EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC coming 8/6! (1 Viewer)

[Kenneth English]

Hallelujah! Finally, one of my all-time favorite horrible movies is coming to DVD! John Boorman's brilliant mega-turkey EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC will be released August 6th according to DVDFile.com.
Also coming on the same day is another favorite (this one is actually good ) -- THE WOLFEN!
http://www.dvdfile.com/software/dvd-...html#045012002

 

[Douglas Bailey]

Anyone who doesn't understand why this is good news (hah!) needs to read the Jabootu review of the film: http://www.jabootu.com/e2.htm.
"A small part of me died when I saw James Earl [Jones] clothed in a garish loincloth and Buddhist-style hat made of leopard skin. When he reared back his head and the sound track dubbed in the growl of a snarling bobcat, some of the parts of me which had survived decided to pull a Leland Palmer, and tossed themselves on top of the coffin containing the dead bits of me as it was being lowered into the ground."

 

[Will K]

Not a good movie by any means, but I'm going to have to include this one in my DVD library. This is just one nutty whackjob of a sequel, from Richard Burton's hilarious performance to all that trippy stuff with the locusts. What a hoot.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Well, director John Boorman has done better. Anybody care to guess which film he did that has become the stuff of HTF legend?
Saw this one only once back in 1977. The music is pretty cool in the flick's first half. Really.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Maestro Ennio Morricone (the composer of EII) has a great knack of writing music for the film that *should* have been made, rather than what ended up on the screen. Just look at Mission to Mars again if you don't believe me, it's a brilliant score for a lame picture.

 

[Kenneth English]

Yeah, Morricone's music is great (and, like his Spaghetti western scores, suitably weird).
It's available on an excellent French import CD if you're interested. Screen Archives Entertainment (I order all my soundtracks from them -- Craig Spaulding and the gang there are the best ) has it for $20.00.
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_...&user=96887791

 

[Anthony R]

Awesome! I've always wanted to have this on DVD. I can think of no other movie that has such interesting themes and ideas, with such interesting and exceptional production design, yet that also is executed so ineptly in so many ways.

However, the DVD appears to be bare-bones. I was really hoping for a John Boorman commentary. He has always had interesting things to say about the movie in interviews, and has often defended it, saying that he still feels some of his best work is in that film. A commentary might have been his chance to at least partially redeem and explain himself.

 

[Peter Avellino]

Funny that Mission to Mars should get mentioned in this thread. When I saw that movie on opening night on Hollywood Blvd., I thought the response from the crowd was the closest I'd ever get to actually experiencing what I've read happened with Exorcist II. I've got the French import CDand it's terrific.

As for the movie, well, yeah. Maybe it's inept and ludicrous. But it's also kind of deliriously beautiful in a lunatic sort of way. At least it's interesting. That's more than you can say for most movies. Please note, I didn't say it was good. Just interesting.

 

[Jason Borchers]

Just look at Mission to Mars again if you don't believe me, it's a brilliant score for a lame picture.

I'll agree he's done some great stuff, but Mission to Mars? That score was terrible! Just one of the many things wrong with that movie. The main thing I remember is the totally lame carnival music during the asteroid hull puncture scene. What were they thinking?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

The main thing I remember is the totally lame carnival music during the asteroid hull puncture scene.

I thought that was the best part of the score! The eerie pipe organ perfectly captured - for me - the feeling of the vastness and loneliness of space.

 

[Nick Graham]

I had never paid enough attention to this flick to realize

it was John Boorman who had directed it. He went from Deliverance to THIS?!?!

 

[Kenneth English]

Actually, Boorman went from DELIVERANCE to ZARDOZ to EXORCIST II, so he's really responsible for not just one but TWO of the worst movies of all time!

But, like a previous poster said, his films are so visually entrancing and are so thematically fascinating that you can almost forgive his narrative incoherence and lack of good judgment or anything resembling restraint.

If there's ever a MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 4000, EXORCIST II and ZARDOZ will be shoe-ins.

 

[Jordan_E]

The good locust?!

Oh, man, get some movie buddies, crack open a few beers, and prepare to howl!

 

[Jason Borchers]

I thought that was the best part of the score! The eerie pipe organ perfectly captured - for me - the feeling of the vastness and loneliness of space.

I thought it was completely inappropriate and out of place, and killed any suspense that scene might have otherwise had.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

If there's ever a MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 4000, EXORCIST II and ZARDOZ will be shoe-ins.

Paging Mr. Briggs and Mr. Ulmer!

 

[Tim Hoover]

I really, REALLY hate to admit this, but Exorcist II is my favorite of the trilogy.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Tim Hoover wrote:

I really, REALLY hate to admit this, but Exorcist II is my favorite of the trilogy.

Why be ashamed? The previous "bashers" of this film in my opinion had it right. The finished film product is a turkey! (And Boorman's re-edit didn't help it any. How could it?)
But, that being said, this is the most interesting of the three "Exorcist" films, conceptually speaking, and I think that's solely due to John Boorman's influence. In all his fantastic films (the other two being Zardoz and Excalibur), Boorman is at least trying to give the audience some kind of substance beyond the fantastic images and the action. Making sense of what he's trying to say is a problem, and he doesn't always help himself with that clumsy/clunky dialog or those sometimes clownish ("futuristic"?) outfits and hair-do(nt)s.
I hope the disc producers find some way to include a commentary from him on this. ("Tell us, pray, what were you thinking with this scene, John?") There are ideas there, which is what makes these movies---like any "fantastic film" worthy of the moniker---worth seeing, even worth owning copies of, years later. Not always "good", but always interesting.
The other Exorcist movies, on the other hand, have nooooo ideas whatsoever, as far as I can tell. The first was just intended as a high-end non-stop gross-out, and it worked. (Not "horror", gross-out.)
And, though Zardoz, too, may be howlingly silly in spots, there's still something there. It's hardly the worst movie of all time.

 

[Tim Hoover]

Rex, I'm not ashamed, I'm just assuming the fetal position to prepare for the coming onslaught