The Exorcist entered history books for being one of the first modern Hollywood blockbusters and one of the first modern horror films. As such, it was inevitable that it would spawn its own horror film series, but none of the sequels, reboots and prequels repeated its success or even managed to become successful at all. Ironically, the most successful of such efforts in strictly commercial terms, Exorcist II: The Heretic, 1977 film directed by John Boorman, is now considered not only the worst among them, but also one of the worst films ever made.
The plot begins roughly four years after the events in first film. Regan McNeill (played by Linda Blair), now seemingly free of demonic possession, is happy and healthy teenager living in New York City, but nevertheless goes to therapy led by Dr. Gene Tuskin (played by Louise Fletcher), expert specialised in dealing with repressed memories. In the meantime, Father Philip Lamont (played by Richard Burton), Jesuit priest, is called by Cardinal (played by Paul Henreid) to investigate the circumstances in which Father Lankaster Merrin (played by Max von Sydow) died while performing exorcism. Lamont soon learns that the Church considers exorcism at odds with its new, more progressive and enlightened views and that Merrin might have been declared a heretic. In the meantime, he contacts Regan and during the hypnotic sessions learns about ancient demon Pazuzu who had possessed and whom Merrin actually had encountered as a young missionary in Africa. Lamont sees that the key to mystery could be found here, in a boy who had ability to fight locusts.
The Heretic was during the production one of the most expensive and ambitious projects for Warner Bros. It quickly regained its huge budget but it box office was also quickly extinguished by bad word of mouth and savaged by critics, thus developing unenviable reputation that lasts to this day. Is that reputation justified? Not exactly, although The Heretic is still a very bad film. Most of its problems were caused by decisions of William Peter Blatty, the author of the original novel, and William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist, to stay out of the sequel. This allowed for the typically New Hollywood attempt to try something different, both in terms of general theme and style. While the original functioned as straight and relatively simple horror film, the script for The Heretic, written by William Goodhart, tried to explore issues of good vs. evil, science vs. religion and speculate about next stages of human evolution, making it closer to the genre of science fiction. Unlike Friedkin’s cinema verite style that enhanced the horror by making it look something from every day life, John Boorman made the sequel as ambitious “artsy” film full of surreal images, almost entirely shot on sound stages and accompanied by Ennio Morricone’s musical score that mixed lithurgical and African motives. Boorman’s approach at times looks interesting, but the film is wrecked by his apparent disregard for pace and clarity, making many scenes overlong - like the one in which characters use “synchroniser”, hypnosis-inducing device that apparently establishes psychic bridge between their users. Some of the scenes don’t make much sense, like the one in which James Earl Jones plays the character of African witch doctor who inexplicably gets transformed into entomologist. The ending tries to compensate lack of proper scares with spectacle and features special effects that look rather dated for today’s standards.
The worst thing about The Heretic is the cast. Many of the original participants (like Ellen Burstyn who had played Regan’s mother) refused to appear in the sequel. Kitty Wynn, who played Regan’s nanny, had her role enhanced, but also poorly written, thus wasting the talent, just in the case of Louise Fletcher as scientist. Linda Blair was, by her own admission, drugged out of her mind for much of the production and, although she plays role relatively well, there is little she can do with misguided script that, among other things, forces her to perform tap dancing number. The most disappointing part of the cast is Richard Burton, delivering another of weak of performance characteristic for that stage of his career and, often succumbing into overacting which, at times, gives wrong impression that Lamont’s character might be possessed instead of Regan. Bad reputation of The Heretic led to its content being completely ignored in 1990 sequel The Exorcist III and later prequels The Beginning and Dominion.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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