John Boorman's output is a bit all-over-the-shop; from the accessibly mainstream (Deliverance (1972)) to the amusingly fruity (Zardoz (1974)). Some projects may've functioned if better assembled (Excalibur (1981)). This is a doco by David Kittredge about the making of Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977).
Having seen none of the franchise and with no interest in it whatsoever was no liability in enjoying the ruefulness on show here. The shoot looked suitably crazy and the claims of supernatural interference are as overheated as everything else. Most of the talking heads (including Louise Fletcher, Linda Blair, Stephanie Zacharek and Boorman himself) say interesting things. (The other, younger directors are mostly filler.) They assert the obvious about the deceased: Richard Burton was a limited actor ("dead from the neck down") with a great voice. The budget limitations caused them to draw inspiration from Black Narcissus (1947) and shoot on sound stages, but it seems the really exciting stuff was shot on location, including the roof of the Warner Bros skyscraper in NYC. Someone claimed that some of Ennio Morricone's score wasn't even music.
Kittredge pumps up Boorman's tyres a bit too much; he is indeed visually creative, wildly so, but his movies tend to philosophical incoherence. This is observed here implicitly by everyone piling on Rospo Pallenberg for not improving the situation. The concept of audience-independent filmmaking doesn't strike me as of much concern now given the huge reduction in the costs of production. Kobek's take on Kenneth Anger is a superior work on that front.
Ben Kenigsberg at the New York Times: justice for the heretic. Peter Sobczynksi: "the Boorman film is a stone-cold classic and this is a hill that I am willing to fall upon." He claims that Boorman's crazypants cinema had a revival in 2026. More dished dirt at the film's IMDB trivia page. There is a grab of Friedkin mouthing off in this doco but I can only imagine how much better it would've been if they'd been able to interview him too.
