You know I think William Peter Blatty truly does go unnoticed for his witty repartee in the (painfully) few films he's been involved with. Legion (1990) has a lot of darkness, but it also features clever exchanges and captivating subject matter. Yes, I agree that it seems to be a bit jarring due to its difficult production history, and the inclusion of Nicol Williamson (I know him as Sherlock Holmes in The Seven Percent Solution) as a priest with exorcism duties feels very much like an intruder. Just the same, I have always considered this a sleeper deserved of revaluation even if altered and imperfect due to Blatty's vision being given the shaft. Similarly Paul Schrader suffered a similar fate.
I particularly like George C Scott's Detective Kinderman and Ed Flanders' delightful Father Dyer together. They clearly amuse each other. Credit to Blatty's words and how these two get the most out of them. I had never realized this but Zohra Lampert, of Let's Scare Jessica to Death, was Kinderman's wife! It is always cool to notice something even after numerous times watching a movie.
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The carp. Lemon drops. Late to the movie is Kinderman with Father after rather irked at him, stating that there had been four Popes elected and a lot of white smoke he's been waiting so long! Kinderman discussing Macbeth and antisemitism with his beleaguered cops who seem to have truly wore out his nerves. There's some humor to keep us from wallowing in the darkness.
Damien and the Gemini killer haven't left Georgetown, though.
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I think Blatty knew all too well that periods of humor and snappy, smart dialogue were important considering what happens to innocent people in Legion (1990). Scott was always astute in handling characterizations modulated through a prism of anguish and sly wit. Often in Exorcist III, Kinderman is plenty of everything. There's a lot of meat on the bones. Anguish and suffering as he deals with cruel murders. The loss of his friend of thirty-odd years, Dyer, who is drained of his entire blood supply, paralyzed by succinylcholine perfectly, with his head severed, and a statue head of Christ put in its place! Similarly, another priest was paralyzed with succinylcholine while in a confessional, listening to the elderly sound of a woman describing guilt and the psychotic murder of a victim near Candlestick Park, with his vocal chords severed so he couldn't cry out for help. The audacious nature for how the killer(s) goes about the awful business of paralyzing victims (including an African-American youth, with racism added to the statue replacing his head, painted in black face with ingots in both eyes!) in places of Christian/Catholic influence (the church confessional booth, sidewalk located near a church, a Catholic hospital...) has significance later to be determined. Kinderman will be taken on quite a rollercoaster as he and his cops, gruelingly, investigate with heavy hearts and troubled souls.
Scott sells the torment of the job, dealing with spiritual woe and questions directed to Dyer about why God would allow what his Kinderman sees every day. He is a reliable actor for a part such as this. I have always been curious as to what Lee J Cobb might have done in the part, but Scott sure is a great replacement! He looks up at the sky and cringes at the sight of his friend under a sheet mutilated. He wipes across his eyes inside the confessional booth, contemplating just what kind of animal could do what happened to the priest. His description of the death of the kid to a mortified Dyer. This role puts Scott's Kinderman through quite a lot!
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The man in Cell 11.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Legion (1990) to me was the inclusion of Jason Miller, returning as Damian Karris, the Jesuit psychiatrist who "was helped" out a window and down a flight of steps below the apartment room of possessed Reagan McNeil in The Exorcist (1973). Here he was a wandering nameless headcase, gradually descending into catatonia as electroshock therapy was used when he became too aggressive and uncontrollable. In Cell 11, Kinderman is alarmed to recognize the mental patient as Jarrad...but how can that be?
How the Gemini killer uses Karras' body to communicate to Kinderman and the use of mental patients suffering the likes of dementia and near-catatonia (Mrs. Celia, chillingly played by Mary Jackson, who has these piercing eyes which almost look dead, sometimes holding nothing alive behind them but a question of whether or not someone could fix her fictional radio) to follow his murderous MO are eerie and unsettling.
At one point, Kinderman looks as if he might collapse from exhaustion and stress as his three Gemini cases take a toll on him emotionally and physically. Kinderman trying to state his case to the Catholic hospital administrator while being berated by him, breaking down into tears shows this heavy toll.
Scott Wilson, one of the great character actors, has a hilarious role as a chain-smoking neurotic mental doc, damn near fit for the strait-jacket himself! He communicates to Kinderman the discovery of Karras' and is susceptible to his Gemini killer theory. Kinderman describing the Gemini killer facts to Wilson and the administrator, what was truth and what was fictionalized to the public adds extra creeps to the plot.
"Who are you?" - Kinderman
"I am no one. And many." - The man in Cell 11.
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"I have dreams of a rose and falling down a long flight of stairs."
