Review of Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) by Mark D — 10 Aug 2015

John Boorman's awful, needless follow-up to William Friedkin's legendary 1973 horror classic epic masterpiece. It has a place in cinematic history as one of the worst sequels ever made. It concerns a Catholic priest Father Phillip Lamount played by the late great Richard Burton, in an adequate, but one note performance, who tries to unravel the mystery of the demon 'Pazuzu' that is still lurking inside the once possessed young lady Regan MacNeil, played by Linda Blair, in tremendously dreadful performance, she sleepwalks through this whole movie.

This film grows more and more absurd and confusing as it goes along until it totally self-destructs. There are scenes that will have you falling down with laughter, like Richard Burton putting out a raging fire with a wooden crutch, James Earl Jones dressed in a big locust suit spitting out a tomato, or Louise Fletcher being groped by a matted Linda Blair stand in, and moaning in pleasure, a fine cast completely wasted.

The only cast member that survives this deplorable film with some dignity is Max von Sydow, in a short but superb turn as the young Father Merrin in Africa, played in flashback sequences. Boorman's direction is clueless, and the script is ridiculously awful.

Boorman re-cut the film from 117 to 110 minutes after its premiere to no avail. If you are a fan of bad movies, than you have reached the mountain top with boring, pretentious mega-bomb. Not Recommended.