David Kittredge’s documentary revisits the troubled making of John Boorman’s disastrous sequel.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
To the list of terrible films made by great directors, few films fly as close to the sun as Warner Bros.’ 1977 “Exorcist II: The Heretic.” Not only was it a disastrous film made by the great British director John Boorman of “Point Blank” and “Deliverance” fame (who would redeem himself with his 1981 Arthurian epic “Excalibur”). “Exorcist II” was the sequel to one of the greatest horror films ever made. Therefore, not only was it terrible. It was a tremendous fall from grace.
William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” came out in 1973 and was the film that made a generation of lapsed Catholics clasp their hands and praise the Lord, again. OK, I may be indulging in a bit of hyperbole, but just a bit. Christians, especially Catholics like the film’s exorcist priests and possessed girl, had to acknowledge that if they believed in the film’s demons from hell, even if only for the 117-minutes running time of the film, then they had to believe in God. William Peter Blatty, the author of “The Exorcist” and the film’s sole credited screenwriter (he won an Oscar for it), was a Jesuit-trained son of a devout Lebanese Catholic mother. While an English literature student at Georgetown University (Georgetown is the setting of much of “The Exorcist”) in 1949, Blatty read a Washington Post account of the supposed real-life demonic possession of a boy from Mount Ranier, Md. It planted the seed from which his novel about a mother named Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), a character who may have been inspired by Shirley MacLaine, her possessed daughter Regan (Linda Blair), Fathers Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) and Damien Karras (playwright-turned-actor Jason Miller), a suspicious police detective named Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb) and an ancient Mesopotamian demon god named Pazuzu (famously voiced by Mercedes McCambridge) sprang. Published by Harper & Row, Blatty’s 1971 novel “The Exorcist” was a literary sensation, spending 57 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
“Exorcist II” director Boorman, relaxing within reach of the “Excalibur” sword and a mask from his nutty fantasy “Zardoz” (1974), perhaps ready to make a grab for both, gamely sits before the camera of documentary director David Kittredge, answering questions. Kittredge, the producer of the Shudder series “Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror,” also edited “Boorman and the Devil.” In case you were wondering, Friedkin and Blatty were suing each other and Warner Bros. over the original film’s profits, among other things, and apparently wanted no part of a cheap, knockoff sequel. Notably, however, Blatty would go on to write “Legion,” a 1983 sequel to “The Exorcist” and even direct a decent-enough 1990 film version titled “Exorcist III,” starring George C. Scott. Ave Satani.
The studio, meanwhile, had previously hired playwright William Goodhart to write the 1977 film sequel. His screenplay samples the theological notions of Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Boorman was tempted by the idea of a sequel that was more intellectual and less shocking. He admired the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, especially their “Black Narcissus,” a 1947 Technicolor drama featuring a nun driven insane by sexual desire, set in the Himalayas and shot almost entirely on Pinewood Studios soundstages by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Boorman and his cinematographer William A. Fraker (“Bullitt”) would also shoot almost everything, including scenes set in Africa, on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif. Insightful and often very funny commentary is supplied by Time film critic Stephanie Zacharek, who marvels at Sean Connery’s “mankini” in “Zardoz” and praises the “Exorcist II” score by the great Ennio Morricone. Horror maestro Joe Dante (“The Howling,” “Gremlins”) also makes thoughtful observations. The late Richard Burton, who plays Father Lamont, a new priest enlisted to help teen Regan, can be seen in a photo at a read-through with a bottle of Champagne at hand. Co-star Louise Fletcher criticizes Burton for being late and leaving early. She also describes his acting as “over the top.” In clips, we see and hear him enunciate the word “eee-vil” with multiple helpings of Shakespearean relish. Fletcher describes the many changes to the screenplay as ”awful.” Blair’s expression while she recounts having live locusts “fired” at her says it all. Special effects wizard Albert Whitlock reveals how you can turn iron flakes into a swarm of distant locusts with a pane of glass and a magnet. In a process known as “blind bidding,” theaters eagerly booked the sequel to “The Exorcist” sight unseen, “for weeks” when they could have been showing a certain 1977 summer hit “Star Wars” instead. Uncredited co-screenwriter Rospo Pallenberg, who would also contribute leaden dialogue to “Excalibur,” does not seem to remember his contribution to the fiasco, although he cites the sin of “hubris” when asked for why such talented people could muck up so badly.
Including “Exorcist II,” we now have five films in the “Exorcist” franchise. A sixth film directed by Mike Flanagan (“The Life of Chuck”), who appears before Kittredge’s camera as a commentator, entitled “The Exorcist: Martyrs” with a script attributed to Flanagan and the deceased Blatty is due in 2027. “The Exorcist” bell still tolls loudly in this era of endless remakes and sequels.
But “Exorcist II: The Heretic” was un film maudit, indeed as “Boorman and the Devil” repeatedly reminds us, perhaps even gloatingly. Among its many “curses” was being shut down for several weeks while Boorman fought a dire lung infection probably caused by the dirt being blown in the crew’s faces during indoor filming of windswept desert scenes. The budget ballooned to $14 million.
Seven unlucky minutes were chopped from the 117-minute film by Boorman the day after a disastrous premiere. It was down to a slim, possibly incoherent 102 minutes in its European run. Was it better? It was shorter. Boorman describes the film wearily as an “old wound.” In ending, he speaks the names of colleagues he cherishes. “Antonioni, Bergman, Hitchcock, Wilder, Lean, Powell, Kubrick, Fellini.” It sounds like a prayer or an incantation. Perhaps, he recites it to keep the old devil at bay.
‘Boorman and the Devil’
Not Rated
A documentary by David Kittredge.
Running Time: 1 hour, 52 minutes
Where to Watch: At the Coolidge Corner Theater
Grade: B+
