So, my friend has recently watched ‘The Exorcist’ and she said that it was crap. Now I am open to different people having different opinions on films and everyone has different tastes. But sometimes people don’t know what hey are talking about and go from being friends to work colleagues. But to be fair I hadn’t seen the film in a long time, so I thought I’d give her a fair shake and rewatch to see if she had a point. And this then turned into me watching the whole series for Franchise Friday. Having only ever seen the first film beforehand I was very intrigued to see what the rest of the series had to offer. Would I be pleasantly surprised with what I saw, or would I hold a grudge against my friend for giving me the idea to watch the series? Let’s find out!
The Exorcist (1973)
A true classic of cinema. This film had such a profound impact upon its initial release and has continued to do so ever since its release. My dad even made a point of visiting my mum, who lived in a catholic household, shortly after he had first seen it to warn her against watching it herself. This huge reputation that the film built did have an effect on my enjoyment of the film upon my first watch as I was expecting to be terrified and was left a little disappointed. However, it has grown on me on every rewatch and this time around I think it finally fully clicked for me. This film is truly spectacular. It definitely isn’t perfect, and I think, ironically, it is at it’s weakest during the exorcism scenes where the make up and effects don’t hold up hugely well and are a little silly. But the film is beautifully shot and is full of incredible performances, with the standouts being Ellen Burstyn, Lee J. Cobb and Jason Miller. It is also pretty horrific. I think the film suffers from its reputation of being ‘the scariest film of all time’ which it isn’t. I wouldn’t say it is very scary at all, but it is definitely horrific. There are several scenes in this film which are horrible to watch, with the majority being where Reagan is being tested in the hospital rather than when she is possessed. There is one scene in particular that is so slow and shows the whole process in such pain staking detail and it is horrifying to watch. The strongest aspect of the film is the atmosphere that it creates. There is an atmosphere of evil from the opening moments of the film and this is where the horror comes from. It is an atmosphere that is not seen in many other films and it may not be any better than it is here. Not the greatest horror of all time but it does knock at that door. Truly superb.
Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
Okay, what the fuck was that? I mean seriously, you want to follow up one of the most revered horror films of all time with this? This film is pure shit. Genuinely horrible. And I had heard it was going to be bad going in, but this was one of the worst films I have ever seen kind of bad. Now, for anyone who happened to read my list of my 100 worst films ever you might think that actually isn’t to much of an insult as I don’t watch all that many films I actively dislike. Well this one can be added to that list. Okay let’s get what’s good out the way first. There are some decent visuals and the vilm visits the natural history museum in New York twice and both times I was reminded about when I went, and I smiled. The rest is pure crap. Seriously, I can’t do it justice in this review. If you enjoy ‘The Exorcist’ watch this film and you will see just how bad it is. The acting? atrocious. The directing? horrendous. The scares? non-existent? The dialogue? laughable. And all of this is more surprising because there are a lot of talented people who worked on this. This isn’t some low budget horror made by people starting out in the business, this is made with seasoned veterans, Oscar nominees, and they produce whatever the fuck this film is. And it’s biggest crime? It is so unimaginably dull. Like watching paint dry if the paint also happened to be watching paint dry. I know that doesn’t make sense but neither does this film so I’m keeping it in. Mark Kermode has said that this is the worst film ever made and while I wouldn’t go along with that I certainly see where he is coming from. I have also heard that the next film in the series is actually decent so hopefully it will cleanse me from the shit show I have just witnessed.
The Exorcist III: Legion (1990)
Yes. This is how you do a sequel to ‘The Exorcist’. This was great. Now, it isn’t anywhere close to being as good as the original film, but it manages to not only capture that same atmosphere of evil that I wouldn’t shut up about from the first film while also managing to feel like it’s own beast. This is definitely helped by the fact that the writer and director is William Peter Blatty who wrote ‘The Exorcist’ novel, and it turns out he is a pretty decent director as well. The film is full of great performances from George C. Scott, Brad Dourif, and Jason Miller, with Brad Dourif in particular being brilliantly entertaining. The film is also full of brilliant visuals, whether these be quite subtle or completely overblown. The religious imagery is a large part of this film and it is used both to build atmosphere as well as create some genuinely spectacular visual moments, even if they can be a little bit silly at times. Although saying that, one moment which sounds silly when described is actually pulled off brilliantly and is super creepy (it involves an old woman crawling on the ceiling). This film is also home to one of the best jump scares of all time. Now, anyone who reads my reviews regularly will know that I am often very harsh on jump scares because I feel like they are often used as cheap scares. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be good or even great when deployed properly, and this film does just that. The scene leading up to the scare is hugely tense and there are several moments which are used to fake you out before truly scaring you, and it doesn’t deploy the scare into the tension is at its maximum. It is masterfully done and makes all these modern-day jump scares even more infuriating at how cheap they are. Like I said earlier, I had heard that this film was decent, but I was very surprised to find it actually surpassed my expectations. A genuinely great film that I will definitely be coming back to, and a great pick me up after the horror show that was ‘Exorcist II: The Heretic’. Why do I get the feeling it is all downhill from here?
