This week, I got together for a little film review with the Grandmaster Movie Maven, Mr. Dan Dorman. Probably under the influence of the time of year, we skimmed through some of the films from the Exorcist series.
Dan has a kind of ADD method of “skimming” movies, to show selected highlights. In this way, we were able to browse through three films.
I had seen the original The Exorcist (1973), although I haven’t watched it in some time, and had skipped its sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), since it is supposed to be a mess.
First up was The Exorcist III (1990), which was written and directed by William Peter Blatty, the guy who wrote the original Exorcist book and movie. It’s more of a direct sequel to the original film.
Jason Miller reprises his role of Father Damien Karras; yeah, I know he dies at the end of the first film, but that’s a plot point in Exorcist III. Originally, the villain of the piece was the Gemini Killer, played by Brad Dourif. After testing the film, the producers decided to add Miller, so that a member of the original cast of The Exorcist could tie the films together. Dourif’s character is inhabiting the body of Father Karras, so that you see both Dourif and Miller playing the role. The characters of Lt. Bill Kinderman and Father Dyer are also back, but played by new actors.
George C. Scott has a great monlogue about a carp (Just watch; you’ll see what I mean). The scenes of Dourif being interrogated in his cell are quite effective, due to the manipulation of the audio of his voice. There’s also a creepy scene with a nurse being attacked by an eerie figure in white; I think the reason it works is because the sequence almost completely done in long shot. Still, it was hard for me to get the past the fact that this movie is not really a demon-possession story, but rather the old “Serial Killer Comes Back From Beyond The Grave.”
Then we moved on to the two latest installments: Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005). There is a fascinating story behind these movies, which is unique in film history. Production company Morgan Creek had the rights to make an Exorcist movie. They started with director John Frankenheimer, but then he had to quit for health reasons and died. Paul Schraeder took over the project. He shot the whole movie, starring Stellan Skarsgård as a young Father Merrin. After he turned it in, Morgan Creek decided they didn’t like it. They fired Schraeder and shelved his version. They then hired Renny Harlin to re-shoot the whole film. Skarsgård and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro stayed on, but the script was re-written and the rest of the cast was replaced.
The new version did okay, but not great, in the theaters. Schrader’s version was later released as well. Dan’s assessment: Both versions suck. Based on what I saw, I can’t disagree.
Dan pointed out how the last scene of Schraeder’s version contains two obvious John Ford references: One from She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and one from The Searchers. After a funky flashback to the Crusades, Harlin’s version begins by visually ripping off Raiders of the Lost Ark. Then, we noticed how Skarsgård even looks like John Wayne in both movies. If you ever see them, watch his face. It’s kind of eerie.
One Response
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Dan Dorman Says:
excellent re-cap!