The Honeycut: The Supernatural Collides with a Detective Story in ‘The Exorcist III’

If there’s one thing I learned while covering “The Exorcist III” on the “Midnight Terrors Podcast,” it’s that trying to talk about this movie makes me sound like a rambling crazy person. I’ll do my best to describe what I thought of this one. James from the “I was a Teenage Film Snob” podcast joined Kevin and I all the way from Australia to discuss the film. It’s always great to catch up with James and hear his take on movies. 

The production behind this film is a mess. To keep it brief, it’s based on the book, “Legion,” by William Peter Blatty, who also wrote “The Exorcist” novel, and directed “The Exorcist III.” This came out in 1990, 17 years after the original “Exorcist” and 13 years after “The Exorcist II.” We wouldn’t see another film in this franchise for another 14 years, with 2004’s “Exorcist: The Beginning.” This franchise plays the long game. 

“The Exorcist III” follows Lieutenant William F. Kinderman, who was the detective in the first movie. He’s trying to solve a series of murders in Georgetown. The victims are people connected to the church, like priests and altar boys. The murders are similar to that of the Gemini Killer. The only thing is, he was executed years ago. Throughout the movie we encounter supernatural forces at work and Father Damien Karras returns as the… Gemini Killer? It’s a whole thing. The killer possessed Karras because they died on the same night and the demon from the first one, Pazuzu, used his power to put the Gemini Killer’s spirit into Karras’ body. I told you it was a whole thing. 

This is my favorite of “The Exorcist” sequels. Admittedly, I don’t remember much about the other ones, except “Believer,” because I watched that last year. I liked that this was primarily a detective story wrapped in the supernatural. While the original “Exorcist” is outright terrifying, this has more of a sense of dread throughout. The jump scares are used sparingly, and they work because of the atmosphere that’s already been established. 

“The Exorcist III” is a movie that has a lot going on. Whereas the first film is pretty straightforward, with a girl being possessed and the priests trying to free her, this sequel explores a lot more ideas. It’s part detective story, part possession story, it almost feels more like a mystery or thriller than a straight up horror movie, and I think that’s why I enjoyed this one so much. It would have been easy to just replicate the first movie with priests trying to save another person who got possessed.

After all, there is an entire genre of films that basically retell the original “Exorcist” story with their own flair. But this movie went in its own direction with detectives, priests, serial killers, demons, spirits, possessions, etc. There is so much at play at anytime in this movie, it makes you pay attention to it.

I’ll end with a cool easter egg I found. I noticed a lot of the quotes in the movie sounded familiar to me. That’s because the metal band, Children of Bodom used audio clips from this movie on their “Follow the Reaper” album. 

I would recommend checking this one out or revisiting it if it’s been a while since your last watch. It takes the world the original movie created and builds upon it, in its own way. There are like three different cuts of it, so best of luck in whichever path you take.