Exorcist II: The Heretic
John Boorman’s sequel to William Friedkin’s landmark film isn’t just bad. It’s spectacularly, bewilderingly, almost admirably bad. The kind of bad that makes you wonder if anyone read the script before filming began. Or during. Or after.
The plot? Richard Burton plays a world-weary priest investigating the death of Father Merrin while Linda Blair once again battles the demon Pazuzu, this time through a hypnosis machine with strobe lights. Then we’re in Africa. Then a bare-chested James Earl Jones wearing a grasshopper headdress. Then it’s a dream and Jones is a locust scientist. Then Blair cures an autistic child. Then locusts. Then Burton punches Blair while Blair watches herself get punched. (Not a typo.)
I’m not making this up.
Boorman, who gave us the brilliant Deliverance, seems to be reaching for something profound here. The film poses an interesting question: What if goodness attracts evil? But it never bothers to answer it. Instead, we get locusts. Lots of locusts.
You know you’re in trouble when, fifteen minutes in, Burton straps on a wired headband and stares at a strobe light while a nurse tells him to make his “tone go deeper.”
The film reeks of compromise. We get authentic New York locations, but Africa and Washington are obvious backlots. The locust effects look cheap now and probably looked cheap in 1977. And what about that giant locust we see in a POV shot? Villagers throw spears at it, yet later it seems small enough that Burton doesn’t notice it. Which is it?
And yet—and here’s the mystery—it’s watchable. Burton, clearly cashing a paycheck during his second divorce from Elizabeth Taylor, somehow conjures gravitas from thin air. His world-weariness feels earned. Jones, despite that grasshopper costume, maintains his dignity. Even Ned Beatty shows up, as if to remind us that yes, Boorman once made a masterpiece.
It’s watchable the way a car crash is watchable.
You can’t look away. Soon you’re watching Blair defeat a locust swarm by swaying, arm in the air, eyes closed, like she’s drunkenly rocking out to a power ballad.
Again, I’m not making this up.
All that said, my most pressing question? Why does that high-rise terrace have gaps in its railings?