The Heretic

Cinema | July 18, 2011 | Share

The Heretic is a sequel to the famous movie The Exorcist. The film is set four years after The Exorcist. The girl is now 16 years old. She is Regan MacNiel. The genres of the movie were science fiction and horror. The movie was a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release.

The plot of the movie is about the girl who is still recovering from exorcism. Father Lemont is sent by the church to find out the story behind Father Merrin’s death. Father Merrin was the one who performed the exorcism. But he died performing it.
Regan visits psychiatrists. She now lives in New York with her guardian. A fantastic scene was when Regan stood on top her house on the edge of the building looking down at Fifth Avenue.

To find out the truth as Regan has no memory of the incident. Dr. Tuskin hypnotizes the girl, to whom she is linked by a “synchronizer” – a biofeedback device used by two people to synchronize their brainwaves. This was an interesting mix of two genres – science with religion.

When Father Lemont connects with Regan the devil takes him back to Africa where Father Merrin performed exorcism on Kokumo a boy with physic healing power. He was possessed by Pazuzu. Later it is found out that even Regan has those healing power.

Father Merrin tries to find out help and way to control the devil. Initially he gets lured by the demon but later on he relies on his faith and he finds the way out. The devil takes Regan back to her old house where there is a fight between the devil, the father and Regan but victory is tasted by Regan. In the mean time the guardian and the doctor reach the house . The guardian is set on ablaze. And she dies. After the fight is over Father and Regan leave while the doctor stays back to answer. It’s a very vague ending. The end was edited five times in the script after that this spoiled the entire movie.

The plot seems weak if compared to he Exorcist. If seen as a horror movie it would appear dull. But if seen excluding that fact then the movie is intelligent. If a debate between the religious and spiritual world is considered till date this movie seems intriguing.
The background score is also thrilling especially the loud shrill shout of pain and fear. As a quality of the Exorcists series faith on one religion is re-established.

It lacks the visual special effects seen in the twenty first century but still though a few in number can actually leave you gasping.

The cast of the movie was good. Linda Blair who played the lead role of Regan called it, “a big disappointment of my career”. The movie however was reedited and realized. The duration of the movie was reduced to one hour ten minutes and some more shots of a demon possessed girl was added.

Overall it was an attempt to do something different. The only sad part it was a sequel to thriller to which this movie couldn’t live up to.

Priyanka Gandhi