Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

After hearing all the negative comments people made about the movie I was expecting this to be a really awful sequel to one of my favorite films of all time. I wasn't going into it with the intention of hating it, I just thought it would be horrible, and surprise, surprise, it turned out to be a really great experience."The Exorcist II: The Heretic" doesn't have much in common with the original film, but looking at it as its own thing, as its own story, I must say that it manages to be really entertaining and captivating. Some people find it to be incoherent, silly and nonsensical, and it kinda of is, I can see how people wouldn't like it, but hating it like people hate it now? is just inconceivable to me.Its not a film that you are meant to be scare of, its a film that will take you in a surreal experience, its one of the closest things I have seen on film that resembles a dream. It doesn't stray away from the plot enough to be compared to something like "Eraserhead" and its not as straightforward as the original was, the original was a great tale told in a very classy and frightening way. This movie falls somewhere in between those two and I believe it balances the surreal scenes well enough so that you care about whats happening on screen without them being distracting or too weird, but doesn't linger too much on the most mundane dialog scenes.I find the silly scenes to be quite fitting within the films mood and tone, I don't find them distracting or funny just mesmerizing. I would say that this is not a movie for everyone, not even for the most hardcore horror fans but I loved it. There's some genius camera work in this film, every shot could work as a magnificent painting on my wall, it has some memorable and fascinating scenes and themes, also, the music is quite riveting.

Exorcist II is terrible. It is proof of trolling and people who must be paid to give positive reviews to horrible movies. I have seen this before here. A truly bad movie like The Heretic is being given its dues by real reviewers, who are all giving it a 1, 2 or 3 out of 10; when suddenly along comes a bunch of people who claim the movie is actually great and under-rated. They just "can't believe" all the terrible reviews. Well, the truth is there aren't that many people with horrible taste in movies. There just aren't. Only a very special person could find good in this movie. And the world isn't full of that many special people as are commenting here. The trolls are ruining this site for the real movie lovers. And anyone who loves movies would most certainly not love this one.

After her exorcism a few years earlier, "Regan" (Linda Blair) is undergoing counseling but still cannot remember what happened. So to examine the issue more closely her counselor "Dr. Gene Tuskin" (Louise Fletcher) recommends that she goes under a unique type of hypnosis in order to reveal more details to her. Meanwhile a priest by the name of "Father Philip Lamont" (Richard Burton) is sent to investigate her specific case and to report his findings to the "Cardinal" (played by Paul Henreid) in charge. As it so happens, Father Lamont manages to get there just in time to witness the hypnosis session. Unfortunately, something goes horribly wrong and Dr. Tuskin almost dies as a result. But even worse than that the session also brings the demon that possessed her back as well--and the nightmare returns all over again. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film is an immediate sequel to one of the greatest horror movies ever produced so a great number of people had high expectations. Unfortunately, this film turned out to be a great disappointment due in large part to a weak script and some rather ridiculous scenarios--with the ending being downright laughable. In short, this movie just didn't measure up to its predecessor in any way, shape or form and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Exorcist II the Heretic presents a vividly colorful travelrama to Africa in order to ascertain what exactly happened to Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) of the original Exorcist. This version features a sort of anthropological element to arrive at the source of the evil demon that still lurks inside Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). It's way out of the range of her well-intentioned psychiatric professional (Louise Fletcher), who employs a device known as a synchronizer that locks the two minds together in order to return to the room on the night Merrin dies. The Catholic cardinal Paul Henreid dispatches father Philip Lamont (Richard Burton) to finally close the case on this incident of demonic possession after a stunning opening to the movie in swirling visual detail that introduces the viewer to the style that somehow lifts this film to an unexepected level of borderline greatness for its overall bizarreness.