Review of Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) by Ken S — 21 Aug 2010

Exorcist II is one of the unfortunate examples of a movie that, thanks to being suffocated to death by context and comparison, has gone far beyond its mediocre actuality and resulted in a near legendary underrating.

When the next chapter of a largely successful film is released audiences naturally expect certain elements to be revisited, a certain restraint in order to maintain the core audience. In the case of Exorcist those would be; intimate environments, intense personal attacks, spiritual crises and transformation. The gritty 70's "realism". What the audience does NOT expect, naturally, is an exponentially larger, surreal expansion beyond what was shown in the first chapter. John Boorman takes the original elements, stretches them out to the brink and explores their implications on a far more "poetic", worldly scale whose focus is so broad and dream-like that your "average" viewer finds themselves forced into a position of having to actively find a "way in" to understand what is supposed to be going on. It's the perfect recipe for "doesn't really make sense but really heady in the subconscious sense" kinda way.

Another deviation that has caused issue with some people (and that DOES cause a problem when trying to view as a straight sequel) is the moralistic shift. Basing solely on Friedkin's DVD commentary, The Exorcist is a biblical story at its core. Boorman's new age philosophy transforms Exorcist II into something far more ambiguous and complex, and more difficult to translate to screen. Science, medicine and religion merge as Regan becomes a messiah-like figure whose goodness (not the church's) is the key to the battle against the forces of darkness. Regardless of philosophy, this is just too big of a leap from the predecessor.

Like most people who try to defend the film they usually preface by reiterating that this is not a great movie, and it's not. Flaws abound. What's also clear is that this is not a horror film. It's a surrealistic journey and tale of self-discovery. If you can manage to compartmentalize this in a space of its own and be aware of what this film was TRYING to do (often unsuccessfully) then there are definitely more than a few positive attributes that help this bizarre cult-experience stand on its own.

Some films are bad, some are merely failures...Exorcist 2 is the latter.