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Exorcist II: The Heretic Collector's Edition
Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
No one can deny that The Exorcist is one of the most seminal films in the entire horror genre, let alone the supernatural horror sub genre. 44 years later, it is STILL hailed as one of the creepiest and most influential horror movies ever made, and has been parodied, lauded, and memorialized as one of William Friedkin’s best works. Linda Blair is mostly a side not in cinema history, but EVERYONE knows as “that girl form The Exorcist!). However, the sequel has been labeled as one of the WORST movies of all time, and was actually laughed at not only by the audience (the opening night actually had press members laughing out loud IN the theater), but by the author of the novel as well (William Peter Blatty). It’s just so hilariously awful that you love to hate it, but almost hate to love it at the same time. William Friedkin himself has gone on record stating that he things that the very existence of the movie actually diminishes the greatness of his original film, and that it is the worst blight in the 4 movie franchise (and the 3rd and 4th movies weren’t peaches either).
Exorcist II: The Heretic IS really that bad. It may have had a glimpse of promise in the original script (which probably is why Linda Blair signed up to do the sequel to reprise her role as Regan), but that was promptly destroyed with re writes, more re writes, and even MORE re writes as the troubled production continued, as director John Boorman tried desperately to make a scary film, but ended up failing on all accounts, even going so far as to making the film nearly incomprehensible at times. The film just struggles to get going, and by the time anything “interesting” happens, the audience is laughing hysterically at he overly dramatized war between our heroic “heretic” and the demon Pazuzu.
It’s been several years since Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) had her traumatic exorcism back up in Washington. Her mother still fears that the psychological damage is going to hamper her, so she sends her to a psychiatrist named Liz (Belinha Beatty, the wife of actor Ned Beatty, who makes a 5 minute cameo) to hopefully “cure” her. Regan claims to have no memory of the event, but Dr. Liz is suspicious that the 19 year old girl is hiding something. When father Philip Lamont (Richard Burton) is sent by the Church to investigate WHY Father Merrin (Max von Sydow, reprising his role as the priest in The Exorcist) died that fateful night, he is able to convince the good Dr. to use a “synchronization” machine that will allow multiple people to share hypnotic memories (the 70s was ripe with people lauding the potential benefits and mystical powers of hypnosis). This machine allows for Father Lamont to go deep into the psyche of Regan and pull back the veil of secrecy and find out what happened that night.
You have to ask yourself the question “wasn’t the demon Pazuzu EXORCISED in the first movie?”. Well, the answer is yes and no. It seems that it was exorcised from controlling Regan, but that it was lying dormant within her soul as Regan is a “special” person who can cause healing to the world through her innate purity. Which is actually the reason it attached itself to her in the very first movie. You’d think that Regan is a main character of the film, but that is actually a bit of a bluff by the director, who sets it up to have Regan become the main character again, but it’s actually Father Lamont and his search for the means to destroy Pazuzu that ends up being the main focus of the film. We have him flitting all over the world trying to find said force, and the story really revolves around his lack of faith and eventual recovery of said faith along the way.
The direction of the film is simply awful, there’s no way around it. Boorman had a difficult time with the writing, and when it came time to putting the story together he and his second unit director just couldn’t do much with the assorted pieces. There’s almost no terror in the film, and the end confrontation with the big bad evil is so hokey that even audiences back then were laughing at the film. Still, there’s a twisted charm to the flick that comes from loving movies that are so terrible that you almost enjoy them. Exorcist II falls into that category with ease, and almost pushes it to the point of no redemptive qualities whatsoever, but that is saved by some good cheesy over acting from Richard Burton, and Linda Blair being drop dead cute as could be as Regan. It’s a much different film than the original, and is better thought of as a parody of the original, rather than treating it as a serious sequel.
Rating:
Rated R by the MPAA
Video:
Audio:
.
Extras:
• BRAND NEW 2K REMASTER from original film elements
• NEW Audio Commentary with director John Boorman
• NEW Audio Commentary with project consultant Scott Bosco
• NEW What Does She Remember? – aninterview with actress Linda Blair
• NEW interview with editor Tom Priestley
Disc 2: TV Cut
• BRAND NEW 2K REMASTER from original film elements
• NEW Audio Commentary with Mike White of The Projection Booth blog
• Teaser Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Galleries – Color and B&W Stills, Behind-the-Scenes, Deleted Scene photos, Posters and Lobby Cards
Final Score:
Exorcist II: The Heretic has always been the movie in the series that was “for the fans only”, and I still stick to that assertion. The movie is cheesy, horrible, and just plain hilariously awful and fun at the same time. It’s a film that you love to hate and hate to live. No matter your feelings on the matter, Scream Factory has given the film a nice upgrade over the Warner release, giving it a new master, tons of new extras AND the made for TV cut on a second disc as well (with it’s own set of special features). The film really does look quite good, and the fans who enjoyed the Warner Blu-ray will be very pleased with the upgrade. Still, a movie that’s “for the fans”, if you know what I mean.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: Richard Burton, Linda Blair, Ned Beatty
Directed by: John Boorman
Written by: William Goodhart
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH,
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 118 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 25th 2018
Recommendation: For the Exorcist Fans
