Timothy Dalton, doing his best Sean Connery impression, hams it up in this Showtime horror film that's allegedly based on the Catholic church's last official exorcism. What could have been a compelling account of superstition, religion and the modern age of psychology, becomes another excuse to spit pea soup at bad actors. A young priest, Father William Bowden (Timothy Dalton), faces his own human weaknesses on WWII battlefields, and must prove himself by battling Satan for the soul of one annoying child. Robbie (Jonathan Malen), a dead ringer for Howdy Doody, begins courting the devil with a Ouija board and a spooky looking ventriloquist dummy. After menacing Aunt Hanna (Piper Laurie) dies, poor Robbie gets the old pea soup treatment at the hands of the dark lord himself. The Protestants are called in and attempt to document the demonic activity for science. They are quickly terrified into submission and must resort to the big guns of Catholicism to save the child. Archbishop Hume (Christopher Plummer) is intent on taking the Church into "the modern age" and passes the nasty piece of business of devil removal to a local priest and professor at the university. The rest of the film plays out like a poor man’s THE EXORCIST (1973), with the addition of some satanic water sports. --Susan McIntosh
