[granville1]

Ex III Legion was a very uneven film. However, it has given me much satisfaction even through multiple viewings… so I can say it’s one of my favorite movies (though, in parts, it’s a “guilty pleasure”).

I don’t regard Kinderman’s dream as taking place in heaven – looks more like purgatory or the bardo state. People aren’t there permanently, that’s why it resembles a train station. Also I like that the scene’s lead-in is a shot of a rosary falling through space – a nod to Friedkin’s shot of the St Joseph medal falling in Karras’s dream.

Some of it was ludicrous, e.g., the “sharp as a tack” Kinderman standing not three feet away from the decapitated Christ statue; the invented bit of “Damien Karras was my best friend”; especially miserable was the “wheelchair patient exposes himself to the nurse” scene – in the first film the sick and mentally ill, though disturbing to see, were treated compassionately as victims – but Legion ineptly makes them “spooky” -or ribald, as in the exhibitionist scene.

The “ceiling crawl” didn’t strike me as funny. It creeped me out the first time I saw it – because it was completely unexpected. Up to that point the film had not prepared the viewer for any egregiously paranormal activity (other than the Pazuzu wind blowing through the church & Morning’s room – that kind of thing). So when the old lady ceiling-creeps, it it did make me jump a little. Granted, it’s a silly image, but so was Regan’s “spider walk” and head-spinning – and _those_ didn’t get too many laughs, nor were they intended to.

Anyway, I don’t expect tons of folks to love Legion – especially since I do consider it a guilty pleasure… but oh, how I’d like to see some of the lost scenes restored, e.g., Kinderman’s “goodbye” to the dead Karras in the coroner’s autopsy room…

[Gabriel]

Calling John Boorman, the director of films such as Excalibur and Point Blank – an acknowledged classic crime film – ‘unqualified’ and ‘boring’ is a bit bizarre!

Boorman, like many others who worked on Exorcist II, got caught up in a compromised mess, buried in misfortune and studio politics. For all the rubbishy elements, Exorcist II is absolutely dripping in atmosphere, has a great score and some fabulous imagery.

Exorcist III suffers because it came out at a time when gory horror films like the Elm Street and Friday 13th movies were prevalent. Had Exorcist III been made five years later when The X Files had become popular, it might have stood a better chance of being left intact!

Indeed the original Legion film isn’t that far off being a classic X Files story itself (given Brad Dourif’s not dissimilar role in the episode ‘Beyond the Sea!)

[kokumo]

I think “Exorcist II: The Heretic” is a terrible sequel but in terms of film-making is quite brilliant and fascinating. A reviewer named Pauline Kael decribed it as having enough movie magic for 12 movies and I tend to agree. People who love “The Exorcist” tend to hate “The Heretic” and it’s easy to see why. Blattys’ “The Exorcist III” is slightly flawed but it’s smart and scary and perfectly cast & expertly directed. I love them both. It’s that noisy, edited-in-a-blender “Exorcist: The Beginning” which should be vilified. I still can’t believe the studio shat all over Schraders’ “Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist” in favor of that twaddle.

[Holy7]

Storyline with Exorcist II probably would have been okay if they had chosen a qualified Director because Boorman=Boring and the audience laughed at the sync session where Regan rolls her eyes a bit…

Exorcist III…..VERY Dissapointing and poorly made …..except for the language, the released version could have been shown on network tv with very little editing(Only maybe needed on exorcism scene)”…
When the Heaven scene came up and went into fast play mode, everybody starting laughing because I think they thought that was the intention but wasn’t and the scene where the old lady was climbing on the ceiling, they got a big laugh also…….
In all, if you read the Legion novel, and was expecting that from the movie, then you probably weren’t too dissapointed but the mass public was left feeling cheated.

[granville1]

Ex III Legion is one of my favorite films, but in some ways it’s a guilty pleasure. I think Blatty missed a few points by:

Not keeping the “night of the MacNeil exorcism” scene where Kinderman sees Karras’s corpse in the autopsy room and says, “Goodbye, Damien.” Scott could have grown a mustache for the part to at least suggest the Kinderman viewers are familiar with. In fact the immediate post-Karras window-jump scene could have been re-shot with a mustached-and-hatted Scott looking out of Regan’s shattered window. A darker-hair-dyed Ed Flanders could also show up at the bottom of the steps to hear Damien’s last confession.

Having Kinderman standing not two feet distant from a huge, glaring murder clue: the decapitated Christ statue in the hospital corridor. The real Kinderman would not have missed this.

Making mentally afflicted people spooky. Friedkin’s film avoided this – when Karras visits his mother in the hospital, the afflicted are seen as such. Their _afflictions_ are presented as disturbing, but the patients themselves retain their humanity. They are not used for cheap laughs as when in Legion the elderly wheelchair patient exposes himself to the nurse. That’s bad, pandering writing – and it isn’t funny.

Rolling the beginning credits over the long shot moving down the Georgetown street. This shot is sufficiently creepy that it deserves not to be cluttered over with writing. Also, the writing tends to obscure the _very_ creepy cassocked priest who runs across the street twice – a very important element of shading and resonance for the film.

False scares should have had no place in this film, e.g., the church secretary who screams at Kinderman while delivering notes of a speech to the college president; the knife-wielding saint “Joker” statue in the college building’s lobby; the ice cracking in the glass and the patient screaming at Nurse Keating. The original Exorcist was free of all these kinds of cliched, false scares – except the scene where Karl startles Chris in the attic. However, this scene was integral to telling the “poltergeist” element of the story, and was therefore justified. Not so Legion’s junk scares.

Scott’s nasty, aggressive Kinderman – unrecognizable as the Kinderman of the novel and original film. Also the invented long-term “best” friendship between Kinderman and Karras. This could have been remedied somewhat by a newly-shot flashback showing Scott and Karras interacting as friends 15 years earlier. Granted, this would also be “invention,” but it would make Kinderman’s statements of “best” friendship with Karras more plausible. It could have been shot at a distance with requisite CGI and makeup to make Scott and Miller appear younger.

Still, Exorcist III Legion, with all its flaws, still remains one of my best-liked films.

[Author]

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