CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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I agree – Heretic did have an embarrassing, unintentional “retro” look.
Moreover, I could never rate Heretic as worth seeing, except as an example of how far off the rails a film can slide. The only parts with any promise were the Von Sydow-Merrin sequences, but under John Boorman’s direction, even these were abysmally stupid. Boorman should have retired in shameful self-exile for visiting upon the world this utter rape of Blatty’s characters.
Those who say it’s worth watching for unintentional laughs miss the point. As an “Exorcist” film, Heretic bore the honor and responsibility of representing the original’s intentions and subject matter. A weighty but exalted, even lofty, role.
However, Boorman is on record as having _despised_ the Blatty-Friedkin film, which speaks volumes about why Heretic is so bad, and reveals the colossal stupidity of hiring an Exorcist-hating nutbar to direct an Exorcist film. Boorman _thought_ he was making a “serious” film, and fans – and audiences generally – were expecting such. Boorman’s hubris is jaw-dropping. To sit in the Blatty-Friedkin chair is an honor. Yet Boorman considered it a shame, and he rapaciously set out to “correct” all the “flaws” that he perceived in the original film, thereby nearly trashing the then-young “franchise”. What a loser! And what a loss to potentially meaningful, artful, and creative filmmaking. I often wonder if those who think Heretic is acceptable because it’s unintentionally awful really care deeply about Exorcist themes, characters, and ideas. I say this because the uniqueness of the original film demands a purity of vision and subtlety of execution that the Boorman film completely lacks. Heretic is a film that should never have been made. No excuses. Period. Its carrion stench offends even Pazuzu.
Merrin, thanks for the review. However, can you please tell me what the Karras/Pazuzu jump cut before the window jump is… I’ve not seen it before. I presume this was replaced in TVYNS with the window “framing” Karras’ mother…?
Also there were many Exorcist references in Stigmata, starting with Gabriel Burnes’ (sp?) resemblance to Jason Miller, to the brick building with the curtains billowing out of the windows, etc…
Yes, Morning died in E3 but the subject of this thread is future sequels/PREQUELS, and my “screenplay suggestion” was for a PREQUEL detailing Morning’s prior exorcism (as described by the University President in E3) that “turned Morning’s hair white overnight”. The fact that Father Morning died in E3 is irrelevant to a prequel, just as the fact that Father Merrin died in The Exorcist is irrelevant to the three prequels (Heretic, Beginning, Dominion) in which he appears.
The “franchise” has pretty much been wrung dry. I wouldn’t put it past someone to develop a story based on a tangential character, say, Father Paul Morning from E3: Legion. The story, of course, would depict the exorcism in which Morning’s hair “turned white overnight”. They could suggest that Morning is a student, follower, disciple of Merrin. That would add, umm, “resonance” and “depth” to the narrative. Oh. Yuck.
Thanks, M.I.K.E., yeah, WPB is getting a bit old but who knows, maybe he’s got the stamina to do it, or at least to write a perfected screenplay and give it to the right producers…
I don’t get it – how is the figure in Heretic identifiable as Pazuzu rather than some other African symbol? Pazuzu had only negative connotations to the African cliff church congregation. Why would they enshrine a demon in their church?
I agree, Hatter, the resemblance ‘twixt the Heretic icon and the Dominion Pazuzu is uncanny… I just wonder why Boorman put the icon in the Christian cliff church… maybe another unsolved Exorcist mystery.
Hatter, thanks too for the tinypic of the face. I wonder what other stuff never made it into the theatrical release of Heretic. For that matter, from the great “morphing” trailer of E3-Legion, posted by Cap’n Howdy, I wonder what stuff didn’t make it into *that* film (foggy cemetary, the Gemini’s cell at the *end* of the psych ward corridor, making it resonate with Regan’s room at the end of the hallway, etc.)…
Blatty should reshoot it! Sure, Miller, Flanders and Scott are dead, but it might be worth it to get an unadulterated Legion out of WPB before it’s too late…
Happy Birthday, Mr. Schrader! We have much gratitude to you for your Dominion – a film that is respectful of Exorcist themes and characters, and has “heart” and literary resonance. You deserve the best of birthdays – may your celebration be hearty!
It turns out in the novel that it was Regan possessed who did the desecrations. Blatty enlists Karras as a red herring suspect – Karras could have had a spite against the Church, he knew Latin and could have typed the blasphemous altar card insert, etc. But by the time the story is over, it’s clear that the real culprit was Regan possessed.
Ditto Burke Dennings’ murder: Blatty implies Karras as a suspect – Karras has an athlete’s physical strength, and knows about the “head-backward” method of witchcraft murder. But, as with the desecrations, by the end, we know that Regan, not Karras, killed Dennings.
