A church door opens and leaves and rubbish come flying in. We collectively poop ourselves as a large crucifix opens its eyes. Cut to Detective William Kinderman, who is investigating the hideous murder of a young boy. He then goes to the cinema with a priest friend called Father Dyer. They watch It's a Wonderful life and Kinderman gives Dyer gory details of the boy's murder. The next day they come across the decapitated body of a priest. Dyer has to go into hospital and he is found drained of all his blood and ITS A WONDERFULL LIFE is written in blood on the wall. Kinderman has concerns about the murders revolving around different finger prints and modus operandi. It reminds him of the 'Gemini' Killer who always wrote with double Ls' (e.g, carefull) and the murders all bear the genuine bonafide Gemini Killer trade marks which are only known to the police because they wanted to prevent people from making false claims about the murderer. They told the press that Gemini severed the left middle finger of his victims and carved a Gemini symbol on the back of the victim. However, Gemini was really extracting the right index finger and carved the symbol in his left palm. Kinderman heads over to the psychiatric hospital where the head of the Ward - Dr Temple - introduces him to a patient who was catatonic but came around and claimed to be the Gemini murder after the spate of recent killings. This patient resembles Kinderman's friend Father Damien Karras but he denies all knowledge of him. Next morning, Temple and a nurse are dead. The patient claims that the demon that possessed Regan in the original Exorcist was outraged at being ousted from her body and it entered Damien's body. This particular demon leaves the Gemini Killer's soul to run free at night, inhabiting the senile old patient's bodies and making them commit crimes. In a terrifying scene, Gemini gets an old lady to go to Kinderman's house and attempt to decapitate his daughter Julie with the scariest looking pair of shearers you are likely to ever see. Kinderman goes back to the hospital and a nasty exorcism, with a priest called Father Morning ensues. Can they overcome the demon? I vastly prefer Exorcist III to the original. It is much, much more scary. We shall never speak of Exorcist II again, but Exorcist III deserves more love and appreciation from the horror community for it's genuine shocks and gruesome murders. It is a truly disturbing film which is much more frightening than watching a little girl give priests the run around and puke a lot of pea green soup. The original Exorcist went for the gut, Exorcist III goes for the mind and plays a lot of cerebral games with the viewer. It has a dark sense of humour with terrifying visuals. Slasher movie fans may be bored by it, but I found it to be much more creepy than the creepiest, scariest slasher movie that I ever watched (which is Stagefright by Michele Soavi). Exorcist III benefits from some fantastic acting and characterisation which mainly consists of old men sitting around talking to each other - George C Scott as Kinderman gives an amazing performance as a world weary cop who nevertheless is compelled to get to the bottom of the case. When he has lunch with Father Dyer, the chemistry between the two actors is so potent, you can believe that they have been good friends for years. And Brad Dourif - as Father Karras/The Gemini Killer shows his acting range way beyond doing voice over for a certain homicidal doll. There is graphic horror and there is explicit horror in the movie. Films dealing with the topic of Satanism can be prone to silliness. However, Exorcist III really sells its idea very well and I declare it the most underrated horror movie of all time.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
