Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) We're on the level about the subtitle on this post......after having just re-watched this legendarily hysterical (in every sense of the word) sequel to William Friedkin's groundbreaking 1973 horror epic.
Is it really one the most embarrassing, worst movies ever made (the majority opinion of critics and audiences)......or is it actually some kind of cock-eyed, stunning masterpiece from a gifted director who let his imagination run wild? (a view held, believe or not, by no less than film critic Pauline Kael and Martin Scorsese.)
We had a tough time deciding which side of this fence we'd come down on......and yes, we think you could make a case for both views of this film at the same time. It's that bad.....but for what it's trying to accomplish, it more than succeeds......as crazy as it is.
And we're talkin' crazy to the max here. If Warner Brothers truly wanted an "Exorcist" sequel to smoothly transition into continuing the story of the first film and deliver the shocks and gross-outs that everyone gathered 'round the water cooler would rave about, they needed a journeyman, caretaker type of director. (The kind of directors Universal dredged up to direct the "Airport" sequels....)
But no, they hired John Boorman, a director fairly bursting with creative energy and eye-popping visuals that pinned audiences to their seats......in films like "Point Blank", "Deliverance", and "Zardoz".....(but not a filmmaker big on storytelling coherence....)
In no way was a director like Boorman interested in delivering a corporately comfortable and crowd pleasing 'Exorcist II'.......he marched to his own frenzied internal drummer.
And oh boy, did the end result bear that out. In fact, for sheer cinematic directorial lunacy, he made Ken Russell look like Andrew V. McLaglen.
We hardly know where to begin with all the wackiness in this film, which veers from scenes as unintentionally funny as anything in 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' to sequences of such hypnotic, dreamlike splendor that they rival anything from Federico Fellini.
We'll make no rational attempt to understand the storyline (and judging from film, neither did Boorman and his writer Rospo Pallenberg, who overhauled William Goodheart's original script.)
We could only sit back and let the mad, mad sights and sounds wash over us.....
Linda Blair, still cute as ever.....and tap dancing in top hat and tails....(as should everyone in a demonic possession movie....)
Richard Burton, still hungover as ever......and spitting out his lines like he wished he was anywhere but in this film.....
Swarms of locusts, led by the demon Pazuzu, who prefers scenic travel as a locust himself.....
The painful expressions on actors' faces as they're forced to repeat the name 'Pazuzu'......
James Earl Jones managing to transform into a leopard, years before voicing the Lion King.
Ennio Morricone throwing a beautiful love theme in the middle of all the madness.....
The 'synchronizer machine', a device worthy of Ed Wood Jr. and every insane scientist from 1950's horror films....in which Richard Burton and Linda Blair strap on headgear and watch blinking lights that send them into delirious phantasmagorical sequences set in burnished golden African landscapes filled with screeching natives in mile high cliff dwellings.......
To put it mildly, this was an "Exorcist II" that nobody was expecting......or wanted. And no amount of desperate last-minute editing or tinkering could turn it into anything other than what it was......a John Boorman fever dream with the dial turned up to the 'danger warning' zone.
If you're willing to pay attention, there is in fact a concept that energizes the film - Burton's faithless priest discovering that great evil is drawn to innate goodness - an idea that the film's supporters found fascinating. But audiences could barely detect that premise amid all film's chaos and spectacle, finishing up with Burton and Blair literally bringing down the first film's famous Georgetown brownstone into fiery rubble......before walking off into sunset.
We can only say this much......that as loony-toons as this film is, its sheer audacity held us to the very end. So we'll claim the Power Of Cinema compels us to declare it a 3 star (***) Guilty Pleasure like no other. We think of it....as a very watchable trainwreck we couldn't look away from.
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