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
I had no idea just how right I was. This film may actually be even worse than ‘Exorcist II: The Heretic’ and I am not even kidding. First of all, who was asking for this? Who wanted to see what Father Merrin was up to before the event of the first film? No one? That’s what I thought. But the fact that no one wanted this doesn’t count as an excuse for how genuinely awful it is. Like the second film, it is extremely boring, but whereas the second film still has some memorable moments I have almost forgotten everything that happens in this one. There are two scenes that I remember, and it is not because I have positive things to say. One of these scenes involves hyenas eating a young boy and the other is the final scene where Merrin goes up against the possessed love interest. Oh yeah, he has a love interest in this film for no reason other than shits films have to have extremely poorly written love interests for no reason. But the reason these two scenes are memorable is because the CGI in them is so horrendously bad that it is comical. It is some of the worst CGI I have ever seen; the hyenas in ‘The Lion King’ (1994) look more realistic. I also have to mention Stellan Skarsgard’s performance. I like him an actor, but he is slumming it big time in this film. I feel like either the director told him to be this terrible or he did not care enough to try. I would probably go for the first one seeing as he is also in the sequel so he couldn’t have hated it that much. But the worst part of the film is the fact that it heavily involves Nazi’s and the holocaust. I am not even kidding. There are several flashback scenes too WWII and Nazis being shitty, and it has absolutely no bearing on anything. It is completely unneeded, and I have no idea why it is included in an ‘Exorcist’ film. It makes no sense. I can’t imagine the sequel is any worse than this film, but I also didn’t think any of this series could be worse than ‘Exorcist II: The Heretic’ so I could be in for a rough couple hours.
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
This was easily the most surprising of film of the series. Not because it was surprisingly good or surprisingly bad, but because it is the same film as he fourth one. I’m not kidding either, this film was finished but the studio felt that it would be a financial flop so got a new director in to make a different film using the same base idea. So, the remake of this film came out before the original itself. To be fair, both films are quite different rather than the basic narrative plots. The tone of both films is different, a lot of the major events and characters are changed, and Stellan Skarsgard feels like he cares. He actually puts in a pretty decent performance in this film and I want to apologise for being harsh on his performance in the last film seeing as it was the second time he was doing it. The theme of the film are also much more coherently shown in this film, and even the uses of Nazis is warranted and adds to the film rather than being completely useless and added for shock value. The film explores themes of evil existing within the human condition and it not just being a creation of supernatural forces and it makes the film a much more interesting watch than the bog standard, shite horror film that they went for with the fourth film. However, although this film is a much better version of the fourth film, it still suffers from being a little dull and I think it is because it is a little too long. I think this film could have benefited from being 20 minutes shorter and with a slightly faster pace. It is pondering and deliberate in its pace and I think it might actually work for other people but for me I wasn’t invested enough in the story to really connect and care and I found myself checking the clock. And this comes back to the fact that this film is so unnecessary. No one was asking for this, let alone twice, and I really just couldn’t care less about the story the film is telling. Still, it is the middle ground of quality for the series, so it has that going for it.
What a bizarre series this turned out to be. It includes a legendary piece of cinema, a sequel that is much better than it should probably be, two of the worst films I have ever seen, with one of those films being basically a remake of the final film in the series which came out after it. All this leads to a rollercoaster of a journey through these films. Would I recommend it as a series? Hell no. But I would recommend everyone watch the first film, and for people who enjoy the first film to watch the third one, and I have actually already started recommending people to do that. But on the whole, this is one of the worst franchises I have watched. I’m hoping the next three I see are a lot better than this one, and I know for a fact at least one of them is, but what could it be?