It's a not-so-wonderful life

When folks hear "The Exorcist" I think they start to hear Tubular Bells playing and the odor of pea soup begins to somehow overwhelm their phantom olfactory response. I can't say the first one truly blew me away, though. I know that's probably some level of sacrilege to horror fans, but this is why I'm not actually in your ranks. I enjoyed the initial offering. Honestly, there's a line that just caught me off guard and it always makes me laugh now. It was when the aforementioned Cobb was asking Ellyn Burstyn's character if anyone had come to the house that day. He was simply trying to account for the possibility of an errant party to have mistakenly entered the premises and carried out a dastardly deed unknowingly. However, he inquires twice about whether she received any packages that day. I don't know if it was because it was such a silly thing to ask in such quick succession, or if it was because the second time he asked, he did so with the inflection as if the question just came to him in a brilliant epiphany when he had literally JUST asked the question. Whatever it was, when this classic from the 70's re-emerged in theaters when I was in high school, I attended a screening on a Friday evening with some friends and when that line hit, I couldn't contain myself and started laughing. Ever since, the movie has conjured more of a jovial jokey tone than one of fright. I know there's plenty of reasons to still be terrified of the film. For anyone who saw it in it's initial run, it was quite cutting edge in terms of terror. So I completely understand it's place in horror history. It just doesn't hold such laudable position for me.

Regardless of my feelings on the franchise at large, it's high time we got into this particular installment for a proper breakdown. The good stuff first and then if there's any gas in the tank we'll have a bit of fun with this movie. My cap is immediately tipped to Brad Dourif. His performance as the Gemini Killer was excellent. Clearly a psychopathic take on the zodiac killer with that flair only the man who brought Chucky to life could bring, Dourif had some wonderful scenes where his dialogue alone was enough to actually captivate from scene to scene. He balance intensity with quiet really well and employs each with a deftness of application that easily steals most of the movie. Even George C. Scott mostly lumbered through his performance, though what else he could bring to the film I'm not entirely certain. I think what makes Brad's performance even more impressive is that it was limited primarily to a singular cell which felt like it could have been some of the inspiration behind Hannibal Lecter's quarters. A good bit darker, but the dichotomy between law and chaos being so enmeshed in a scene with just a sliver of physical distinction harkened back scenes from Silence even if that movie succeeded this one chronologically. Any way you slice it, pun partially intended, Brad Dourif, though limited in screen time, stole the movie just as Hopkins did.

The other piece of this film that I will give credit to is it's connective tissue. As I said, I never saw part II so I'm not sure how that went but in the bit that I read behind the scenes of this film, William Peter Blatty appeared to return to helm this sequel after the follow up to the original seemed to be quite the debacle. Continuing the story of Cobb's original detective was a fun way to spinoff the series and bringing back Jason Miller as patient X, formerly father Damian Karras in the original film, was a fun subtle nod to the classic where it all began. Even the visual return of the staircase made famous by the first Exorcist was a fun way to kick off the movie with a good bit of familiarity. Visually, it was nice to see that they'd also taken advantage of advances in film technology since the 70's. The effects all seemed to still be quite practical but it definitely had the ring of a movie from the early 90's. Getting the gang back together for one more go at the series seemed to translate well to the big screen and felt like it gave it a measure of stability which made it far more watchable than some nonsensical entry which merely plays off the ideas espoused in other entries. It might still be a cash grab, but if it's got some semblance of bones to it, it's still worth a watch many times.

My biggest beef with this movie is still just that it's so unendingly boring. I don't need a lot either. I'm fine with good dialogue and convincing storylines. I don't need an action beat every so many pages in the script. I don't demand gore and violence or jump scares galore. I just wanted something. Even if it had been the actual police work as they attempted to solve the growing number of murders, I might have been ok with what was going on. But for the most part, the movie just kept being a movie for what felt like an eternity. Let's go here. Now lets say some stuff. Oh no! Catholic things happen. Can we talk to that one elderly lady who will talk about radios way longer than we ever wanted to listen? I just kept going. Once we finally got to some of the Brad Dourif parts, that helped a little bit even that slog through dialogue, which was done really well, still didn't make the rest of the film all that appealing. It just was. And for all intents and purposes, it was too much.

The other side of this that didn't translate well was it was jam packed with a certain kind of unnecessary racial lens in many conversations, especially at the front of the movie. I'm one who can watch something in 2026 through the eyes of the time it was crafted so it's not overtly critical that it doesn't adhere to modern standards. But even still, there was a lot to sift through. I just kept finding myself noting things like "That didn't seem like a necessary piece of dialogue there." or "Well I'm not entirely sure the ethnicity of this off screen character adds a layer of context we needed here for any reason..." It tapered off after a while but it popped back up here and there. It's not something that would automatically cause mt to shun a movie on its own. Films are a product of their time and the elements of it that don't linger are noteworthy for that very reason. If we learned something and moved on from it, it's not that we are revisiting the lesson to indulge a measure of ignorance. If anything, I like to look at the elements of the glass that can be observed to be half full now instead of half empty in their time of filming. Regardless, this was a detractor that felt a little heavy at the top of the film.

When you get right down to it, I think this movie is another C- for me. It's not good enough to simply be middle of the road where I could take it or leave it. I didn't hate it, but it was a good ways away from loving it. Even to pick out scenes that I enjoyed would really be difficult. It just sort of was and I watched it. Many times, in this endeavor, I feel like that is observably more of a win than I might give it credit for in the end. There's plenty of truly heinous horror movies out there and if I just had to sit through one without wanting to run into the hills screaming from frustration, that should be somewhat of a win. I would have to say that if I ever had the misfortune of sitting through this film a second time, I'd pay closer attention simply to MST3K the crap out of it since most of it is stale and boring. Livening it up with a more pithy, sardonic narrative commentary could only improve it, once you get past all the slurs up top. So day 6 wasn't necessarily a bust but it definitely wasn't a win either. It's just one more day closer to the end of week one. Tomorrow we round out the first seven days of our 31 so hopefully I can be somewhat intentional in picking a flick that I really have a higher bar for. Not that I intended this movie to be as dry as it was. But perhaps I'll have to linger a bit more in my selection process to ensure we finish the week with a bang. But until then, I'll leave your head not spinning since it wasn't that kind of exorcist movie. I'll catch you on the flip side.