Brad Dourif, what an actor. Seriously, this guy is good. No, masterful. His emergence from Karras' body as Gemini, having a chat in his cell with Kinderman about his electrocution in the chair, caught in the void, with "the Master" allowing him to invade Karras' body as revenge against him for freeing Reagan of her possession. He "convinces" Scott Wilson's Dr. Temple to arrange a meet and greet between him and Kinderman just so that the Gemini would get his notoriety in the printed news.
Brad commands the screen with his interpretation of what perhaps urged the Zodiac killer to do his work. He talks of little Karen with her bow in her hair. His handiwork in her brutal death. The joy of possessing Karras' body and how it came about is expressed in great detail. He talks about the damage to Karras' brain and the limits he was stuck with. The "old ones" who helped him continue his work outside the cell while his body slept inside 11. The increase in brain activity when the murders were taking place. The threat to Kinderman's daughter through the catatonic body of Viveca Lindfors and a dangerously powerful pair of medical shears which nearly do the deed.
Dourif just knows how to summon the dark forces and apply a delight and revelry which further reinforces how truly insidious the Gemini is. A back story involving a religious zealot who tormented him during childhood, this father he tries to kill over and over through the Gemini murders is provided by Blatty. The tempo of his performance is conducted remarkably by Gemini's speech to Kinderman...his bragging and purposeful description of his misdeeds. All he has done and will do...Dourif has quite a part, a cow he milks to the uttermost.
Notice that Kinderman never sees Gemini, just Karras', but we do. Kinderman's faith is so nonexistent he fails to see and hear the one who has gleefully adopted Karras' body as his own.
Personally Jason Miller's involvement, requested as a
means to tie Legion (1990) to The Exorcist (1973) by Morgan Creek, was
preferred by me. Maybe this isn't popular to some, including Blatty who felt
this need for commercial reasons corrupted his vision, but I found the
additional story quite compelling. The main mood produced by Blatty in the cell
as Kinderman visited, hesitantly, Karras and learned of Gemini's existence is
sinister and grim. Light peers through two windows, producing bleak awareness
of an only minimal sun, its existence outside the cell slightly recognizing a
freedom unattainable. Faint, obscure, and muted, light in this cell,
accompanied by occasional drips from a sink faucet which pool into a blob of
water, paints quite a merciless picture of doom for Karras if Kinderman can't
assist in his spiritual rescue. Making his face extra cadaverous, hair
disheveled and body contorted in the strait-jacket, Karras is a funereal sight.
I just thought it worked. And Karras getting to avenge his demise, stop Gemini
and the Master supporting him, and have the chance to encourage Kinderman to
act on his spiritual behalf when given momentary access to his body; Karras'
inclusion seems effective even if inconvenient to Blatty who had other creative
plans undermined by the movie picture studio system.
First thing, though, I was inspired to revisit Ghost Story (1981) again this year after a recent post on the IMDb horror message board returned it to my attention. I noticed that I watched it in June or July of last year according to netflix. Whatever the case, a pair of films focusing on spiritual unrest due to crimes committed that have went unsettled seems ideal before the hot sets in here in.
Legion (1990) was a really good revisit. It resonated with me a great deal, even if this isn't the film Blatty intended to give us. I see how Father Morning (Nicol Williamson) and his nearly unsuccessful exorcism feels rather "square peg in round hole" in the film. You can tell, I think, that it almost feels shoehorned into the movie. But I will reiterate that I thought the inclusion of Miller suited my fancy. I liked his look and the idea that his Father Karras' body being used by the Gemini, and how Dourif sells the "kicks and giggles" of the irony in this being where his evil spirit inhabits. Dourif really sets this movie off, to me, while the early part of the film gives us some well needed witty banter between Dyer and Kinderman considering the shroud of darkness that surrounds the film. You can understand Kinderman's spiritual disillusionment. When Kinderman talks of all that exists that is evil and foul, both to Dyer and later when seemingly at the end of his rope as Gemini's power, provided by "his Master", appears to be too great, it is painfully true. So Kinderman's position is recognized and can't truly be refuted.
I really like the ending where
Karras is finally allowed to rest in peace. He can be properly buried and his
soul is freed from its unrest. After all the darkness that Kinderman
experiences in the day to day, getting a chance to see his beloved friend eased
into a death all right and proper feels fitting.
If I did a Fab Five of my top five scenes, this would be about third on the list. It is the kind of scene that is carefully orchestrated for optimum effect.
A little more assertive in its desire to knock your socks off Blatty opened the film with reintroducing the flight of stairs, a Georgetown Catholic cathedral with a Christ statue with eyes that open, and the doors bursting open as street debris intrudes God's supposed domain... Blatty meant to grab you. The POV following to a kid with a rose. He is later shown, the victim with the Jesus statue head in black face and eye ingots...the blasphemy tells you all you need to know about the Gemini.
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