People..please, no more telling me I misunderstood the Football Factory, if one more person even thi...
People..please, no more telling me I misunderstood the Football Factory, if one more person even thinks about saying it..I'm 32, I've got GCSE's in pottery..I understand sh*t British films just fine <flounces off in flurry of petticoats>
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'The Exorcist II: The Heretic' has the unenviable distinction of being one of the most despised sequels in history. Worse still, as a standalone picture it's still pretty horrendous. There is very little of worth in 'The Heretic' and on all levels it falls flat, with no redeeming qualities it deserves its position in the Hollywood Hall of Shame.
Released in 1977 as a follow up to Friedkin and Blatty's record breaking first chapter, the screenplay by John Boorman, William Goodhart and Rospo Pallenberg lifts the least interesting character from the original and devotes an entire movie to them. Regan (Linda Blair) is even more irritating as an adult than as a child, and Linda Blair must take the blame for that. Screechy and whiney, displaying puppy fat that leaves us uncertain of her age, one can't help but think that possession is the best option for her.
Possessed she is too. Now in some kind of hospital for children who have been taken over by mythical and supernatural beings, she is suffering from recurring nightmares, and is being treated by a Doctor (Louise Fletcher) and her magic hat. I kid you not. Doctor Gene Tuskin has been watching
episodes of Tomorrows World, and with her tin foil and staple gun, she has fashioned a telepathic titfer. With this device plonked on the unfortunate childs head, she can see their thoughts and inner demons (literally).
Naturally she is concerned by the weight of emotional baggage that Regan is hauling around. Enter sozzled, slurring, purple faced Father Lamont, played by a very very very disinterested Richard Burton. May well he be disinterested too, if he wasn't an alcoholic before reading the script, he certainly would have been one by the end of shooting. Saddled with some of the most preposterously obvious dialogue in film history, he barges aside subtlety and stumbles unsurely for the jugular. Belting out each pyschobabble piece of nonsense as if it were King Lear.
Lamont, an exorcist himself, who has seen a trick or two of the devil, is dispatched to sort out Regan and rid her of that nasty old demon. Great, a fat annoying kid, a magic hat, and a drunk bloke in a dress. You can see the quality of the material already.
The demon turns out be Pasuzu, not a Korean make of hatchback, but instead a winged demon that roams the African plains looking for annoying children to leap inside of. Lamont travels to Africa and tries to take advice from Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow picking up a paycheque). He also digs deeply into, no, thats a lie, he briefly skims, African mythical lore so as to give the film some depth. Lamont encounters Kokumo (James Earl Jones) a man who has himself been brushed by the wings of Pasuzu.
Lamont heads back to America, and Regan, and her magic bonnet, and determines to rid her of the flappy evil one.
The evil one spots him coming though, and creates some cheap special effects, and fashions a cliched ending, and damn it all to spoilers, Lamont drags Regan back to the house of the original, and it is filled with locusts/bits of polysterene before cracking unconvincingly open and then stuff happens and this happens and titles roll and we all cheer.
Good god, this is one ill-conceived film, seemingly thrown together by a committee of children who wanted more of that funny deep voice, and little else. The African adventure has the stamp of John Boorman, and as director, he does enliven these sequences with a genuine sense of the unknown and supernatural. James Earl Jones adds a touch of dignity, and if the film has a saving grace then it is this middle sequence which looks good, doesn't feature Blair, and boasts a few minor though unsettling chills. The rest of the film unfolds like it might belong in the 'Elm Street' franchise. Entirely predictable, hackneyed, filled with characters that you'd love to see slaughtered. The performances are largely dreadful, Boorman directs flatly and only comes alive in Africa. The effects are a pale imitation of the original, and mostly reduce one to fits of giggles. The cinematography by William A Fraker (he'd had better days with Rosemarys Baby and Bullitt) lifts the production above the sewers, as does the score from Ennio Morricone. In terms of redeeming features, that's it folks.
Go in with no expectations, and 'The Heretic' will still disappoint. Preview audiences reacted with jeers and howls of derision and the film was hauled back to the editing suite. The resulting movie is no less worthy of derision, and Warner Brothers shoved it out with an almost apologetic fanfare. Boorman was probably damaged the most by the experience, a very talented director, it would be 4 more years before he was behind a camera with the sublime 'Excalibur'. It is often quoted that Warners threatened him with a hefty lawsuit when he tried to walk off the project. Shame they couldn't try the same as the public walked from the theatres.
Should you be curious, this little beauty is available on DVD, but sandwiched by the far better chapters I & III. The boxset only contains extras for the original, and those are the same as to be found on the existing single disc releases. Priced at £24.99, you pays your money and takes your chance.
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Production Year: 1984 - Horror - Director: Joe Dante - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, Frances Lee McCain, Judge Reinhold, Corey Feldman
Production Year: 2000 - Horror - Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Carmen Electra, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, James Van Der Beek, Keenen Ivory Wayans
So, the same person gets possessed again?! Oh please! It would have been good perhaps as a story about her trying to recover from her ordeal and what she can and can't remember about it, perhaps.
jmp_1981 16.10.2004 14:35
It's not THAT bad... i think it's more like an adventure film than a horror movie... i give it 5/10
purplelynne 15.07.2004 13:14
I have never seen this film, have managed to avoid it after hearing all the bad reviews. I enjoyed the first one in a twisted sort of way! Lynne x
When it was released in 1977The Exorcist II: The Hereticwas virtually laughed off the ... more
screen. A much-anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning original, it turned out to be an unintentionally hilarious mishmash and received such terrible reviews that dir...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
When it was released in 1977The Exorcist II: The Hereticwas virtually laughed off the ... more
screen. A much-anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning original, it turned out to be an unintentionally hilarious mishmash and received such terrible reviews that dir...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Bizarre nightmares plague Regan Macneil (Linda Blair) four years after her possession and ... more
exorcism. Has the demon returned? And if so, can the combined faith and knowledge of a Vatican investigator (Richard Burton) and a hypnotic research specialist (L...
![Exorcist 2 - The Heretic [DVD] [1977]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78515941.jpg "Exorcist 2 - The Heretic [DVD] [1977]")
May 9th, 2004
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