So here’s the first review as a result of the thread linked to in my sig. And before anyone who hasn’t seen The Exorcist or its sequels reads on, I’d just like to say: SPOILERS.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
There. That should take care of that. Now then:
Unable to find any of the 3 movies I was supposed to rent and watch, I had to go with the movie that got the 3rd most votes, Exorcist II: The Heretic.
The first Exorcist is a classic among horror films, and even taking away the horror-genre label is still a good film. IIRC, it is the only horror film to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award (if you don’t count Silence of the Lambs as horror, which I don’t). In this film, we find young Regan McNeil (Linda Blair) possessed by a demon, she is saved with the help of Father Karras (Jason Miller) and Father Merrin (Max von Sydow). We don’t know why the young girl was chosen by the demon, but we are led to believe it happens as the result of her playing around with a Ouija board. It ends with both priests dead and/or dying. Merrin has a heart attack while Fr. Karras is out of the room, and Karras in a fit of rage at the demon, accepts the demon into his body, fights for control and leaps from a window in a selfless act of suicide to save young Regan.
So, with the events of the first film refreshed in our memories, let’s try to watch the sequel…
The film starts promising as the credits role and you see the cast: Linda Blair back once again as Regan, Louise Fletcher, Richard Burton, Max von Sydow returns for some flashback scenes, and James Earl Jones as… well we’ll get to him. To top it all off, it’s directed by John Boorman, the man who gave us Deliverance, Excalibur, and Hope and Glory. Sounds promising, doesn’t it? Too bad all that promise ends with the opening credits.
Now most films need the audience to suspend disbelief on occassion. In a film like The Exorcist, we know going into it that we need to just accept on the films terms that the supernatural is possible. Demons possess people and exorcisms cast them out. That’s the basis for the film, so one needs to be able to accept that going in. However, let’s not try to get the audience to accept too much, ok? And try to stick with what happens in the first film instead of re-writing history for the sequel. Those are my main two problems with Exorcist II.
In the beginning of the film, we learn Regan is in the care of Dr. Tuskin (Louis Fletcher), while her mother is on location filming a movie. Tuskin is her psychiatrist trying to help her overcome the nightmares she’s had since the possession. As part of this “psychiatry” Dr. Tuskin and Regan go into “synchronized hypnosis” as Fr. Lamont (Richard Burton) - who is there investigating the death of Fr Merrin - watches on. The theory behind synchronized hypnosis is that two parties are hypntized while hooked up to electrodes that go to the synchronizer machine-thingy, thereby being able to see each other’s thoughts. Ummmmm… yeah.
Look, people, I’m already accepting the supernatural is possible for the sake of the film and now you’ve pushed it. My suspension of disbelief is broken right here, 10 minutes or so into the film - and the idea that reading each other’s thoughts via some psuedo-scientific gizmo is possible is a driving point of the film!. I found it quite ironic that later on, after seeing this version of psychiatry, that Fletcher’s character yells at Burton, “Let’s stick to science!” Yeah, too late, bitch, have you read the script?
So now, after seeing this, Burton is convinced that Fletcher has scientifically proven that a demon is still inside Regan and wants to be hypnotically synched with Regan as Fletcher guides them through it. So, hang on, the same demon as the first movie is still in Regan? But what about Father Damien shouting “Come into me!” and accepting the demon into his own body before jumping out the window? Did that not happen now? And before anyone claims that the demon left him and went back into Regan when Fr. Damien jumped, then why is the 3rd Exorcist film centered around the idea and Damien survived his fall and the demon has been dormant in him the whole time? Let’s make up our minds here people!
Ok, so already, not a half hour into the film, you’ve stretched credibility with the hypnosis synch stuff, and now we’re being inconsistent with the orginal… not off to a good start there, Team Heretic.
So moving on, the priest and Regan do their synch thing and we are shown in flashback Merrin help an African boy named Kokuma who was possessed by the same demon as is currently hanging out inside Regan, which was exorcised by Merrin in the first film and ultimately driven out by Fr. Damien, but then somehow got back into Regan and… aww fuck it. Anyway, this Kokuma as an adult is played by James Earl Jones. Kokuma apparently was very special to his village as he had power over evil. The demon apparently was sent by Satan to possess those who would have such power.
Soon after, it is hinted that Regan also has innate powers when we see her cure an autistic child just by striking up a conversation with her. So what, now the demon didn’t go into Regan because she was playing with the Ouija board? She was hand-picked for possession because she’s got special “good” powers? Way to suck the creepineess out of the first film, which suggested that a possession could happen to anyone with a Ouija board, only $9.95 at S-Mart. Shop smart, shop S-Mart. (Ooops, sorry, now I’m quoting films I wish I had been watching.)
So to sum up, besides not being able to suspend disbelief for the supernatural and scientific stretching of logic, and a lack of continuity from the first film, what I found this film lacking most was the tension of the first film. There was no psychological cat and mouse between priest and demon as in the frist film. Some of my favorite scenes of The Exorcist was Father Damien talking to the possessed Regan, who spoke Latin but then wouldn’t when the tape recorder was on, or open a dresser drawer and then refuse when asked to do it again. Those scenes were cool. The demon was just toying with that priest, then Merrin showed up all no-nonsense and ready to kick some hellburnt butt! In this film, the demon is downright helpful to the priest, even guiding him to find Kokuma, a man who has power over evil and could help the priest in driving the demon out. WTF?!
No tension + lack of continuity + testing my limits of what I’ll accept as possible in a film = bad sequel. Bad sequel! Bad sequel! Sit on your rental shelf and don’t bother anyone else again!
I give this one and a half stars. If you want to see a sequel to The Exorcist, pick up Exorcist III. I thought it was better than this one. It completely disregards the 2nd film and actually has a better continuity to the first film.