Director: John Boorman
Year: 1977
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Exorcism
Plot:
Trying to get on with her life, a teenager in a home for special children after battling the demons finds that her previous encounter with the being is returning when another priest arrives to figure out what happened previously and that it takes both of their powers to defeat the demon.
Review:
One of the most maligned films in history, this does have a few bright spots to help it out. One of the most obvious is its complete cheesiness as everything in here is mistakenly bad, but it's still a fun watch. It's fun to see how everything comes together, not only with the returning characters but the idea of having the spirit as well is a novel idea and much fun can be had from seeing just how it goes through events. The idea of the hypnosis machine triggering the different visions of the demon's previous encounters throughout history gives this plenty to like in the first half. It's got a silly quality that the original didn't have in that everything in here is so over-the-top with the revelations showing the fighter braving the various terrains or fighting off the deadly swarm of locusts ravaging their camp which is absolutely reveling in cheese that few films have. It's great to see how this plays out and really sets up the finale that really has a great impact on it being a huge action set-piece. This is the high point of the film involving the battle to get home and the battle inside the house that leaves the entire place in ruins with all the different tricks and tactics employed throughout here to get the upper hand.
There's several things about this that didn't really work. The main issue is that the film really goes on far longer than it should and contains a lot of useless moments. The Africa scenes are twice as long as they should be, the sequences in the hospital are equally overlong, and in general, there are scenes in here that are there for pretty much no real reason. That just makes it more hopeful when something will happen, only for more dialog to take place. The other main issue here is the complete disregard for comprehension in here. It makes no sense at all and has a feeling that it enjoys being that way. Going through everything in here that makes no sense at all is a task that's far too hard to try to explain and get out of the way, and it feels like that's what the feel was going in, as there's no way that something this incomprehensive was by fault. Some of it can make for a headache-causing time, and the wrong feeling when trying to explain something really hard to understand the first time around.
The cast here is serviceable enough but not that special. Returning as Regan MacNeil, Linda Blair does nothing much for a large part of the film which mainly consists of sitting around strapped to a goofy device or engaging in such wild mood swings it's hard to keep straight. From being generous and thoughtful to acting possessed and under the influence yet brushing it off like nothing's happened, all that matters here is her burgeoning sexuality which is apparent through large sections of this one. The priest Phillip Lamont, played by Richard Burton, acts tough but really seems to start more problems than anything else as his boozy antics become more and more noticeable. Sure, a lot of that is blamed on the script not making sense but he's still obviously a wild and chaotic presence. Likewise, the presence of Dr. Gene Tushkin, played by Louise Fletcher, doesn't have much to do beyond looking worried about Regan's activities and expressing all the intellectual dialog about her condition. A thankless role indeed, and it doesn't really provide her with much to do overall leaving this one with some lame moments. These are the main things wrong with it, but they do count for a lot.
Overview: ***/5
It's not as terrible as it's been said as there's some fun to be had with it, but it still has some flaws about it. The fact that it's so serious is a huge error, and it makes the film really only for those interested in the bad side of the genre or those who can enjoy high camp every now and then.
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