The Exorcist III/Final Girls

THE EXORCIST III

If anything successfully described the tone of The Exorcist III, it would be the sense of unease that permeates throughout the film. For its entire run length, and not just in the famous jump scare which lingers in the nightmares, William Peter Blatty shoots just off kilter, like we are watching a nightmare come to life. The echo of people’s voice just doesn’t quite resonate, the rooms are just that little too bright, in contrast with the swirling mists from outside. Gerry Fisher, who was also cinematographer on Highlander, mines every shot for atmosphere.

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George C Scott plays a tired old detective hunting a copycat killer from his past. The clues might be in a man in asylum who looks a lot like Fr Karras from the first Exorcist film, despite the difficulty of Karras dying in that one. (I don’t think Jason Miller’s career will be a recurring trend in this month’s viewing, honest.) Nicol Williamson, Harry Carey Jr and Scott Wilson add to the cast who do creepy well. I was just thinking to myself that actor is playing a good Brad Dourif role, when I double checked the cast list and saw it was in fact Dourif himself!

Now that jump scare. We watch a nurse at her desk in long shot, and she slowly tries to investigate a noise coming from somewhere in the hospital. I won’t spoil what happens next for those of you yet to see this film, but by god, it creeps you out when you know it’s coming. Probably more so because it doesn’t make aesthetic sense, so the juxtaposition of the shots makes the brain take in more horror than actual shown. Also, that score. The Grammy award winning composer Barry De Vorzon tended to write love songs, but his less is more, sparse, score here racks up the tension considerably.

The actress Tracey Thorne played the doomed Amy with considerable sympathy, joining the long list of horror film victims. However, she doesn’t appear to have done much acting since.

William Peter Blatty disliked sequels but liked the idea of following a character from the original story in a new case, and published the book, Legion, in 1983. Blatty wanted John Carpenter to direct the film, but Carpenter realised that Blatty had the creative vision for how the film should go and suggested that Blatty direct it himself. The exorcism itself was added at the bequest of the studio, as was the new finish.

This film may suffer from being linked to a classic, and it has some daft moments (statues opening their eyes in horror made me laugh), but if you go watch it on its own merits, it’s a fairly enjoyable 90 minutes.

FINAL GIRLS

She'll turn her music on you
You won't have to think twice
She's pure as New York snow
She got Bette Davis eyes

The film starts with a bad pastiche of bad slasher films as a trailer. Then we cut to a mum (who was an actress from that film) throwing her stuff out of a car and singing along to Kim Carnes. And because she’s not paying attention to the road, she immediately dies in a car crash. I didn’t even have time to say how unsympathetic a character she seemed like she was going to be!

Also, I suppose it was a bit meta: the survivor from the film in a film dying at the start of the film taken as read. But meh.

Alia Shawkkat of Arrested Development shows up as the spunky friend. The lead, who is now a bit ¤¤¤¤ed up by the whole mum dying bit, is played by Taissa Farmiga who is recognisable for her role in American Horror Story.

“When I told them that my sister’s best friend was the daughter of (horror icon), you have to show up at (event).”

The dialogue did not fill me with great confidence. Some stilted acting (this is directed incidentally) slowly leads us…somewhere.

A simple story. Girl, girl’s friend, her on-off boyfriend, his vindictive ex, and some other redshirts go to a cinema to see the famous film her dead mother was in. Unfortunately, the cinema goes on fire, and the only way to escape is to fall into the film itself. As you do.

This was helped by some guy dropping a massive machete during the escape from the cinema. That’s not worrisome at all.

One problem is that pastiche slasher film. I’ve seen many, many bad slasher films in my life but none of the ones as famous as this one is in the films universe have been so amateur. And weirdly, as soon as our main characters wind up IN that film, the production quality shoots right up!

The characters wake up inside the horror film, in full Last Action Hero mode, only instead of Arnie being there to help, there’s a Jason style serial killer. And the start of the film loops every 92 minutes so after a few times just standing there, they decide to jump into the action. Experience a slasher film up close and personal.

Although what saves this film is Taissa Farmiga, who plays the trauma of meeting a younger mirror of your dead mum with some of the pathos required. And the awkwardness when she tries to have a heart to heart with her “mother” only for a horny teen to try and talk to her about sex. Added to the trauma is Max knowing her mother’s character dies in the film…

Oh and if you want the real life subtext, this script was written because the writer’s dad died suddenly in real life and he wanted to explore a character getting to see a dead parent again. His dad was Jason Miller, who, yes, you can see anytime you want as Fr Karras in The Exorcist. Art becomes life becomes art.

Or indeed, if you prefer, in The Exorcist III!

And when the “real people” start interacting with the “cinema people” (“I’m so glad your going to die?” “What was that?” “Oh I mean everyone dies eventually…”) I suspect I would have liked this film a lot more if it was around during the 90s.

As horror fans they immediately go check out the scene of the first murders as voyeurs. What doesn’t go according to plan is Billy (the Jason) turning around and starring right at the new characters in HIS film.


Duncan lasts long enough to tell everyone how the plot finishes in the original film (including the killer who is standing right there) then he gets gutted. To prove to everyone else that now they are in the film, things can go very badly for them.

And things go on a downward spiral from there. Especially with dwindling survivors and the fact that “the movie wont let us leave”.

But I'm getting older and grumpier now, so let's focus on stuff I liked. I liked how the world of the camp is only as large as that actually filmed, leading to recursive loop running at one point. I like the mother/daughter relationship, which has gotten somewhat messed up, but they're still going to try and be there for each other, even if one of them is a fictional character.


Spoiler follows...

I like the concept that they are stuck to live through all of the sequels too.

In fact, you can probably spot through this I started off thinking "this is a bit naff", and slowly mellowed as it went on. In the end, I think I quite liked the film, despite its flaws.

Take Friday the 13th meets Last Action Hero as the elevator pitch, with a large dollop of Father’s Day (the Doctor Who story) to go alongside. This is a weird film, but with enough twists in the style to amuse. Yes, many of those twists were done by Leslie Vernon. And this film lacks Robert Englund in some meta-casting. But I suspect this one will go down a treat with anyone who liked Cabin in the Woods. Or the ethos of the stories its spoofing. And Taissa Farmiga is on the fast track to major stardom going by her raw talents in the stuff I’ve seen and her CV so far.

Also they try to save the life of the film’s sex mad cheerleader trope (doomed to die the second she has a sex scene) by dressing her in a life jacket and distracting her with a smartphone. (She's from the 1980s so has never seen one.) Then she gets high on energy pills. This is a thing which actually happens.