We just got done watching Exorcist 2, Exorcist 3 and Demon Knight.
Exorcist 2: God this movie is so cringy to me. It feels like "Hey, Linda Blair is legal now. Let's make a whole movie where she and none of the other female leads wear a bra." The whole movie feels like a showcase for the fact Linda Blair is an adult now. The content of the movie, which deals heavily in psychic communication and visions, is of the late 70s spirituality variety, so NOTHING is well justified. Some new magic psychotherapy device makes it so people can watch each other's thoughts and memories under hypnosis, which then as they look into Regan's past, the demon manages to low key re-possess Regan, attempts to give the psychiatrist a heart attack, the priest character gets in on the act to see a vision of the priest from the first movie who is his reason for being involved, via the demon, through Regan, as the original priest travels to countries around the world doing exorcisms.......? And the visions are filled with late 70s performative art wailing that grinds on you in just under 10 seconds. It's just like "Hey, we got this movie idea and we need reasons for the characters to know the things they know. How should be we do that?" The director: "PsYcHiC vIsIoNs!!11111" The phrase "Maximum spiritual power" is used unironically in the film.
Then the priest goes on a quest to Africa to find a guy who can fight off demons because he saw it in that vision. The guy can fight demons because he's a healer. Oh and Regan can heal autistic children just by talking to them, that's why the demon came after her too, cause she's a super special healer too. The movie rehashes the climatic scene from the first movie all over again, only this time Regan has split into two people: regular Regan and demonic sexy-time Regan, both present in the same room at the same time. Which kind of throws the entire concept of possession out the window but here we are. Demonic sexy Regan is trying to seduce the main priest character, and it's no where near as tense or as interesting as the first movie. Just kinda overblown Hollywood garbage where the entire fucking house explodes in the middle of downtown Washington.
For how much the Exorcist scared me as a kid and teen, and how good it is, Exorcist 2 feels like an attempt by Hollywood to capitalize on the success of the first movie by pouring fuck tons of money into it, but they swing and miss so hard with pretty much everything. The only cool part of the movie is where he goes to Africa because it's mystic and surreal, but it's undercut by the god awful soundtrack they stuck with it.
Exorcist 3 is great by comparison. A hard-boiled detective story involving the occult. Some casting necessities make some of the story flow confusing and I'm not going to say it's the tightest story. And the ending is kinda meh. But the performances are great all around and the atmosphere is top notch.
Demon Knight is just fun, a good ol Tales From The Crypt feature length movie. Setting aside 90s HBO's juvenile obsession with sex and treating the film's resident sex object like shit, it's got some fun action, a fun bad guy, some gore and an interesting story. Not winning any Oscars but a great fun film for teh spooky month.
Author
Topic: The Movie Discussion Thread! (Read 169876 times)