Review of The Ninth Configuration (1980) by Matt P — 09 Nov 2009

Last weekend I saw The Ninth Configuration aka Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane. It was done by William Peter Blatty of Exorcist fame. Overall it is a decent film, if you like artsy films.

It has lots of humour and a very strong message, although it was one of those films that I think was better as a book. I never read the book, but I just got that feeling. It is not a bad film by any means though.

The first half of the film was the strongest and the ending was very good too... but I hated the bar scene up to the last part of it.

The film is basically about a group of soldiers that lost it right before being deployed. They end up all being put in a military mental institution that is stationed in an old castle. The military wants to prove that they are faking it to get out of deployment. One man stands out from the rest though, because he is an astronaut, Capt Billy Cutshaw, instead of a soldier, that went crazy before going into space. This astronaut is supposed to be the same one that was at the party in the first exorcist movie; the one Regan tells is going to die up there.

The astronaut loses his faith in God, and drives himself mad with the fear of being in space and dying alone. At the start of the movie, a new psychiatrist, Col. Vincent Kane, comes the asylum to help try some new experimental treatment and the story centers around the astronaut and the psychiatrists interactions. I am not going to say much more, otherwise it will spoil it.

One other character stands out though, and that is Lt. Frankie Reno, played by Jason Miller. That is the same guy that plays Father Karas in the Exorcist. He and Cutshaw are the best actors in the whole movie. Jason Miller plays an excellent crazy person.... In fact, all scenes with both these two are amazing. After watching them long enough, you actually feel yourself starting to go nuts.

Kane on the other hand was a little too wooden.... that is the way the character is supposed to be, but I think it was overdone.

I don't think this film is as good as Blatty's second directorial, Exorcist III, but still a decent film. I am sure though, that the book is by far superior, as was the case in the first Exorcist and the third one. Funny how he wrote the book form of all three of these stories. He is a better writer than film maker, but his films are very unique.