Film review - Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

If you've been unaware of the follow-up to 1973's controversial 'The Exorcist' until now, rest and be thankful!

The story appears to be set four years after the original.  Following a botched exorcism attempt somewhere in Africa - where the victim convincingly sets herself on fire - Father Lamont (Richard Burton) is assigned by the Catholic Church to investigate the death of Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) after he successfully exorcised young Regan (Linda Blair) back in Georgetown, Washington.

Meanwhile the now-teenage Regan is moving on with life, attending therapy with Dr Gene Tuskin (Louise Fletcher) for post-possession trauma and developing as a tap-dancing artist in her school productions.

To help with his investigation, Lamont tracks down Regan to question her about the circumstances surrounding Merrin's death, where Dr Tuskin eventually hypnotises Regan to divulge what she believes are repressed dreams the girl holds from the period of her demonic possession.

From here the carnage unfolds as Burton's priest character stands around for the majority of the film rarely deviating from the one stoic facial expression, while a shopping list of occurrences lack logic or sense. 


To say this movie is a trainwreck is being diplomatic.  Despite the all-star cast and healthy Warner Bros budget, the acting throughout is terrible with James Earl Jones - just as he was gaining fame as Darth Vader's voice - as a locust doctor providing the only real credible authority figure, partly due to his own character's pre-pubescent encounter with the Pazuzu demon. 

Whereas the first Exorcist film embodied tension from the start, there is barely any here, as potentially powerful scenes involving Lamont with a bed of nails, plane turbulence, the climatic (literal) car crash and destruction of the McNeil family home are difficult to take seriously.

Believability is thrown out the window early on as Regan seems perfectly fine for someone who only a few years before was spiderwalking down the stairs spitting blood.  However the pain of Lamont's stoning by a group of men, on an impulsive, unauthorised flight back to Africa, apparently transfers to Regan's own feeling while performing on stage, causing her to fall - and hopelessly invoking sympathy from the audience.

The real saving grace of the film is veteran composer Ennio Morricone's score.  Really the glue that holds this abomination together, the music captures what the film could have been had the script not allegedly been re-written at least four times while during production.  The criminally underrated "Regan's Theme" was later re-used in Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight' (2015) and, in a form of long-awaited redemption, would contribute to Morricone winning an Oscar for Best Score that year.


As daft as it sounds when you watch it, this sequel had a lot of potential going in to it, making it all the more frustrating when you realise how bad it is.  Director John Boorman (Deliverance, for crying out loud!) seems to mean well with his interpretation of the story, however that becomes the equivalent of saying "So-and-so is a nice guy but...", before taking a verbal hatchet job to them.

For a film set for the most part in contemporary New York, it's amazing to think that 'Saturday Night Fever' (1977) was soon to come out in the same year, thus achieving iconic status with less of a budget.

For what it's worth, it was later said that this would be the only Exorcist sequel out of three - or four, or maybe five unofficially - that made a profit at the box office, topping the film charts upon release.  Whether the legitimate laughs it garnered in theatres at the time was worth cash flow intake is open to debate.