David Kittredge offers a nuanced look at Exorcist II: The Heretic, the 1977 sequel to the iconic horror film The Exorcist. While the film was heavily criticized and often mocked, it was also praised for its daring visual style and early use of the Steadicam, a revolutionary piece of filmmaking equipment that allowed for smoother, more dynamic camera movement. The film brought back Linda Blair, who played the possessed Regan in the original, and Max von Sydow, who had portrayed the mysterious Father Karras. New additions included Richard Burton as a tormented priest and Louise Fletcher as a psychiatrist equipped with a strange, almost comically futuristic device that supposedly allows her to read minds. According to a well-known, though unverified, story, the original film’s director, William Friedkin, once witnessed an audience so upset by a screening of The Exorcist that they booed Warner Brothers executives in the back of the theater and chased them out. This kind of intense audience reaction was something Boorman, the director of Exorcist II, had to contend with. He had initially refused the chance to direct the sequel but was convinced to take on the project. He even brought in a script and direction consultant, Rospo Pallenberg, whose influence on the film reportedly caused friction with the cast. This was a time when sequels were becoming more common, with films like The Godfather II proving that a follow-up could be just as good—or even better—than the original. The film came out during a period when movie studios still trusted directors, often letting them work with a degree of creative freedom thanks to a practice known as "blind bidding," where theater chains would agree to show a film without seeing it first. However, this practice would end after Exorcist II’s release. At the same time, the media was increasingly focused on the idea of "so-bad-it’s-good" films, a trend that had been popularized by Mel Brooks’s The Producers. This created pressure on critics to balance overly positive reviews with some level of criticism, to maintain the credibility of their assessments. Exorcist II also had to compete with the massive success of Star Wars, which dominated the box office and overshadowed other films from that year. Despite its mixed reception, Exorcist II: The Heretic has found some defenders. Pauline Kael, a prominent critic for The New Yorker, praised the film for its "delirious experimental visuals," arguing that it was more ambitious than many gave it credit for. Others have compared it to John Boorman’s earlier film Zardoz, describing it as a strange, surreal, and often mocked work that is both bold and fragile. The film remains a fascinating example of the unpredictability of the film industry, as highlighted by writer William Goldman’s famous line: "Nobody knows anything."