The Exorcist III (Film Review)

1990 20th Century Fox
Written and Directed by: William Peter Blatty
Starring: George C. Scott, Ed Flanders, Jason Miller, Scott Wilson, Nicol Williamson, and Brad Dourif
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 110 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 5/10

Lieutenant William F. Kinderman and Father Joseph Dyer, united by the shared trauma of losing their good friend, Father Karras, fifteen years before, like to get together and bust each other's balls. Man, who came up with that expression? Anyway, weird stuff starts to happen, Dyer gets hospitalized, and then, before you know if, someone exsanguinates his body and tidily puts the blood in a bunch of jars next to his hospital bed. I hate it when that happens. Then, and you're not gonna believe this, things get even stranger. Kinderman visits the hospital's psychiatric ward, and finds a man who looks exactly like the deceased Karras. Then things get even stranger, when Kinderman discovers that this might not only be Karras' actual body, but that body is possessed by the spirit of the Gemini Killer, who was executed 15 years before. Wait, what?
The Exorcist III, written and directed by The Exorcist author and screenwriter, William Peter Blatty, is many things, and "weird" is one of them. I found myself enjoying the film's first half, which features excellent cinematography and a truly bizarre, dreamlike vibe, including exchanges between characters that feel like the real sort of humorous small talk Hollywood rarely captures accurately. George C. Scott, as Kinderman, has great chemistry with Ed Flanders as Father Dyer. The two feel like real life old friends, whose chop-busting rests on the surface of a deep ocean of respect. Also in that first half, there's a surreal dream sequence that features New York Knick's center, Patrick Ewing, as The Angel of Death and Fabio as an angel. That's not something you see everyday, or ever, except in The Exorcist III.
However, Blatty's ideas are far too complex to satisfactorily fit in this 110 minute film. The tie-ins with the original 1973 film don't feel earned, and the twists and turns are, frankly, ridiculous. At a certain point, The Exorcist III's storytelling feels like that of a parent making up a bedtime story as they go along. 

The acting, though, I found fairly brilliant. George C Scott received a Razzie nomination for his performance here, but 30-plus years later, his committal to the intensity of the part feels admirable. Scott spends the second half of the film going head-to-head with Brad Dourif, whose form Karras' body morphs into when he speaks, I think because Karras' body is filled with a legion of demons, and this is the Gemini Killer's voice? Whatever the case, Dourif is incredible, and the many, many drawn out, monologue-heavy scenes between Dourif and Scott feel like heavyweight battles. Too bad the film doesn't provide much of a ring for them to duke it out in.