Conventional wisdom is that there’s never been a good sequel to the Exorcist. Truth is there have been two and they were both written and directed by the novelist and screenwriter of the original film William Peter Blatty. I’ve already written about The Ninth Configuration without mentioning the link of Cutshaw the astronaut, the Captain who was told in the first film by Regan, “You’re going to die up there.” Instead of attempting to extend the story through religious totems, possessed children and priests battling Pazuzu, Blatty made a more thematic trilogy of people struggling with faith. Looking for God, who seems absent, while evil freely roams the Earth.
Father Karras is the central character in the first film. In Ninth, we learn Cutshaw the Astronaut has gone mad looking for proof of God’s light after refusing to launch into the emptiness of space. Legion follows Lt. William Kinderman – Lee J. Cobb in the first film, here played by George C. Scott – as he investigates a serial killer who seems to have supernatural abilities. The film entertains through Scott growling or barking out Blatty’s great dialogue. It eventually builds to a verbal showdown on par with A Few Good Men where Kinderman argues with a mysterious patient played by Jason Miller, who may be Father Karras. He is also played by Brad Dourif, billed as The Gemini Killer. It’s a solid mystery/thriller with occasional bursts of unexplainable events that are very scary to watch. One of them comes up on any list of All Time Great Jump Scares. Sometimes it tops the list.
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