Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

Directed by John Boorman. Starring Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, Linda Blair, Kitty Winn, Max von Sydow, James Earl Jones, Paul Henreid, Ned Beatty. [R]

From one of the scariest major motion pictures ever made to one of the most preposterous, this unwarranted sequel to The Exorcist contains a few intriguing ideas and some artistically striking images, but being held together by an incredibly stupid screenplay ensures this thing is still a disaster. Although it’s been several years since the events of the first film, and little Regan is now sixteen and under supervision at a psychiatric institute while attending school (her mother is conveniently away on a movie shoot to explain for Ellen Burstyn’s lack of participation), the investigation into the death of Father Merrin is still ongoing, with Burton’s priest leading the way. Turns out, without any satisfactory explanation as to how, a little bit of that nasty demon Pazuzu remains inside Regan, so here we go again! The idea of two people sharing the same dream space with a “biofeedback synchronizer” is an intriguing one, but it’s poorly executed and ultimately too hard to buy (comparably, Inception’s dream “level” explanations are downright elegant). Some beautiful and unsettling visions in Africa are undercut by Pazuzu traveling via swarms of locusts (ha!) and “super-powered” tribesman Jones in an insect costume (hahaha!). Some of the special effects in the climax are well-staged, but the sequence is too overblown, chaotic and absurd to care about technical craft. And so it goes—something favorable squashed by utter idiocy at every turn, desecrated even further by Blair’s awful line readings and Burton’s ineffably Shatner-esque hamminess. Ennio Morricone composed the score, an overwrought mix of exotic and tribal sounds with church-style choirs.

28/100