thehefner | "Life is fun. It's a wonderfullll life, in fact. For some."

Oh Brad Dourif, how do I love thee? Almost as much, in fact, as I love William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist and, more importantly, it's sequel, the (IMO) superior Legion, which Blatty personally adapted into the film Exorcist III. The problem was, the book was a bittersweetly humorous philisophical/friendship story wrapped in the skeletal story of one of the damn creepier X-Files episodes, and when Blatty tried to turn it into a movie (and make everyone forget the horror that was Exorcist II: The Heretic, in which he wasn't involved at all), the studios stepped in and chopped it to shreds. Not enough action, too brainy, they said. It can't be called Legion, it needs to be Exorcist III so people can follow the franchise, they said. Hey, if this is an Exorcist movie, where's an Exorcist? Write one in! Enter Nicol Williamson in a throw-away role.

Then there's Brad. Oh, Brad. Billy Bibbit from Cuckoo's Nest, all grown up as Chucky the killer doll and Grima Wormtongue. He plays the Gemini Killer in the film (this isn't a spoiler per se), and personally I think it's one of his best characters ever. But as a result of studio tinkering much of his role was thrown away/reshot with another actor for reasons I can't explain since those involve spoilers. And add to that, the ending was changed from what I can only assume to be the book's quiet end note to a loud, dischordant, out-of-nowhere action movie. Bleah.

Well, with the duel DVD release of BOTH versions of the new Exorcist prequel (both! Awesome! Even if they're not good this will at the very least be a fascinating experience to see how two totally different directors deal with the same movie!), it's been announced that plans are finally underway for a special edition DVD of Exorcist III! WOOOOO! About time, too! Blatty's pushing 80, and Brad's probably smoking up so much that he's forgotten to wash the Grima makeup off. I'm so happy! I love it when geeks of a rather obscure movie finally get their day! The only trick now, it would seem, is tracking down that lost footage. Here's hoping.

Or as Brad's character himself says: "Gracious me. Was I raving? Please forgive me. I'm mad."