My Review of Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

 

Written by William Goodheart

Directed by John Boorman

Father Lamont: "Is there no hope once the wings have brushed you?"

Usually when a horror franchise comes out with its first sequel, it's a mixed reception. In some cases, the sequel in question can become a cult classic. No such luck with this one.

Set four years after the events of the first movie, Exorcist II: The Heretic would seem like the focus would be on Linda Blair's teenaged Regan McNeill but in some respects, she's the secondary fixation. Instead, it's another exorcist that generated the main attention.

The movie opened with Father Lamont (Richard Burton) failing to save a young woman in Latin America before being sent to New York by the Cardinal to seek answers into Father Merrin's (Max Von Sydow) death. This of course put Lamont right into contact with Regan who has seemingly forgotten about her own possession by Pazuzu.

The same Regan being cared by her guardian Sharon (Kitty Winn) and a doctor named Gene Tuskin (Louise Fletcher). The latter's also keen for Regan to use the Synchronizer in order to unlock her memories and it's not long until Lamont realised that Regan and Pazuzu still have a connection to one another.

This movie does go out of its way to give more backstory on Pazazu as well as filling in some history with the deceased Father Merrin. The history including the discovery of a man named Kokumo (Joey Green/James Earl Jones) who provided the sparsest of information for Lamont.

Then the last act of the movie decided to take Regan and Lamont back to the former's home, seduce Lamont in a rather unpleasant scene while also killing Sharon and leaving Gene to clean up the mess. The defeat of Pazuzu isn't as great as it was in the first movie and too much time here felt filler. The movie does imply that Regan might have freed herself from Pazuzu's possession or possibly not.

- Regan's mother clearly went through a lot of shit after the events of the first movie. She's a no show here.

- Louise Fletcher was originally going to be a recast of Chris McNeill before being cast as Gene Tuskin. The character was originally meant to be male.

- Audiences might have been traumatized by the first movie but they laughed and threw things at the screening of this one.

- Chronology: 1977 New York with scenes in Latin America, South Africa and Washington DC.

I'm gonna get some heat for this but I don't vehemently hate Exorcist II: The Heretic. Don't get me wrong - it's a very bad sequel to an iconic movie and needlessly longer than necessary but at least Linda Blair and Richard Burton try their damndest to make it work. Unfortunately, it's just a mess.

Rating: 5 out of 10