I tend to feel compelled to add reviews for movies I feel strongly about, where I disagree with the majority of sentiments previously given.
This film is a finely crafted psychological horror film, the result of some impressive direction by William Peter Blatty, and strong performances by George C Scott and Brad Dourif.
I hear a lot of people praising The Exorcist, but I always found the original incarnation of that film lacking in story continuity. I had read the novel many years prior to seeing it, and must say I was disappointed with the film (although not the book). In fact, I actually fell asleep twice watching The Exorcist, and had to watch it several times to see the film in it's entirety. I found the flow of the story was pretty horrid, so I was continually wondering if I had missed a particular scene which future scenes seemed to be referencing. I hadn't - they had been removed. Later on, reading comments and seeing interviews with Blatty, he basically said the same thing. They were a point of contention between Blatty (the screenwriter for Exorcist) and William Freidkin (the director) over a period of more than 20 years. The updated release has apparently corrected some of these story problems (where footage was still available), but I have yet to see it. Apparently Blatty's incessant nagging had some effect.
In fact, the aspect of The Exorcist I appreciated the most were the background they provide for Exorcist III. In particular, the original ending (which was cut from the original release), showing the beginning of the friendship between Detective Kinderman and Father Dyer; and the background on other characters featured in III.
Exorcist III continues from where The Exorcist ended, although many years later. The friendship between Kinderman and Dyer has survived the years, and begins with the arrival of a force of evil in the town, in the form of a series of brutal religious motivated killings. Kinderman links these murders to people from the original Exorcist, and discovers that both an old friend and an old enemy he thought dead may still be alive. Although (not to give too much away here) in the same body.
Brad Dourif gives an outstanding performance as the Gemini Killer. I honestly feel myself cowering under his verbal onslaught in certain scenes of this film. Dourif is an actor I would dearly love to see more of in films. And Blatty is someone I'd dearly love to see directing more horror films.
The violence in this film is primarily off camera, but there are some excruciatingly suspenseful and impressively choreographed scenes leading up to deaths. In particular, there is a scene leading to the death of a Nurse. It is shown from a fixed camera perspective, where the actual death is off camera. The tension is built up to so well it is actually more shocking than if you saw it on camera, where your overstressed imagination fills in the blanks. The horror seems very real and personal in this film. The only real gore of the film comes in at the ending. I had read elsewhere that this ending was not the ending the director originally had, but was added at the `request' of the studio to make the film more horrific. I would be interested in seeing a special edition DVD of this title, but given it is an entirely overlooked film, there is little chance (but I guess if an insignificant film such as `Romper Stomper' can get a 2 disc special edition, I guess anything can happen).
This film is a finely crafted psychological horror film, the result of some impressive direction by William Peter Blatty, and strong performances by George C Scott and Brad Dourif.
I hear a lot of people praising The Exorcist, but I always found the original incarnation of that film lacking in story continuity. I had read the novel many years prior to seeing it, and must say I was disappointed with the film (although not the book). In fact, I actually fell asleep twice watching The Exorcist, and had to watch it several times to see the film in it's entirety. I found the flow of the story was pretty horrid, so I was continually wondering if I had missed a particular scene which future scenes seemed to be referencing. I hadn't - they had been removed. Later on, reading comments and seeing interviews with Blatty, he basically said the same thing. They were a point of contention between Blatty (the screenwriter for Exorcist) and William Freidkin (the director) over a period of more than 20 years. The updated release has apparently corrected some of these story problems (where footage was still available), but I have yet to see it. Apparently Blatty's incessant nagging had some effect.
In fact, the aspect of The Exorcist I appreciated the most were the background they provide for Exorcist III. In particular, the original ending (which was cut from the original release), showing the beginning of the friendship between Detective Kinderman and Father Dyer; and the background on other characters featured in III.
Exorcist III continues from where The Exorcist ended, although many years later. The friendship between Kinderman and Dyer has survived the years, and begins with the arrival of a force of evil in the town, in the form of a series of brutal religious motivated killings. Kinderman links these murders to people from the original Exorcist, and discovers that both an old friend and an old enemy he thought dead may still be alive. Although (not to give too much away here) in the same body.
Brad Dourif gives an outstanding performance as the Gemini Killer. I honestly feel myself cowering under his verbal onslaught in certain scenes of this film. Dourif is an actor I would dearly love to see more of in films. And Blatty is someone I'd dearly love to see directing more horror films.
The violence in this film is primarily off camera, but there are some excruciatingly suspenseful and impressively choreographed scenes leading up to deaths. In particular, there is a scene leading to the death of a Nurse. It is shown from a fixed camera perspective, where the actual death is off camera. The tension is built up to so well it is actually more shocking than if you saw it on camera, where your overstressed imagination fills in the blanks. The horror seems very real and personal in this film. The only real gore of the film comes in at the ending. I had read elsewhere that this ending was not the ending the director originally had, but was added at the `request' of the studio to make the film more horrific. I would be interested in seeing a special edition DVD of this title, but given it is an entirely overlooked film, there is little chance (but I guess if an insignificant film such as `Romper Stomper' can get a 2 disc special edition, I guess anything can happen).