In this post, I will be reviewing The Exorcist Anthology. The collection includes: The Exorcist(1973), The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen(1973, re-released 2001), Exorcist II: The Heretic(1977), The Exorcist III: Legion(1990), and the two prequel movies, Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist(both films, 2006). I'll explain the reasoning for the two prequel films later in the review.
The Exorcist
In the first film, The Exorcist, the film opens in northern Iraq in 1973. On an archeological dig, Father Merrin(Max Von Sydow) uncovers a miniature statue of a demon, and later encounters a complete statue of the demon. In the United States, an actress(Ellyn Burstyn) finds that her daughter, Regan(Linda Blair) is behaving rather strangely. During some medical tests, Regan has violent outbursts and curses uncontrollably. Desperate, Linda's mother goes to several different doctors, and finally a priest who specializes in psychiatry, Father Damien Karras(Jason Miller). Later, Regan begins to physically change as she appears to be possessed by some kind of demon. Karras, finally calls on Father Merrin to help.
It shames me to say that I actually never saw The Exorcist before two weeks ago. Why, I couldn't tell you. One of my co-workers kept telling me about it, so I decided to see it. I was completely blown away at how good this movie was. The one thing that really stood out for me, story-wise, is that they never assumed it was a possession until towards the final act of the film. Father Karras himself says that exorcism and demonic possession are a dirty secret for the Catholic Church, and that the Church has used modern psychology to determine that "possession" is usually a case of mental disturbance or disease. Even Linda's mother goes to incredible lengths to find a cure before finally admitting that an exorcism is the only option. The characters are developed well, and the acting is phenomenal. Ellyn Burstyn is fantastic as Linda's mother who keeps getting more desperate and starts unraveling as her daughter's condition worsens. Jason Miller's performance as Father Karras brings a humanity to the character, as a priest who has lost his faith, drinks and smokes, and eventually finds it in himself to fight the evil that has possessed Regan. Max Von Sydow brings a major presence to the film as Father Merrin, a priest that specializes in exorcisms. But the real standout performance of the film is Linda Blair, 12 years old at the time of the filming. As her character's condition worsens, and as the girl is tormented and finally possessed by a demon, Linda Blair goes from an innocent child to something not of this world. It is astounding how she is able to handle such "objectionable" dialogue.
The imagery in this film is....powerful, to say the least, what the filmmakers had Linda Blair do is quite shocking believe it or not, even by today's standards. I won't mention what happens, as it somewhat...graphic. But I will tell you, it's creepy as hell. There is a reason this film is controversial, even today, as it was back in 1973. But the film won several awards and is highly regarded as one of the greatest horror films of all time. I highly recommend this film to horror fans. I give this one a perfect 10/10.
Exorcist II: The Heretic
Four years after the events in The Exorcist, Regan(Linda Blair) is seeing a psychiatrist in case there are any "aftereffects" from her case in the original film. Regan is shown as a teenager in New York. Meanwhile, the Vatican sends a priest to investigate the death of Father Merrin in the first film. The priest eventually ends up with Regan and asks her about the events 4 years earlier. But to do this he straps himself up to a machine as well as Regan and psychically investigates what happened. I'm going to stop with the story there, because it just gets worse as the film goes on. Honestly, I don't know what the hell happened with this movie, because it's abominable.
Where do I start? In the original film, the villain was a demon, but we really didn't have an explanation for how or why. Exorcist II, unfortunately, answers that question. And drags it out with piss-poor visuals. In the original film, the villain was mysterious, because we had no idea what it was. Turns out, the demon Pazuzu travels the world in swarms of locusts and possesses those are touched by it's wings. That's an over-explanation if there ever was one. Possessions, by their nature are mysterious and inexplicable. To try and explain them robs them of that mystery, so to speak. Particularly in film. The story in The Heretic is just awful, and it simply doesn't work. It's just an excuse to bring Linda Blair and Max Von Sydow back. Linda Blair's performance in The Exorcist was nothing short of raw brilliance. But in Exorcist II, she's horrible. I blame that on the director, John Goodmore. The end of the film is hackneyed and cliché. There are some good aspects to this film. It's well-cast. Max Von Sydow is back, and James Earl Jones shows up. He's always fun to watch. The priest played by Richard Burton chews the scenery nicely. But overall, this film is a disaster from start to finish. Logic gaps, plot holes, the works. This film doesn't deserve to have the title of Exorcist. I give it a 4/10. Skip this one.
The Exorcist III: Legion
In 1973, a serial killer known as The Gemini Killer(Brad Dourif) stalked and murdered people around the time of Regan's exorcism. 15 years later, murders fitting the profile of the Gemini Killer start showing up again. Lt. Kinderman(George C. Scott) is investigating the murders that may or may not be of supernatural origin. Story-wise, there really isn't much here. But what is here is George C. Scott. This guy is always fun to watch, and is a very powerful presence in cinema. Also, returning from the original Exorcist is Jason Miller. This is a much better sequel than The Heretic. It's basically a crime-procedural with major supernatural elements. The killer is very interesting because at first it seems to be more than one person. Then you find out that it's not necessarily the demon that's killing, but the Gemini Killer, who's been given the ability to possess weaker people. Brad Dourif's performance is fantastic. Jason Miller's return is a surprise, but I think a welcome one. I give this one a solid 8.5/10.
Exorcist: The Beginning/Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
This a unique situation. I've never seen two different movies with the same story with the same actor playing the same character. It just doesn't happen. From what I understand, Dominion was completed and shown to investors, but they didn't seem to like it so they shelved in favor of Renny Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning, which was more focused on the violence and the gore instead of the characterization. It wasn't exactly received well, so the studio finally released Dominion on DVD.
In 1944 Holland, the Nazis found a soldier's body and want to know who did it, so they can kill the culprit. However, Father Merrin says that none of them did it, so the German commander forces Merrin to choose 10 people to die. As a result, Merrin loses his faith in God and quits being a priest. Several years later, Merrin is part of an archeological dig in northern Iraq, which a Christian church being discovered in a place where it shouldn't even exist. As the dig progresses and Merrin and his men get into the church, strange things start happening in the dig's camp and a nearby village. It seems that the church was built on an ancient pagan temple worshipping the demon Pazuzu. This story is actually really good, as it focuses on Merrin, the priest from the original Exorcist, but it takes place 30 years prior to the original film. Renny Harlin's film is more focused on the horror elements of the story, which is effective, but it leaves the characters out of it with the exception of Skarsgaard's character. Paul Schrader's film is focused more on the characters and as a result is a much darker film and far more effective I think than Harlin's picture. The effects in Dominion aren't as well done, though, but those are secondary to the story. Certain characters appear in Dominion, while others appear in The Beginning and vise versa. Stellan Skarsgaard's performance in both films is nothing short of brilliant, as he brings a very human element to the character, who is flawed and has a checkered past. I wouldn't necessarily say Renny Harlin's film is a bad movie. Far from it, it focuses more on the violent and horror aspects of the film, which I think is effective to a certain degree. But I think Schrader's film, Dominion, is a far more effective film in terms of characters and their stories. Both films belong to Exorcist franchise in their own way, and are worth watching. I give The Beginning an 8.5/10, while I give the superior Dominion a 9.5/10.
Overall, with the exception of Exorcist II, the Exorcist films are very solid horror movies/thrillers. Obviously the original Exorcist is still the best and far more powerful film than any of the others. The Exorcist Anthology is well worth the price I paid for it....20 bucks off of Amazon. It is a hell of a deal. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of horror.
