Boorman and the Devil Cinema Review

4 star candid reflections on a disaster.

Boorman and the Devil is a 2026 American documentary film, written and directed by David Kittredge (American Harmony). It takes a good look at the thought processes and production that led to the ill fated release of Exorcist II: The Heretic, through interviews with those directly involved, especially the director John Boorman, as well as a few film experts.

This fascinating insight is in cinemas from 25th September 2026, courtesy of Blue Finch Film Releasing.

“John, you know we all make failures. Try not to make a famous one. And this became one of the most famous failures of all time in the cinema.”

In 1973, The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, Cruising) and written by William Peter Blatty (The Ninth Configuration) burst onto the cinema scene and took the world by storm. People were both awed and disgusted by this radical new take on possession horror.

It comes as no surprise then, that four years later in 1977, it was decided that a sequel should be made. The original team wanted nothing to do with it, but John Boorman, hot from the success of Point Blank and Deliverance, was approached and agreed to take on the role of director for the film, to be titled The Heretic. The screenplay was written by William Goodhart (Cloud Dancer, Generation), with heavy adjustments later on by Rospo Pallenberg (Excalibur, The Emerald Forest).

Linda Blair (Repossessed, Savage Island) was persuaded to reprise her role as Regan, while Louise Fletcher (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), fresh from her success in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was drafted in to play her psychiatrist, Gene Tuskin. At the insistence of the studio, Richard Burton was hired as the male lead, Father Lamont, a decision which proved problematic in it’s own right.

“In my experience, successful movies have one thing in common, and that’s luck.”

This fascinating and enlightening documentary reveals how keen everyone felt about the production from the start and highlights the positives to be taken from this unquestionable cinematic disaster. Groundbreaking filming techniques, inventive use of colour palettes and massive sound stages built to replicate every corner of the globe. It examines in some depth how all this still somehow yielded a film which very few people enjoyed.

The acting is often poor, the story is silly and there are way too many locusts. With interviews from John Boorman, Linda Blair and Louise Fletcher, as well as directors, historians and critics, this is a genuinely funny, insightful and entertaining look at just how it all went so wrong. If you are interested in filmmaking, this is a must watch. Much more worth a trip to the cinema than the film they are discussing ever was.

“So, how do you recognise the difference between the normal chaos of a movie and the chaos of a disaster? I don’t know.”