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For research reasons, in preparation for David Kittredge’s fascinating documentary, I watched TEII:TH for the first time since I originally saw it, at the cinema on a double bill with William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, back in the early 1980s. Yes I’ve been that disinclined to rewatch the thing. I'll save my comments to the end.
As the documentary’s title suggests, John Boorman is your guide through the gestation, filming and critical aftermath of his seventh feature film. Using a series of to camera pieces filmed when the director was 85 – eight years ago – it’s supplemented by interviews with two of the film’s leads, Linda Blair and Louise Fletcher (who died in 2022) and a host of behind the scenes people, including the villain of the piece, uncredited writer and script butcher Rospo Pallenberg, other directors like Mike Flanagan and Joe Dante, and a handful of critics.
Kittredge eases us into the story with a brief career retrospective of Boorman’s career up to 1975, demonstrating his commitment, idiosyncrasy and willingness to stick his neck out (Sean Connery in a mankini for his 1973 sci fi oddity Zardoz, anyone?).
Although Boorman passed on the chance to direct The Exorcist (apparently Kubrick was also approached), he felt that the script for the sequel – one which was generally felt not to be needed - gave him the opportunity for a more metaphysical look at possession, and a chance to flesh out Regan’s character. The fact that, in the four years since the original's huge financial success, a slew of 'Exorcist' copycat movies had also done great box office, wasn’t entirely coincidental.
Boorman wasn’t particularly happy with William Goodhart’s original script, seeing it as overly intellectual and lacking in ‘jolts’, and co-opted Pallenberg, who in the later stages of the movie took the opportunity of Boorman’s prolonged absence from the shoot through illness to considerably, and more ambitiously, alter the plot.
BatD follows the casting of the film, with Max Von Sydow persuaded back by the prospect of a “beautiful, poetic, healing” script (ahem) and a very unwilling Blair similarly seduced, both by Richard Burton joining the project and a rumoured million dollar salary. The gradual derailing of the project began with the unexpected death of Lee J. Cobb, preventing his Lt. Kinderman character from returning in the sequel, which required a radical script rewrite (the first of many); and the movie’s multi continent location plan being nixed in favour of filming everything on the Burbank sound stages (which, viewed today, together with the use of old school ‘ghost glass’ effects, are probably the most interesting aspects of the film).
A combination of Blair’s constant lateness to the set and Burton’s acting and alcohol related limitations compounded problems, but it was Boorman’s illness, causing a 5 week shoot shutdown, that gave Pallenberg the opportunity for an unauthorised intervention, making character changes in the script and setting out a more ambitious ending, subsequently scrapped because of the need to wrap the movie.
For me it's the latter half of the film that really lets it down. Nearly forty years on I can forgive the rather random plotting and the sometimes pallid script, because generally TEII:TH looks stunning. Sadly the finale, deemed incomprehensible via endless rewrites and Pallenberg's sabotage, is its most problematic element; that and Regan's tap dancing routine (which the actor fought against including, quite justifiably).
The documentary effectively charts the movie’s nosedive as it moved towards completion; its eventual terrible critical reception is therefore unsurprising, but Boorman’s tenacity and frankly charming ability to find some positives in the work adds an almost upbeat element to this cautionary tale. Boorman and the Devil elevates itself above the usual talking heads documentaries through Boorman’s sage voice but also because it’s both a great – if appalling – story and a salutary lesson for budding filmmakers of all generations.
Boorman and the Devil is released in cinemas from 25 September.
