When looking at the legendary career of director John Boorman, we have films such as Point Blank (1967), Deliverance (1972), and Excalibur (1981), amongst a plethora of other films. But we also have the unlikely sequel that he was offered, he accepted, and which almost proved to be the end of his career after the highlight of Deliverance in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). David Kittredge’s documentary, Boorman and the Devil, having its Louisiana premiere during The Overlook Film Festival 2026, looks back at Exorcist II, examining how it went wrong, where it went wrong, and what it changed for Boorman, the cast, and Hollywood as a whole. Sometimes, maybe if all the signs point elsewhere, just listen to the intuition and pass on the project.
While Boorman and the Devil touches upon literally anything and everything in relationship to the movie itself, there isn’t a lot of screen time dedicated to John Boorman and his feelings on the project and what happened. Of the near two hours, there are maybe 20 minutes or so dedicated to the director and his struggles with what happened to the film and the aftermath. However, what the all-engrossing documentary does focus on is literally everything about Exorcist II, including why it was made, what went wrong, the cast, original writer William Peter Blatty’s involvement (or, more preciously, the lack thereof), as well as snippets of thoughts from critics, scholars, and filmmakers on the merits that Exorcist II has or doesn’t have. The underlying understanding and love for the Exorcist II is simply that Boorman wasn’t necessarily the problem here as the direction was filled with passion and drive, it’s everything else that came together to create the powder keg that inevitably exploded Exorcist II into the existence it has and is now known for. In short, if you know nothing about behind the scenes of Exorcist II (of which I knew none), Boorman and the Devil is incredibly interesting and, at moments, even shocking, but if you’ve done your research before and have read into the elements, this may be a little less interesting.
A still from EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC as shown in BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL. Photo courtesy of The Overlook Film Festival 2026.
Without giving away all too much about Boorman and the Devil and what it touches upon, some interesting moments brought up in the documentary were that Warner Brothers originally pitched/asked Blatty (The Exorcist) to be involved in some capacity, whether it be writing the script or directing or something else, but he passed because simply, as he put it, he had nothing left to say. Which poses an interesting question. You were behind one of the most successful horror movies of all time, and you didn’t want to even explore the idea of a sequel, and, as Blatty’s son puts it, not even for the check. But, after Exorcist II was released, Blatty wrote and directed Exorcist III (1990), which is regarded as a genuinely great sequel. Asking Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist) to come back after the original was completely out of the question as she had butt heads with both Blatty and original Exorcist director William Freidkin (Sorcerer) and didn’t ever want to return to the franchise. There were already large obstacles before Exorcist II even took off which proved it to be a challenge. Moreover, the studio essentially presold the movie to theaters. They told them they were going to make a sequel to the highest grossing horror movie ever made, and they wanted contracts made for the movie to essentially guarantee their theatrical runs for x number of weeks, and this is how they would finance the sequel — a practice that, today, sounds literally insane.
One does not need to be fan of or have even seen Exorcist II to see Boorman and the Devil to understand and appreciate the documentary because it’s not focused on the movie itself as a singular entity, but rather as the gigantic disaster it became for the studio, the systems in place, the exhibitor, and the weight it put on John Boorman as a creative. It could’ve been any movie, in reality, but it just happened to be the sequel to one of the highest grossing and well-regarded horror movies of all time.
Screened during The Overlook Film Festival 2026.
For more information, head to the official The Overlook Film Festival Boorman and the Devil webpage.
Final Score: 3.75 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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