The Exorcist III: Legion (1990)

(In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) The good news is that The Exorcist III: Legion is quite a bit better than its ridiculous predecessor… but that’s not saying much considering that The Exorcist II is widely hailed as one of the worst sequels of all time (certainly one of the sharpest quality drop-offs between original and follow-up). This one, written and directed by William Peter Blatty (who wrote the screenplay for the first film, based on his own novel), does get closer to the spirit of the original by having a good-versus-evil face-off that often plays in conversation, tying it with Catholic mythology and a contemporary horror such as a serial killer with demonic affiliations. The Exorcist III does turn weird very quickly, though, with plenty of oddball moments that are nonetheless constrained into an overall vision rather than just a grab bag of strange stuff. George C. Scott (as Good) and Brad Dourif (as Evil) are somewhat fun to watch as they respectively try to outdo each other, but the film is perhaps a bit too sedate to accommodate such moments without creaking. Despite some scenes that work more through suggestion than schlock, the film is curiously talky and unevenly interesting. Furthermore, well-documented studio interference forced the inclusion of a climactic exorcism scene (ensuring that the studio got what it paid for as an entry in the series) despite Blatty’s initial intentions—and while the shift in tone is noticeable, I’m not convinced it necessarily made the film any worse. Still, by avoiding the unexplainable looniness of its predecessor, The Exorcist III: Legion merely settled for being an ambitious but underwhelming horror film—which is still quite a bit better than many other examples of the genre.