By Glenn Dunks
We’re back with another film about the making of a classic movie (after last week's Television Event), this time a title that's streaming right now on Shudder. It is Alexandre O. Phillippe doing his thing; a horror behind-the-scenes-doc majestically titled Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist. Artistically speaking, it is probably his best movie yet. (But from me that’s faint praise indeed.)
The problem with a director like Phillippe is that he tends to take incredible works of art and then bleeds them dry. 78/52, his most well-known feature to date, somehow turned the shower sequence of Hitchcock’s Psycho into a routine film school dissertation. He takes iconic horror and performs a very practical (to the point of strict orderliness) dissection. The intellectual passion is there, but that doesn’t necessarily always make for the most scintillating of viewing.
It would have been easy to make a more traditional making-of documentary about The Exorcist. Hell, there’s enough of them out there to prove that. (I would recommend the Exorcist episode of Shudder’s Cursed Films if you want more of the making of style). What makes Leap of Faith interesting is that Phillippe has done something of the opposite...
He has taken his own directorial leap of faith of sorts and put his trust not in conceptual deconstruction, but in Friedkin himself to be the lone subject and only talking head through the entire film. This is not necessarily new or unique, but following Memory: The Origins of Alien, it comes across as something of a refreshing relief. I didn’t expect Leap of Faith to surprise me, least of all in its simplicity, and for that I have to give it credit.
Of course, your mileage with the film will depend then entirely on your response to Friedkin who tells tall anecdotes and corrects the historic record (accurately or not). On more than a few instances, he sounds like he’s taking a little bit more credit than others on the production may agree with. There probably isn’t much here that die-hards won’t already know (especially around the discovery of “Tubular Bells” or the efforts of Mercedes McCambridge to perfect her demonic voice with cigarettes, booze and raw eggs), but it also thankfully avoids just as much as it includes. Instead of Ellen Burstyn’s broken coccyx, it’s the impromptu shot of two nuns walking down the street, their habits blowing in the wind to otherworldly effect.
Friedkin is an entertaining watch, scattered among the film clips of The Exorcist and the movies that inspired him. At 85 years of age, he still possesses enthusiasm and spirit. I enjoyed watching him and it’s easy to forgive his tapping of familiar wells like Citizen Kane. Likewise, the awkward shoehorning of ‘faith’ into everything. Given the religious themes of The Exorcist, they need not have tried so hard.
If you saw Friedkin’s own recent documentary about his continued obsession with exorcisms, The Devil and Father Amorth, then you will probably be thankful that the reins of this movie aren’t his own. Truly one of the worst movies I have had the displeasure of reviewing for this column. The final product of Leap of Faith is something approaching a video commentary, albeit one that skips about the movie’s runtime. Given The Exorcist’s mythical reputation, I found myself appreciating its own attempts at bolstering that. And from the horse’s mouth. How much of it is entirely true may well just go to the bottom of the stairs with Father Kinderman.
Release: Currently streaming on Shudder in whatever countries have that service.
Oscar chances: This isn't what Oscar goes for so that'd be a no. I do look forward to the day where we can call a Shudder Original Film an Academy Award nominee, though.