Exorcist III and Hellraiser: Bloodline – A Couple of Sharper Cuts

Despite doomsaying around the fate of physical media, a range of boutique companies seem to have done just fine producing high-quality releases of movies and television, stuffing the optical discs they put out with a range of fun extras. One such company is Arrow Video, and one thing they’ve managed to do occasionally is pack entire alternate versions of movies onto their blu-ray releases. Many’s the film out there which has had a shaky, mixed reception as the result of studio interference or other forms of creative confict, only for a new cut to prompt a re-evaluation.

For this little article, I’m going to look at two movies Arrow have put out where the provision of a rare alternate cut offers new insight into the original. In one case, we’ve got a movie which was already reasonably well-regarded which is significantly improved once the studio interference is dialled back (and which I’ve reviewed before, so I won’t be doing a deep dive on the original release). In the other case, I’ll cover both the theatrical release and the workprint version of a movie which was an absolute franchise-derailing bomb on its first release, and whose alternate cut offers a tantalising sniff of what might have been.

Exorcist III: Legion

Back in 2010 I did my review of the Exorcist series, in which my opinion of The Exorcist III was broadly in line with the broader consensus: very good in its early stages, but studio interference botched the ending. In particular, the studio demanded reshoots to make two major changes, one pointless (but disrespectful), and one which completely sabotaged the conclusion of the movie.

The first of those changes was that they decided that they wanted Jason Miller, who had played Father Karras in the original, to play “Patient X”, which would require reshooting all the scenes where Brad Dourif was playing him. This was pointless, because Father Dyer and Lt. Kinderman were already recast in this one, so there was no reason why Karras should have been treated specially, and disrespectful because Dourif is much better at the brief of “serial killer inhabiting the body of a dead priest” than Jason Miller is. (To be fair, Dourif looks a bit too young – but if you can believe in supernatural infestation, you can believe in supernatural preservation or regeneration.)