Dr. Tuskin cradles the remains of Sharon (Kitty Winn) in the film’s apocalyptic climax.
her into high-profile dramatic and comedic studio pictures, but she ended up starring in independent horror and action movies. Warners collected more HERETIC profit via hefty fees from Home Box Office—where the se- quel debuted in July 1978 (before the first EX- ORCIST had turned up there)—and from CBS for a first network screening in 1980 (on the night following the TV premiere of the original). A cult following/reevaluation of THE HERETIC began after the first TV airings. In the early ’80s, 16mm prints started being screened at art house, repertory and college theaters, where pro- grammers took the film seriously as a misun- derstood gem that was never intended to be either an EXORCIST sequel or even a horror movie.
In his 1978 FILM COMMENT piece “Martin Scorsese’s Guilty Pleasures,” the filmmaker noted: “The picture asks: does great goodness bring upon itself great evil? This goes back to the Book of Job; it’s God testing the good. In this sense, Regan is a modern-day saint... I like the first EXORCIST, because of the Catholic guilt I have, and because it scared the hell out of me; but THE HERETIC surpasses it. Maybe Boorman failed to execute the material, but the movie still deserved better than it got.”
William K. Everson in his 1986 book MORE CLASSICS OF THE HORROR FILM: “EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC was a far better film [than the origi- nal], and perhaps because of that a less success- ful one commercially. It made little sense; in fact, it was often downright bewildering; but it was a beautiful film to watch, with some extremely powerful visual set pieces.” THE EXORCIST and its sequel were among the first releases from Warner Home Video. The TV, home video and 16mm prints all contained the “finalized” cut of THE HERETIC that was first released overseas. (The tapes listed a 118m run- ning time instead of the correct 100m.) The trun- cated version clunks along and plays like the hastily-altered rush job that it is. In the mid- 1990’s, the superior, original cut was released to the international VHS market and this is the version now available on DVD. Looking back on THE HERETIC in 2003, Boorman noted: “I should have known better. Kubrick told me the only way to do a sequel to THE EXORCIST is to give them even more gore and horror than before. No one is interested in goodness... As ever, I had tried to do too much, put too much in, been too ambitious... I had taken something on without thinking out the consequences.”
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