The Ninth Configuration (1980)

From https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BNGUyMjVhZjctNWEyNC00MzBiLThmN
GItMmU1MDE0NzQyOWZmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjI4MjA5MzA@._V1_.jpg

Director: William Peter Blatty

Screenplay: William Peter Blatty

Based on the novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane by William Peter Blatty

Cast: Stacy Keach as Colonel Vincent Kane; Scott Wilson as Captain Billy Cutshaw; Jason Miller as Lieutenant Frankie Reno; Ed Flanders as Colonel Fell; Neville Brand as Major Groper; George DiCenzo as Captain Fairbanks; Moses Gunn as Major Nammack; Robert Loggia as Lieutenant Bennish; Joe Spinell as Lieutenant Spinell; Alejandro Rey as Lieutenant Gomez; Tom Atkins as Sergeant Krebs

Synopsis: In a Gothic castle in the United States, various military personal with severe mental disorders and psychosis are housed together within its walls under care. members of the military or high profile careers who suffer from severe mental disorders and psychosis are placed together under watch of the US military. A new psychologist Colonel Vincent Kane (Stacy Keach) arrives at the facility, offering new and very unconventional methods of dealing with their treatment. He is however troubled by memories of his brother, who become psychotic during the Vietnam War murdering any bystander in his path, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders as he broods. His goal for salvation is focused entirely on one patient by the name of Captain Billy Cutshaw (Scott Wilson), a former astronaut and Catholic who has begun to doubt the existence of God and couldn't complete a rocket launch to the moon, Kane deciding that he can help Cutshaw is he can prove that good exists innately in the world.

The Ninth Configuration starts off deceptively. A country ballad plays over a panoramic shot of a Gothic castle, meant to be on US soil but clearly the European location the film was shot at in real life. With William Peter Blatty's pedigree - the author of The Exorcist's source novel and the 1973 film's screenwriter, director/writer of The Exorcist III (1990) - you expect immediately a rich, incredibly well written tale with memorable dialogue. One with a very idiosyncratic take, from his Catholic beliefs, of hope even in the most dire of circumstances. What you get with The Ninth Configuration is this, but also what happens when this first time director/writer, who partially funded the film as its main producer, has to wrangle an already complex premise into a feature. A premise even in the seventies, when very unconventional films were made in Hollywood, which was deemed unsellable and he had to fund himself, grappling with complex ideas in a dense script but also with his own novice position at play. One which plays three-quarters of itself as a bizarre comedy that crashes into deeply serious material later on.

From https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ToDwszq--oA/Wh8MM72hnSI/AAAAAAAAAGs/CZTzHQaSw44Cyb79fUU
QmR8WPTKrIetowCLcBGAs/s1600/DPvmhQpUEAApKqN.jpg

The moment you get the parade of inmates at the beginning, you are aware that Blatty took the absurd comedy to its fullest. It's not an accurate depiction of mental illness, just a premise which becomes as mad as a box of frogs. How, as a first time director who had full control, he constructed the film is as much why The Ninth Configuration is as good as it is but also why it is difficult, potentially frustration and potentially divisive for many. A layered and frankly messy sound design is the first issue. Fascinating as dialogue is heard of characters off-screen before they even appear, but it is also dense due to how the film was made, especially with the naturalistic acting styles of the cast that means you can easily miss details with ease, distracted or because dialogue is too quiet in the sound mixing. The script itself is as complex, having to juggle elaborate and sometimes incredible artistic dialogue alongside moments of serious humane and theological ideas. It does succeed but I will not understate how much of a challenge it is on a first viewing. That's before the weirdness begins to pile up as well.

It terms of what The Ninth Configuration is, Blatty offered it as the official sequel to The Exorcist. Rather than what we actually got - John Boorman's utterly ridiculous Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) - if The Exorcist was about evil existing in the modern world, The Ninth Configuration is about good in the modern world, especially as Captain Billy Cutshaw is meant to be the same astronaut Regan in the first film confronts when she is first demonically possessed. If The Exorcist is about the Devil existing, The Ninth Configuration is about God existing. How Blatty goes about this is not what one expects, playing at first in pure absurdity at its most extreme with flickers of suddenly moments of introspection with Colonel Kane, a troubled man whose existence is revealed to be a nightmare for himself, literally disconnected from himself.

From http://images4.static-bluray.com/reviews/10864_5.jpg

Whilst the presentation is coarse and jagged, with a plot structure which will put many off, it does make an interesting choice in depicting the modern world, post Vietnam War, as a literal madhouse of chaos. As Cutshaw denies the existence of God, he yet lingers over Him as a Catholic, Kane ultimately a saint trapped within his own horrifying crimes against humanity, his own redemption (depending on the version of The Ninth Configuration you see) forced by martyrdom or self sacrifice. Whether the theological arguments work for the viewer, or they see them as flimsy, altruism ultimately is the idea central to the film. It still asks in this idea whether mankind is capable of self sacrifice without a need to do so except for good, the kind of material that you cannot help but be impacted by. Even the final scene, where a fully irrational moment happens to Cutshaw, a tiny but profound one, views existence as a complex beast the human species barely grasps on. Even if you find the film an utter indefinable mess, this is the kind of material many film viewers desire to see in their cinema whether your opinion is hopeful or nihilistic of these characters.

