The story itself is strung together in such a lazy, haphazard fashion that it becomes tedious after the first half an hour or so. The intent is to be unsettling, the outcome is unbearable. The connection between Karras and the Gemini Killer is so forced and convoluted that it makes no logical sense. The Exorcist III wants so badly to be The Exorcist , that it is not above mimicking the highly influential original to grab the audience's attention. Jolting, disrupting noises happen spontaneously.
People crawl around on the floor.
Visions and dreams of people in or on their way to the afterlife clog the screen. Most of this was terrifying in the original because it hadn't been seen before then. Seeing those same things again now only seems cliched, derivative and uninspired. Blatty's spats with William Friedkin over the first Exorcist have been documented on film and in text, but still he refers to the first for inspiration. The original tested people's faith not only in religion, but in humankind as well.