Caught up in Exorcist rerelease fever, I was somehow possessed to rush out and rent The Exorcist 2: The Heretic, just to see what this viciously maligned sequel was all about.

Sometimes nasty rumours are justified. Apparently, the filmmakers decided to explain away all the mysteries surrounding the first film. Funny, but I thought it was pretty clear: the girl was possessed by the devil, wasn't she? Not to these folks, including the director, John Boorman (yes, the same one behind Deliverance), who endeavour to explain who the specific demon was inside Linda Blair, who still appears to be lurking there.

Richard Burton is a Roman Catholic priest who's investigating the death of his old friend Max von Sydow (who agreed to return to appear in some flashbacks). Things get mighty confused as Blair is hypnotized, Burton goes off to the far east to figure out von Sydow's mysterious journey and they all reunite in the bedroom where Blair was exorcised in the first movie.

Naturally, I was desperately seeking some camp value in this. There's one good bit, where Blair suffers a demonic seizure while performing a tap-dancing routine before an audience. As well, the film is mis-scored by Ennio Morricone, whose often sentimental music feels quite out of place. Other than that, beware: this Satanic sequel is about as much fun as a Sunday School lesson. : --Matthew Hays

--Genevieve Paiement