To get to this material though, you also have the truly bizarre, evoking Joseph Keller's Catch-22 as taking the absurd to metaphorical delirium tremens. It happens to be acted out by a who's-who of great character actors - Stacey Keach, Robert Loggia, Neville Brand, Jason Miller from The Exorcist - but the density of this writing alongside the tonal shifts keeps you on your toes as a viewing. When Dr. Kane decides to let the inmates indulge in their desires the film reaches its zenith of madness. This was already a film where Loggia's first appearance is in black face, the future star of Innocent Blood (1992) and Lost Highway (1997) imitating an Al Jolson number whilst a black member of  the inmates Major Nammack (Moses Gunn) looks on with bafflement, but when Kane lets them all act out their fantasies it gets weirder from there.

From https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/
1600/1*Ip_jh_dIWYgQungGrRiRuw.jpeg

Whether The Ninth Configuration works entirely or not, you have to admire a film this ambitious. Especially when it includes so much to love and admire. Jason Miller relishing his role as Lieutenant Frankie Reno, not the sombre and lost priest of The Exorcist but an inmate obsessed with re-enacting the complete works of Shakespeare with dogs as the actors, getting most of the best lines from the role. Moses Gunn wearing a Superman costume and even arguing with Miller that Superman should appear in one of the latter's plays to rescue a character. The least expected appearance of a jet pack possible. Ed Flanders' Colonel Fell, who becomes a more tragic and emotionally complex figure played by Flanders incredibly, but begins as a hilarious figure who deals with inmates stealing his trousers and has to relieve himself by combining whiskey with Alka-Seltzer. Dialogue, from suicide pills with laxative qualities to even a shout-out to Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), so ripe and so hilarious at times I will gladly rewatch the film to soak it all up. And then there's the dramatic bar sequence near the end of the film which is the denouement of the film. Strange in itself as Steve Sandor as a bike gang leader is dressed as a glam rock lead singer, (or Gerrit Graham's Beef from Phantom of the Paradise (1974)), with character actor Richard Lynch of all people adding to the cast as his right hand man, but ultimately an important moment for the tragedy that takes place when a certain character snaps. Whilst the film feels of its incredible flaws in structure, so much so there have been many cuts of the film from Blatty before his death, there is still a pertinent and powerful drama in the midst of all its oddness to go with. So much that stands out that it has to be admired.

Abstract Spectrum: Introspective/Surreal/Weird

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): Medium

Personal Opinion:

Ambitious, ramshackle at points, but ultimately admirable. The Ninth Configuration has stayed with me since seeing it, and I cannot help but think of so much that works within the film and also having gained so much even from the challenge of watching the movie.

From https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BZDg4MzUwYTUtN2MwZi00NThhL
WJjYjMtYTlhYWE1YmQ1YTc3XkEyXk
FqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_SX1777_CR0,0,1777,736_AL_.jpg

The Exorcist III (1990)

From https://i.jeded.com/i/
the-exorcist-iii-legion.32260.jpg

Director: William Peter Blatty

Screenplay: William Peter Blatty

Cast: George C. Scott (as Kinderman); Ed Flanders (as Father Dyer); Brad Dourif (as The Gemini Killer); Nicol Williamson (as Father Morning); Scott Wilson (as Dr. Temple); Nancy Fish (as Nurse Allerton); George DiCenzo (as Stedman)

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #103

[Spoiler Warning Throughout]

After the critical debacle of Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), a thirteen year gap took place which led to film production company Morgan Creek gaining the rights to The Exorcist franchise. They had the inspiration, as the author of the original source material of the first film, to not only have William Peter Blatty again adapt one of his novels, Legion (1983), but also direct it, having back in 1980 made his directorial debut with The Ninth Configuration. Sadly The Exorcist III was tampered with violently for theatrical release, the original version only able to be rebuilt from VHS footage and released in 2016. However this is a rare case of a film so unique that none of its later additions in footage ruined it. In fact it's an even rarer case of tampering with the production, when the theatrical version was put together, where the result created its own virtues.

The Exorcist III is a respectful sequel in context to the original. But Blatty's film by itself is also an exceptionally different, stranger film. You are immediately hit by both how serious it is, with its gristly narrative of a series of copycat killings with gruesome and elaborate staging of the bodies, but how between this and Blatty's obsession with good versus evil you also have borderline surrealism not found in the original Exorcist in the slightest, beginning with an evil form invading a church and the representation of Christ on a crucifix opening His eyes in alarm of the evil invading His sanctuary. Whilst aspects do evoke the original 1973 film there's aspects from the original in terms of characterisation and tone which are amplified far more here to the point this second sequel becomes very different.

