Scarce Scares
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday February 28, 1991
THE EXORCIST III, unlike its original namesake, is decidedly not one of the scariest films ever made, which may be considered a blessing by some.
Indeed, apart from the involvement of William Peter Blatty, who wrote The Exorcist's screenplay and the novel it was based upon, and a tenuous plot link to Father Karras, the priest who fell to his death in the first film, it has little to do with its predecessor at all.
Blatty declares in the press kit that comedy is his speciality, and, at first, it seems as if he has realised this is a trashy project and decided to have some fun.
The first half hour is enlivened by some very witty dialogue, with George C. Scott proving a delight as a gruff, literature-loving police lieutenant investigating a number of gruesome (aren't they always?) serial killings -which Blatty has the sense not to show.
A number of priests are dispatched, while the title of Frank Capra's homely comedy It's a Wonderful Life is written (misspelt) in a victim's blood on a wall.
It's all much funnier than the recent Exorcist send-up, Repossessed, but when it starts to lose its campness the film hits snore factor nine.
An all-over-the-shop plot, featuring Nicol Williamson as a mysterious priest and Brad Dourif as a psychopath, turns out to be another silly variation on the serial-killer-returns-from-the-grave theme, used recently in The First Power and Wes Craven's Shocker.
While there's one or two creepy scenes, there's nothing to cause heart attacks. Come back, Linda Blair, all is forgiven.
© 1991 Sydney Morning Herald