The Exorcist III is one of the more peculiar sequels to an acclaimed horror film, but if the production went a little differently, The Exorcist continuation could have been even more surprising with John Carpenter behind the camera.
William Friedkin’s The Exorcist has often been called the scariest films of all time and it definitely helped set a very high benchmark for demon possession films. The Exorcist’s unflinching take on the horror genre turned the movie into both a critical and commercial success. It was only a matter of time until sequels to the classic movie went into production. These follow-ups are messy disappointments for the most part, but The Exorcist III remains the most interesting of the lot.
The Exorcist III comes courtesy of William Peter Blatty, who not only wrote the screenplay for The Exorcist, but also is the author of the novels that both the original Exorcist and Exorcist III are based on. Blatty’s adaptation of his novel isn’t a conventional sequel to The Exorcist and it’s more concerned about questions of faith than non-stop scares. It’s a moody horror movie that’s gained a cult reputation over the years, but the sequel could have looked quite different if John Carpenter had come on board as director.
Why John Carpenter Didn't Direct The Exorcist 3
Blatty's development of The Exorcist III was a very complicated process that led to it turning into a novel before ultimately returning as a screenplay. The project struggled to come to life through the '80s with Blatty's vision for the sequel often differing from that of studios and directors. However, Blatty's script caught the eye of John Carpenter and he was briefly attached to the project. Curiously, Carpenter had some enthusiasm for the film, but the more he met with Blatty over it the more it became obvious to him that he really wanted to direct the project himself. As this feeling became more palpable, Carpenter eventually backed out and Blatty would go on to direct the movie.
Blatty’s take on the material is fascinating, but largely because he’s not a director by trade. His instincts are very atypical in that sense and they help contribute to film’s tension. Under those circumstances Blatty does a good job and the film is infamous for having one of the greatest jump scares that has ever been executed, but it’s fair to say that Carpenter wouldn’t have held back on the sequel. During the 1980s Carpenter was still pushing boundaries and he could have incorporated some glorious body horror elements into the picture. One of Carpenter's few issues with the script is that it needed to build up to an exorcism, which ended up being the major change that the studio imposed on the film, which validated Carpenter in a way.
Carpenter’s candid nature over how he would have added an exorcist to the film also means that he would have performed some level of re-write on the screenplay. This means that Carpenter’s take on Exorcist III could have gone to even crazier places since he’d be allowed to tweak the story. It’s worth pointing out that Carpenter did provide his own take on the demon possession sub-genre with his work in Prince of Darkness. It’s even possible that some of the ideas and visuals from that movie could have appeared during Carpenter’s exorcism scene in The Exorcist III.
