Day 357: The Exorcist III

Saw this with some friends. I remember wanting to see this as a kid but it was deemed too much for me at the time.

The Exorcist III follows the story of Father Damien Karras from the original movie, sort of. The main character is George C. Scott as a police lieutenant who was friends with Karras and who hangs out with another priest. A series of murders starts happening in the area that remind Scott of the Gemini killer, who was put to death 15 years earlier. When Scott's new priest friend is killed, Scott finds a man who looks exactly like Father Karras committed to a psych ward in the same hospital where Scott's friend died. What is the connection between the Gemini killings and the modern murders? Why does each crime scene have totally different finger prints? Will George C. Scott figure it all out in time to keep his family safe?

This movie completely ignores the events of Exorcist 2 and plows ahead with a tangential story that still features an exorcist. William Peter Blatty, the writer of the original, comes back as writer/director here. He stages at least one well done scene (a static shot of a hospital hallway that works very well). Overall, he gets the creepy mood of the original down, if not the scares. Scott arguing with a demonic entity is always lots of fun. Overall, a decent horror film. I would give it a B-.