Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

 

Somehow I have managed to go 45 years without seeing Exorcist 2: The Heretic some of the time by chance and some of it intentionally.  I didn't see the original film until somewhere around 1980 when I was a tween.  And let me tell you something that film messed me up!  It was terrifying, disgusting, and all around pretty impressive.  I imagine this sequel either came out with little to no fanfare or was so panned by critics that it slunk away like a thief in the night.  Then around a decade ago (give or take) I had a subscription to one of those film clubs where they would send you DVDs every month.  I think it was called Horror Pack, but anyway, you didn't have any control over what you got every month you just paid your 25 bucks and every month you got four or five DVDs.  It was like $3o if you wanted blue rays.  Lo and behold one month in the box of DVDs Exorcist II shows up.  I knew it existed but I had not heard anything about it.  Good enough, in the pile it went.

And there it remained to be passed over lo these many years.  If you're not keeping track, that is the second time I have used the word lo in a post.  If you've ever seen Pee Wee's Big Adventure then you've seen the burning pet shop snake scene.  The way he felt every time he would walk past the snake tanks thinking about rescuing them is the EXACT same way I felt about watching this sequel.  I was warned by fellow crypt keeper Cerpts over at The Land of Cerpts and Honey that this was one of the worst films ever made.  But here we are, a mere few days away from the night when the vale is thinnest between our world and the world of the spirits.  Ah, who am I kidding, it's the Countdown to Halloween and I need something to watch and review.  So I did this, for you.  I hope you are all happy now!  Directed by John Boorman (Deliverance, Excalibur, and Point Blank) this sequel picks up four years after the original film.  Regan (Linda Blair) is still recovering from her possession by a demon.  Richard Burton plays Philip Lamont a priest who is put in charge of investigating the death of another priest who was killed while performing the exorcism of Regan four years prior.  

Regan is now being monitored at a psychological institute by Dr. Tuskin (Louise Fletcher who had just won the Academy Award for best actress for her work in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest) while living with Sharon Spencer (Kitty Winn from Panic in Needle Park) her guardian who we met in the first film.  Regan remembers nothing about the events of four years ago.  Father Lamont tries to help her remember so he can complete his investigation.  The investigation leads his to a man named Kokumo (played by the legendary James Earl Jones) who was once possessed by the same demon that possessed Regan.  Also co-starring as Father Merrin (the dead priest Lamont is investigating) is Max Von Sydow.  Now my question to you is how could one of the best demonic possession movies spawn such a terrible sequel?  Well, for one it was never supposed to be.  Some who were involved in the original didn't want any part of it (Ellen Burstyn, William Peter Blatty, and William Friedkin all flatly refused to be involved) and even Linda Blair refused to be put back into the demon makeup she had to endure for the first film.  This one has zero story and no character development, I mean I struggle to see this as a horror film.  I guess it is but if it was just called a drama/thriller I could see that more as for me, there were zero scares in this one.  This is bad.  Is it Voodoo Black Exorcist bad?  Not quite, I gave that one star.  I will give this one and a half locusts out of five.  Avoid this one, as I should have, but ya know, the countdown and all.