William Peter Blatty's The Excorcist III is my favourite in the series, and if that leaves some people aghast with disbelief, I'll still hold my stance. Don't get me wrong, the first film is a classic of atmospheric dread, the sequel is a psychedelic oddity that's also very underrated, but there's something about this one that just sat better with me than any of the others, including the two prequels with Stellen Skarsgard. This one deviates from the pattern as well as lifts the focus from Linda Blair's character, paving a cool new story for itself and breaking new ground. It's also got one of the single most terrifying moments I've ever seen on film, orchestrated perfectly enough to give a good dose of goosebumps to the strongest of spines. The immortal and always excellent George C. Scott plays Kinderman, a police lieutenant who is on the trail of a bloodthirsty serial murderer nicknamed The Gemini Killer. The killer himself has actually been long deceased, but uncanny similarities in the current crimes have freaked the police right out, and so he follows the clues to a foreboding psychiatric facility. It soon becomes clear that there's something very mysterious going on, and something very wrong with the patients. Skittish Dr. Temple (Scott Wilson) seems to know what's going on, but also seems not to, or to be too scared to divulge anything. A terrifying patient named James Venuman (Brad Dourif is so scary you'll want to hide behind the couch) seems to contain something malevolent inside him, his ravings making eerie sense to the detective. There's a few surprise cameos from veterans of the franchise, as well as work from Ed Flanders, Nicol Williamson and, believe it or not, an appearance from Fabio, of all people. The atmosphere is so thick you could choke on it, the dread hanging in the air like clammy mist, helped in part by the disturbing choice of location, Dourif's sheer ghoul act and cinematographer Gerry Fisher's camera, which lurks along walls and corridors and turns the facility into a haunted house, and our nerves into a jittering mess. Underrated as both a standalone fright flick and as an entry in the Excorcist series. Top notch creepfest.
Review of The Exorcist III
