Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

Director: John Boorman

Starring: Linda Blair, Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, Max von Sydow, James Earl Jones, Ned Beatty, Paul Henreid

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It's four years later...what does she remember?

Plot: Dr. Gene Tuskin works with troubled children, perhaps none more troubled than Regan MacNeil, who suffers from bad dreams and repressed memories. The memories she represses are of the time she was possessed by a demon. Dr. Tuskin's invention, a device that hypnotizes two persons and links their minds together, reveals that the demon, named Pazuzu, still lurks within her. It is desperate to emerge again and wreak havoc. Meanwhile, Father Philip Lamont is ordered by his cardinal to investigate the death of Father Merrin, the priest who died while performing an exorcism on Regan. Father Lamont undertakes his task reluctantly. He feels unworthy of his assignment. He also feels that Evil is literally an entity and that this entity is winning the battle over Good. His investigation takes him to Africa where he locates another recipient of Merrin's exorcising and learns something fascinating and terrible about locusts.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

#18 of 31 Days of Horror 2010.
#152 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 2 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)


This is not nearly as bad as everyone says it is. You'd get the impression it's a contender for worst movie of all time. It's not. I'm not sayin' it's good, either. It's not. I watched the first 45 minutes thinking this is a decent flick until it kept going...and going...and going. That's the biggest problem, I think, is that there's just too much story crammed into two hours. They could have easily condensed this and that and trimmed it down to a more respectable 90 minutes.



Ennio Morricone's score is great and a nice surprise. The cinematography is very good and the special effects are outstanding! Watch the trailer above and you'll get a shit load of money shots. This flick's filled with some great eye candy. Btw, is that trailer fucking off the charts or what? I totally dig the batshit music and 80-mile-an-hour images!


It's great seeing Sydow back in a great deal of flashbacks (most of him in Africa). Blair is also back...unfortunately. I say that because she's pretty bad in this. I'm sure she's gotten better over the years but seeing her in this one and the original is tough to watch sometimes. In the first movie she only annoyed me when she was playing happy. It felt forced. I loved her, though, when she started to change and up to the end of the film.


The big heavyweights are, of course, Burton and Fletcher. I've always enjoyed Burton (that voice...that accent) but this seems like a paycheck picture for him. Maybe it was alimony for Liz. Half the film he's just blah and tired.



Gee, I'm making it sound like I hated it. Not so much. This film's got far too many detractors and I do have reasons for agreeing with them but I just can't go all the way because there are some really great things in this picture and I'm glad I saw it...even if it was for the last time.