Exorcist II: The Heretic

1977 Directed by John Boorman

Horror Marathon Day 23 Film 38

The film opens with a different vibe from the first film- with the possessed girl having psychotherapy years later. The themes of the first film are specially called out- society crumbling, psychology being amiss, etc. and they go on this telepathic connection exercise with a brain scanner.

Most of this is well enough, but sends the would be investigator to a land trip to Africa full of caricatures. James Earl Jones dons a locust outfit that is pretty ridiculously xenophobic and we have most of the film without any tension or momentum. In this way it feels like all supplemental material to the first scene in the first movie- and although I mentioned having more motivation for a demon- inserting a whole travelogue for the background doesn't add much to the narrative.

Parts of it feel like a Giallo mystery too, uncovering the demon's hiding place- but there's none of the jolts or scare elements to keep the mystery involved. Nostalgia for the first film and weird drug fueled dune like projections into locusts don't help either. For some reason sequels sometimes forget who the main bad guy is- in this case the locusts take away the tension of having an actual exorcist scene. The girl getting healer powers to be "special" feels like something not really worked for either. Campy as hell: "Once the wings have brushed you. You'll be mine forever!!!”

Themes like people not being able to spiritually deal with mass telepathy via technology are a foretelling of the light speed communication of the internet too. Connecting us together hasn’t necessarily lead to us being more spiritual as a species.