Classic Horrors Club

Don’t let the fact that William Peter Blatty (“The Exorcist”) wrote, produced, and directed The Ninth Configuration (1980) lead you to believe it’s a horror film. And don’t let the fact that he considered it to be the true sequel to The Exorcist (1973) lead you to believe it’s full of thrills and chills. No, it’s strictly a drama, the first part of which is comedic, the second part of which is darkly dramatic, but barely borders on “thriller.”

Blatty’s comment about it being a sequel makes more sense when you consider that this and two other works comprise his “Trilogy of Faith.” His novel, “The Exorcist,” deals with the existence of good and evil. “The Ninth Configuration” deals with the mystery of good, and the third, “Legion” (which became the film The Exorcist III in 1990), deals with the human’s punishment of evil. I don’t know; I’m just plagiarizing IMDb on this one.

There is apparently a connection between the first two. In The Exorcist Regan (Linda Blair) tells an astronaut, “You’re going to die up there.” This character, Captain Billy Cutshaw, is one of the primary characters in The Ninth Configuration. He’s played by young Scott Wilson, barely recognizable as the future Hershel Greene in The Walking Dead TV series. I don’t think I’ve seen him in anything else; he’s good here.

Cutshaw is one of several men that reside in a Pacific Northwest castle acting as an insane asylum at the end of the Viet Nam war. Colonel Vincent Kane (Stacy Keach) arrives to treat them and/or determine if they’re really insane or if they’re faking it. (Are there castles in the Pacific Northwest? If so, this was filmed in Hungary, anyway.) Kane “attempts to rehabilitate his patients by indulging their fantasies, and seeks to prove the existence of a loving God.”

I stole that little description from IMDb, too. While I could continue and explain the interesting history of the original story (“Twinkle, Twinkle, ‘Killer’ Kane”) and movie, as well as it’s relationship to The Exorcist, I’m going to move into the part where I write about how I liked or disliked the movie. I do encourage you to read more about it. The effort it took to finally make the movie can explain a lot about the resulting production.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), but The Ninth Configuration, especially during its first one-third, evokes memories of it. Then, with it’s gloomy castle setting, the odd pairing in a “Cuckoo’s Nest meets _______” scenario is The Keep (1983.) The Ninth Configuration has no ancient vampires, but it does have Captain Kane’s brother, “Killer Kane,” who brutally murdered people during the war.

As you might imagine, I was not fond of the first, comedic part of the film. However, by the time it turned dark and serious, it grew on me and I found myself engrossed in the characters and the story. It’s subtle while somehow simultaneously obvious. There’s a twist I didn’t necessarily see coming and it absolutely impacts the entire meaning of the movie.

 Also working against it at the beginning were the endless shots of the towering castle, narrow and stretching into the sky through a thick cloud of fog. Once is gorgeous, twice is nice, but then we get it. I could also have done without the entire song, “San Antone,” playing while Cutshaw sits on his window sill staring out at the thick cloud of fog. There are a few similar nits to pick from the first time director, but it did not feel like it ran nearly two hours.

The Ninth Configuration is one of those movies that I can’t stop thinking about. It’s not perfect, but the content is dense and I want to revisit, possibly own, it. In general, people must agree that it offers something; its ratings hover around 7 (or 3.5) on the internet movie sites, with critics’ ratings a solid point higher. I can’t possibly do it justice here. To summarize: not horror, still good, I recommend it.