There's also a noticeable jump in humour, Blatty taking a very risky tightrope walking between the dark contemplation on morality, the murders all based on a long dead figure known of the Gemini Killer (Brad Dourif) who is yet inside the mental ward of a hospital in the present day, whilst having moments of lightness and eccentricity. It succeeds because Blatty is an incredible writer, from the class of figures in seventies New American cinema who desired to created complex characters who spoke nuanced and elaborate dialogue that fit them perfectly. He's helped further by the cast themselves. George C. Scott, reappraising Kinderman from the first film, gets to take centre stage after being a side character and the risk succeeds, absolutely engaging and the central lynchpin in how both humorous he is with his constant sarcasm, but also powerful as a cynical, agnostic person facing against a supernatural entity that evokes his nihilism about society. Orbiting him is as strong a cast. Ed Flanders as Father Dyer, sparring off Scott perfectly in their characters' friendly bickering. Scott Wilson as Dr. Temple, a small but utterly memorable role as the head of the main hospital setting whose body language and tone of voice are so distinct the way he has a cigar held high up in his hand in one of his earliest scenes immediately helps to flesh the character, as does the moment we seen him having to rehearse his words for Kinderman in a memorable moment. The dialogue is rich enough to help the cast immensely, brisk and to the point when needed, elaborate and powerful when the film can stop and bask in both lightness and darkness.

As a director, Blatty was also exceptional here for a man who only directed two films in his entire life, the gap from the previous one to here the entirety of the eighties. He has ambition, especially as the result is completely different in tone to the original. You don't come into a sequel like this expecting a whimsical dream sequences set in heaven, with an angel brass band and Samuel L. Jackson in a cameo, but it's here and used as much for emotional effect, giving a clear sign that, like in snippets from the original Exorcist, when something very odd or unconventional takes place its deliberately put there by Blatty for effect. Were it not for exorcism added in the studio version, it's an entirely different reflection on the original's subject matter, good having to be found in the world by Kinderman, an entirely different struggle not as a priest but a regular man on the street with a family. Even the demon from the original is fleshed out into a different direction, the demon of Christian mythology now fully based on "Legion", a figure of multiple beings within the form of only one, the struggle less against purely demonic forces but also human evil in a serial killer found within this maelstrom of voices.

From https://pimg.mycdn.me/getImage?disableStub
=true&type=VIDEO_S_720&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fvdp.mycdn.me%2FgetImage%3Fid%3
D50355374846%26idx%3D12%26thumbType%
3D32&signatureToken=ORi0pk18EoZ157NCmgS97A

And, while Blatty would be more concerned with tackling his philosophical themes, he still makes a horror film in terms of entertainment, managing with this to have generated one of the best jump scares in the genre. Considering his inclinations it's even better, knowing a writer-novelist-director with interests in dogma and existential questions still manages to out do a lot of seasoned veterans of horror cinema in how he presents it - a deliberately long, even patience testing scene of quiet, a long shot showing space to catch you off guard, a cheat scare to knock you off guard, then hammer the impact in with all the shock of an incredibly put together scene. It's sad actually that Blatty only directed two films before his death - The Ninth Configuration as well - as here he shows not only a talent for putting a film together, but with his dialogue and plotting, an idiosyncratic writer's voice entirely his that's a rare gift to have acquired.

In talking about The Exorcist III, it's impossible to ignore the significant tampering in post production which I'll end this review on. The only aspect which feels awkward in the Frankenstein-like creation is the titular exorcism, where Nicol Williamson as Father Morning feels completely distant from everyone else, even when sharing scene space in re-shoots, and suddenly appears out of nowhere into this already complex narrative. His scene introducing him, where a bird he's taking care of sadly dies and an evil form makes itself known to him in his apartment room, does stand out as a highlight but he's like Scott Gleen in Michael Mann's The Keep (1983), a mysterious figure whose existence is only to defeat the evil, and has even less time to be fleshed out in personality. The only tragedy of the theatrical cut, the one real sin, is knowing most of Brad Dourif's performance was left on the cutting room floor. Dourif is an actor who has had a healthy cult and genre cinema career, but as one of the best character actors of his era one wishes he had at least one more major role in the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) template in his later career. Even with voice manipulation here, it's terrifying how his character is depicted with body language, entirely within a straight jacket restricting the actor's arms, dragging the franchise away from the absurdity of the locusts of the first sequel to someone real and legitimately twisted.

But whilst Dourif is only in a few scenes, an accident with how Morgan Creek attempted to replace him in scenes only for a compromise to take place, brings something incredible in the version mostly known to the public. Jason Miller, returning as Father Karras, was brought in only to be able to do some of the scenes, leading to both footage of his and Dourif's performances to be melded together. This leads to making the "Legion" character far more powerful in cutting between the two like multiple personalities of the one person. It adds a dark tragedy in knowing Karras, thought to be dead at the end of the original Exorcist, suffered as a living corpse in a brain damaged body with demons and a serial killer living in the same space. The decision to switch between Miller and Dourif with Scott in both sets of footage gives  a phantastical nature of immense power where, as visual shorthand for the viewers, a literal physical change take places between the two sides. What was reedits for the additional footage became an incredible artistic flourish, one notion rarely found when usually studio tampering just butches good material. 

From https://shoutfactory-productionsite.s3.amazonaws.com/system/asset/file/
997e5f1c68d637e15b922654c57d71ff/product_detail_3162030205001
_4998706144001_4998610270001-vs.jpg