Your Movie Library
Cast
- Richard BurtonFather Philip Lamont
- Linda BlairRegan MacNeil
- Louise FletcherDr. Gene Tuskin
- Max von SydowFather Lankester Merrin
- Kitty WinnSharon Spencer
- Paul HenreidThe Cardinal
- James Earl JonesOlder Kokumo
- Ned BeattyEdwards
- Belinda BeattyLiz
- Rose PortilloSpanish Girl
Recommendations
- 60
Chicago Reader
Boorman deserves credit for trying out some new ideas, even if most of them backfire. Visually, it's fascinating—sort of a blend of Minnellian baroque and Buñuelian absurdity—but the dialogue is childish, the story is incomprehensible, and the metaphysics are ridiculous. Still, an audacious failure is preferable to a chickenhearted success. More than worth a look, if only out of curiosity. - 50
Variety
Since any title containing Roman numerals invites comparison, the answer is: No, Exorcist II is not as good as The Exorcist. It isn't even close. Gone now is the simple clash between Good and Evil, replaced by some goofy transcendental spiritualism. - 50
Time Out
Substantially recut by Boorman after his original version was derided in America, but it's still easy to see why New Yorkers jeered. Boorman completely avoids gore and obscenity, treating the original as a kind of sacred good-versus-evil text, and weaving its sets and characters into a highly traditional confrontation of occult forces. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
Not as awful as its notorious reputation would indicate, but certainly not the neglected masterpiece its small cult of supporters has claimed, Boorman's gorgeously shot sequel to The Exorcist has isolated moments of breathtaking imagery, but its parts do not add up to a satisfying whole. - 50
The New Yorker
The film is too cadenced and exotic and too deliriously complicated to succeed with most audiences (and when it opened, there were accounts of people in theaters who threw things at the screen). But it's winged camp--a horror fairy tale gone wild, another in the long history of moviemakers' king-size follies. There's enough visual magic in it for a dozen good movies; what it lacks is judgement. - 42
The A.V. Club
It would be a lot easier to buy Exorcist II: The Heretic as a mood piece if it was able to sustain a tone beyond clumsy exposition and hysterical camp for longer than a few minutes. - 40
Empire
A famously disastrous follow-up to William Friedkin’s horror hit. - 40
Rolling Stone
A snooze-fest without any scares.
