History Film / TheExorcistIII

** Georgetown University's President, played by Lee Richardson, states that his favorite movie is ''Film/TheFly1986''. About a year earlier, Richardson starred in [[Film/TheFlyII the sequel]].

* ThemeSerialKiller: The Gemini killer always leaves a characteristic mark on his victims, including the "II" Gemini symbol. He's also quite fond of decapitating or disembowling his victims and replacing their heads and other body parts with statues and other inanimate objects.

* DecoyProtagonist: Early in the film, Father Dyer seems to be a character of equal importance to Lieutenant Kinderman in the story, presented as a Deuteragonist at the very least. [[spoiler Then he gets killed off in less than a half hour into the movie]].

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The Gemini Killer is gleefully racist, murdering a 12-year-old black boy and replacing his head with a decapitated head from a Christ sculpture that he's painted in {{blackface}}.

* AdaptationalJerkass: Kinderman seems to alternate between rage and low level anger throughout the film - he certainly does a lot of shouting, and responds to almost everyone he talks to with a sarcastic, cutting remark. This is in contrast to the calm, mild-mannered, and avuncular Kinderman in of the novel and the first film.

* UncannyValley: Invoked with the animatronic grinning pianists at Grand Central during the DreamSequence for NightmareFuel.

* MistakenForRacist: Kinderman accuses Ryan of being racist for his "win some, lose some" remarks concerning the lack of leads in the Thomas Kintry murder case. Kinderman assumes that Ryan doesn't care because Kintry was a black boy, however, it's just as likely that Ryan is just jaded and cynical regardless of the murder victim. Similarly, Ryan's confusing rabbis with rabies probably just indicates an ignorant gaffe, not bigotry.

* AdaptationalJerkass: Kinderman seems to alternate between rage and low level anger throughout the film - he certainly does a lot of shouting, and responds to almost everyone he talks to with a sarcastic, cutting remark. This is in contrast to the calm, mild-mannered, and avuncular Kinderman in the novel, and indeed in the first film.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: All of the Gemini killer's victims: his MO is to keep them paralyzed and unable to move (but fully conscious) as he's cutting them up.

* AdaptationalJerkass: Kinderman seems to alternate between rage and low level anger throughout the film - he certainly does a lot of shouting, even in mild situations. This is in contrast to the calm, mild-mannered, and avuncular Kinderman in the novel, and indeed in the first film.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Father Morning is basically skinned alive by being stuck to the ceiling and slowly pealed off (he's revived for a moment after the mutilation to distract the demon, but it's pretty clear that he had no chance of surviving the ordeal afterwards).

* AdaptationalVillainy: While the Gemini Killer in the novel is just as much a sadistic killer as in the film, the backstory about his TV Evangelist father physically and emotionally abusing him and his mentally retarded brother for years (leading indirectly to the later's death) provides him with a FreudianExcuse for his depraved mind and actions. He also stops killing after his father's death, and wants nothing more than to be reunited with his brother in the afterlife. The film skips the backstory almost completely, apart from Kinderman mentioning that the killer hated his father for unspecified reasons.

* RougeAnglesOfSatin: One of the Gemini Killer's {{Calling Card}}s is intentionally doubling the letter L when it appears at the end of a word, like "wonderfull", presumably because it resembles the Zodiac symbol "II" for the Gemini twins.

* RougeAnglesOfSatin: One of the Gemini Killer's {{Calling Card}}s is doubling the letter L when it appears at the end of a word, like "wonderfull".

* DespairEventHorizon: James Venamun crossed it when his brother died, and became the Gemini Killer.

** Georgetown University's President, played by Lee Richardson, states that his favorite movie is ''Film/TheFly1986''. About a year earlier, he starred in [[Film/TheFlyII the sequel]].

** Lee Richardson states that his favorite movie is ''Film/TheFly1986''. About a year earlier, he starred in [[Film/TheFlyII the sequel]].

* LegendaryCarp: A mundane, but comical version, when Kinderman's mother in law keeps a carp alive for several days in his bathtub before cooking it.