Why didn't Blatty just sell the movie legion as an independent crime thriller horror film? Why even bother calling it exorcist III? Any company would gladly welcome this mystery detective horror thriller rather than exorcist III? What do you all think?
sharethat's what he wanted but the studio needed a tie-in to the original. Exorcist = big bucks. Legion = too much of a risk.
They should've replicated The Final Conflict (1981), which was promoted as the last chapter of the Omen trilogy. Ads promoting Legion as the official sequel to The Exorcist would've been better than giving the film the tacky title of Exorcist III.
it sure is a dog of a night
Agreed. Advertising "Legion" as the one, true valid Exorcist sequel would have made it clear to audiences that this was not going to be a repeat of the nasty Boorman mess, and if the name "BLATTY" was placed prominently in all the adds (it does appear as text in the trailers), it would really be "truth in advertising" as well as indicating a new, authentic Exorcist film. Calling it "Legion" without the silly Exorcist III nomenclature would have increased interest and attendance. The current title could at best perhaps lure some people who had read the book, and those curious about a new "franchise" movie, but at worst probably caused a lot of eye-rolling on the part of a public jaded and disappointed by The Heretic.
shareWhile I agree with your opinion about the title "Legion," I disagree with your opinion of "The Heretic." Although a flawed film, Boorman did create something that is visually stunning, strange, and at times fascinating. Everyone wanted to see little Reagan MacNeil all grown up, so it was a sensible idea to follow her story. The film is very 70's, and tacky in places, but i have watched "Exorcist II: The Heretic" more times than I have watched the first film, because it is outrageously entertaining. The African scenes, the boy Kokumo with his yellow demon eyes, hypnotizing the locusts into flying in a circle, the gorgeous music, Linda Blair's dreamy, off-kilter performance etc; there is just a LOT to enjoy about this completely bizarre movie. I like it immensely and am sad when I hear people write it off as worthless. By the way, I do prefer the DC "Legion" to the theatrical version; it's more serious, and benefits greatly from having the silly tacked-on exorcism at the end.
Fabio Testi is GOD
While you're certainly entitled to have your own favourable opinion on The Heretic, the movie was a critical failure, and barely made it's money back. There were interviews in which Blatty blamed Exorcist III's poor box office results on the audience's bad memories on Part II, which I think is true to some extent. Maybe that's why they almost went with Exorcist: 15 Years Later as a title, it tied the movie with the original while ignoring Boorman's sequel at the same time.
shareUnfortunately, if he had marketed this as Legion, it would have been buried like his earlier film project The Ninth Configuration. Calling it Exorcist III and pinning it to the Exorcist franchise guaranteed major studio backing in funds and advertising, because the reputation of the original film (in spite of the damage done by EII) would guarantee it an audience that it might not get if it were called Legion.
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