NOTE: this DVD is part of Warner’s Exorcist bundle. The package also includes the previously-released DVD’s of The Exorcist: The Version You Haven’t Seen and The Exorcist II: The Heretic. This review covers both the original stand-alone and bundled versions of The Exorcist III.

It’s been 15 years since the events in the MacNeal household resulted in the deaths of two civilians, including the unexplained death of a priest named Karras (Jason Miller), in the Washington D.C. suburb of Georgetown. Now Lieutenant Kinderman (George C. Scott taking over the role played in ’73 by Lee J. Cobb) is after a serial killer that, like the religious undertones of the MacNeal case, involves unexplained supernatural connotations. A much wiser and less jolly man than he used to be, Kinderman is more concerned with his family duties than his police work. The events from the night that Father Karras died, however, are fresh on his mind as he sets to investigate the new crimes taking place in his hometown.

Badly mutilated bodies (including a Catholic priest beheaded in his church’s confessional booth) are appearing all around Georgetown. They carry the signature touches of a murderer nicknamed ‘Gemini Killer’ that was executed… what do you know, 15 years prior. Kinderman investigates further and finds out that, locked at the local psychiatric ward, there’s a man that was taken in 15 years prior… on the same night that Father Karras died performing an alleged exorcism on a little girl! Visiting the insane man, the Lieutenant confronts someone who claims to be both the Gemini Killer and Father Karras. When he doesn’t look like an insane lunatic (Brad Douriff) this man does appear to Kinderman as Father Karras (Jason Miller, the only actor from the original Exorcist to reprise his role). But is he just insane or is he really the re-incarnated spirit of the Gemini Killer holding Father Karras’ soul hostage? And will Kinderman’s family end up paying the price for the Lieutenant’s past coming back to haunt him?

After the disaster that John Boorman’s 1977 sequel to the original Exorcist turned out to be any prospects for new movies in the series seemed dead and buried. Alas, original Exorcist author and producer William Peter Blatty wasn’t ready to leave Boorman’s metaphysical mumbo jumbo flick as the last word in the subject. Blatty wrote a novel in the early 80’s, 'Legion,' that continued the story of some of the surviving characters from The Exorcist (hence the absence of Regan and her family from the story). To make a movie version of his new novel Blatty had to struggle for years to get financing for a project Hollywood saw as unprofitable. In 1989 the money finally came through from a then-small production company named Morgan Creek, and Blatty wrote and directed The Exorcist III. The movie bombed theatrically upon its 1990 release.

Morgan Creek’s acquisition of the rights to Blatty’s story in ‘89, however, paved the way for 2004's Exorcist: The Beginning. Talk about turning a loss into a long-term profitable investment, but I digress. In retrospect though, and with all other Exorcist flicks fresh in my mind as I write this (including the new prequel coming on DVD), Exorcist III stands out as the best of all post-Exorcist follow-ups by far. It’s still miles below the timeless appeal and f***-ed up (but cool) workmanship of William Friedkin’s 1973 classic, but Blatty isn’t trying to match his friend’s knack for making the unbelievable seem realistic. He wants to show how evil wasn’t completely vanquished the night in ’73 when it was expelled from Regan MacNeal’s body. The toll on Lt. Kinderman because of his friendship with Father Karras (whose agony just began when he threw himself into the steps just outside Regan’s bedroom) is also at the heart of Exorcist III, not cheap scares or needless gore.

Comparing all Exorcist movies to one another is inescapable, but will always result in Exorcist III’s best attributes always receiving the short end of the critical stick. Blatty’s literal, no-frills approach to the subject results in the closest a sequel could ever dream of coming to the believable nastiness of the original. It’s less a horror movie than a supernatural detective story, ala The Night Stalker or The X-Files but with a more personal stake for Lt. Kinderman to save his long-dead (or so he thought) friend and stop evil. George C. Scott gives a solid performance and most of the cast is decent. The handful of scenes involving Miller or Dourif as the Gemini Killer steal the movie though. Never has well-mixed sound and facial expressions (the character is always shown in a restraining jacket) seemed so creepy prior to 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs as in this little-seen creepy mood piece.

One scene in Exorcist III stands out, IMHO. It involves a lengthy shot in a hospital hallway that seems to go on forever, only to end suddenly and brutally (Ch. 22) but without anything more violent than the power of suggestion. I saw that scene 13 years ago when Exorcist III was on HBO and it made me jump ten feet high! I saw the same scene again when I re-watched this DVD and I still jumped out of my seat. So powerful and memorable is this scene that it inspired the creation of the ‘Scissorman’ character in the Clock Tower games released for the 32-bit PSOne system in the late 90’s.