CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Whiel re-building the site I had all of The Exorcist films on in the background over time. As bad as The Heretic is, I couldn't take my eyes away… Wonderfully disasterous.
“Exorcist II: The Heretic” is and always will be one of my favorite films of all time. Everything about it is great. The acting, the story, the scenery, the special effects and the beautiful musical score make this one of the best film experiences I have ever had. I don't care what anyone says, this film is excellent.
I hadn't read this before:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorcist_II:_The_Heretic
In a 2005 interview, John Boorman remarked:
“it all comes down to audience expectations. The film that I made, I saw as a kind of riposte to the ugliness and darkness of The Exorcist – I wanted a film about journeys that was positive, about good, essentially. And I think that audiences, in hindsight, were right. I denied them what they wanted and they were pissed off about it – quite rightly, I knew I wasn't giving them what they wanted and it was a really foolish choice. The film itself, I think, is an interesting one – there's some good work in it – but when they came to me with it I told John Calley, who was running Warners then, that I didn't want it. “Look,” I said, “I have daughters, I don't want to make a film about torturing a child,” which is how I saw the original film. But then I read a three-page treatment for a sequel written by a man named William Goodhart and I was really intrigued by it because it was about goodness. I saw it then as a chance to film a riposte to the first picture. But it had one of the most disastrous openings ever – there were riots! And we recut the actual prints in the theatres, about six a day, but it didn't help of course and I couldn't bear to talk about it, or look at it, for years.”
horror2 said:
“Exorcist II: The Heretic” is and always will be one of my favorite films of all time. Everything about it is great. The acting, the story, the scenery, the special effects and the beautiful musical score make this one of the best film experiences I have ever had. I don't care what anyone says, this film is excellent.
Don’t forget the absolutely beautiful teenage Linda Blair.
I don’t know about it being one of the best film experiences but it is better than people make it out to be. I do feel that Heretic has gotten a lot of unjustified hate directed against it. Approached with an open mind the film is not that bad and for a mystical thriller it is quite good. The problem most people had was that it was not pure in your face horror.
As a kid, Exorcist II: The Heretic was almost as jarring an experience for me as the unparalleled original film. (I think largely due to the revisits of the demonic makeup for Regan…for years, that face just haunted me. I could not look at it straight on like I can now.)
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But I say almost. Part of what lightened the film up (aside from the nice score in the soundtrack) was some of the (as TV guide put it years ago) unintentional humor.
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One thing I noticed, between watching the DVD version of E2:TH and a televised version many years ago, was that some of the scenes played out differently….most noticably, when the teenage Regan returns to her bedroom on Prospect street, and she opens the door.
In the televised version of the movie, we see a quick flash of the younger possessed Regan shouting out her name at the older Regan, using stock footage from the original film, with “Regan” being overdubbed.  Apparently, this did not appear in the theatrical release, as I noticed it was missing on DVD.
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Nothing, however, beats the original film. I've seen all the sequels/prequels (and while they are entertaining, they just don't hold a candle to The Exorcist.) I've also seen other movies about demonic possession….and one film that surprisingly does give me a chill, despite it being a cheap knock-off, is “Beyond the Door”. But it still doesn't measure up to The Exorcist.
Steve Dunlap said:
As a kid, Exorcist II: The Heretic was almost as jarring an experience for me as the unparalleled original film. (I think largely due to the revisits of the demonic makeup for Regan…for years, that face just haunted me. I could not look at it straight on like I can now.)
Â
But I say almost. Part of what lightened the film up (aside from the nice score in the soundtrack) was some of the (as TV guide put it years ago) unintentional humor.
Â
One thing I noticed, between watching the DVD version of E2:TH and a televised version many years ago, was that some of the scenes played out differently….most noticably, when the teenage Regan returns to her bedroom on Prospect street, and she opens the door.
In the televised version of the movie, we see a quick flash of the younger possessed Regan shouting out her name at the older Regan, using stock footage from the original film, with “Regan” being overdubbed.  Apparently, this did not appear in the theatrical release, as I noticed it was missing on DVD.
Â
Nothing, however, beats the original film. I've seen all the sequels/prequels (and while they are entertaining, they just don't hold a candle to The Exorcist.) I've also seen other movies about demonic possession….and one film that surprisingly does give me a chill, despite it being a cheap knock-off, is “Beyond the Door”. But it still doesn't measure up to The Exorcist.
The DVD represents the original theatrical version. That version was quickly widthdrawn and re-edited when the film began to tank. It came back to most theaters in this second theatrical version. The Network TV version derives from that second theatrical version as does the early cable and video releases. So you can still find this version on older VHS and Beta tapes if you look around.
Some of the key differences between the first and second version include a recap of the events of the original movie at the beginning using voiceover and stills, the adding of 2 stock scenes of possessed Regan from the original movie to the climatic bedroom scene and Father Lamount dies at the end.
I know a number of people that worked on the Heretic & they told me the following …
There were many delays in shooting & the production due to Linda Blair throwing countless fits on stage like a spoiled child & Richard Burton being blind drunk & totally out of it for long periods of time where he couldn't even get in front of the cameras. There was a bar located across from the studio lot when filming was taking place & from what I was told when Burton was not needed on set he would be found in that bar drinking like a fish & come time for him to be on set studio members would have to walk across the street & drag him out & try to find a way to sober him up. It's a wonder that fim ever was completed at all.
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