[spicediver]

I'm doing some research on Exorcist III/Legion and was wondering if somebody here could answer a question for me?

In the version that Blatty first shot and screened for the studio, we all know that in the film's final scene Kinderman executes the Gemini Killer/Father Karras in his cell.

I'd like to know how the *previous* scene played out as originally shot – the scene where the possessed Nurse X attacks Kinderman's daughter.

Specifically, what stops Nurse X in her tracks in the 1st version Blatty shot?

In the released version of the movie, she collapses in Kinderman's living room after the exorcist Father Morning walks into the isolation ward at the hospital to perform his exorcism.

In Blatty's published early Legion screenplay (Faber & Faber books, 1998), she collapses when the Gemini Killer suddenly dies in his cell at the moment his hated father dies of natural causes (as per the novel). I'm certain Blatty didn't shoot  this version of Nurse X's demise. It would make no sense in context of the changed final scene in the shooting script where Kinderman kills the Gemini and frees Karras.

So I wonder what *does* happen to Nurse X in Blatty's original cut before the studio changed the film?

If anyone can answer this question I'd be most grateful!

thanks.

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