, with nothing making too much sense nor asking us to consider it mattering all that much either- though I found it subtly affective, likely because in forsaking ultra-serious emphasis on the mythology or character development, we are granted a more visceral digestion of the tired fatalism, understandably reflexive confusion, and general powerlessness at reckoning with these smothering obstacles. This is the most “entertaining” of the series so far, which seem to increasingly get better (though I don't particularly 'like' any all that much, I will join the small club of preferring the second to the first). However, I don’t know if I want to keep going and test this theory further!
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 12:05 pm
by Finch
Schrader's film has some interesting ideas and powerful moments but it's also for the most part just lifeless. Renny Harlin's take has some plot similarities and it's absolutely wretched. I felt sorry for Stellan Skarsgaard. Outside of a film school class where these two films would make a fascinating study of two different sensibilities and styles, I wouldn't recommend either version of the fourth film.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 12:15 pm
by therewillbeblus
I figured as much.. but I may be possessed into doing it anyways. Also, I'm not in a rush to see the DC of III since it seemingly omits the entire final setpiece in favor of a bleaker, stripped-down one, which in theory sounds great but runs counter to what I think worked so well in this version
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 2:19 pm
by knives
I like the Harlin version which has, for me, the scariest moment in all the films.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 2:25 pm
by therewillbeblus
Fine, you've convinced me, I'm going to keep betting on red
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 3:41 pm
by The Curious Sofa
Watching both of the Exorcist 4 prequels still is an interesting experience, seeing the same story told by directors with opposing sensibilities. Both are bad films but the Renny Harlin version is the more entertaining take.
While I appreciate the 70s naturalism of Friedkin's direction, I don't really like the original The Exorcist. For all its flaws, III is the only one of the films I care for and the recent tv series with Geena Davis had its moments.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 3:41 pm
by knives
Don’t forget to read the small print.
(liking is never necessarily tied to quality)
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 4:26 pm
by Mr Sausage
knives wrote:I like the Harlin version which has, for me, the scariest moment in all the films.
Which moment?
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 4:35 pm
by knives
Promise not to laugh, but when the insane guy commits suicide. Don’t know why that unnerved me, but it does.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 5:32 pm
by Mr Sausage
knives wrote:Promise not to laugh, but when the insane guy commits suicide. Don’t know why that unnerved me, but it does.
knives wrote:Promise not to laugh, but when the insane guy commits suicide. Don’t know why that unnerved me, but it does.
The guy who keeps imagining bugs crawling into his mouth?
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 5:54 pm
by knives
I think so. He cuts his throat open.
Re: The Exorcist III
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 7:28 pm
by Mr Sausage
knives wrote:I think so. He cuts his throat open.
I remember him shooting himself in the mouth after hallucinating a bug scuttling into it. Are there two suicides in the movie? Am I remembering Schrader’s version?