YMMV / Exorcist II: The Heretic

• Awesome Music: The film somehow managed to snag Ennio Morricone to write the score. And while it's very far from his best work, this guy on an off day is still pretty darn good. Three words: "Magic and Ecstasy."
  • “Regan’s Theme” is hauntingly beautiful. So good in fact that Morricone actually re-used it for his work in The Hateful Eight, which got him an Oscar!
• Critical Backlash: A viewer unaware that this film is considered one of the worst ever might find it just a relatively mediocre horror film from The '70s. From a historical standpoint, the reason why the film failed so hard instead of merely bombing is equally obscure: patrons at the premiere rioted and got out within the first ten minutes of the screening, which is odd given that the film's beginning is not that different in either pace or tone to many other contemporary horror films (if anything, one could say people rioted before the film started getting actually bad). Some have entertained the idea that the film was hit by the infamous "curse" that affected the original Exorcist.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: According to jabootu.net, a background prop they call the "Nut O' Fun." It's a beige, hexagonal styrofoam wheel used as a toy by the institutionalized children.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Most fans prefer to pretend it doesn't exist with some even arguing Canon Discontinuity considering how it's the only movie not to be based on any of the books.
• Faux Symbolism: The locusts, what they represent in each scene and their comparison to humanity. Blair claims she has no idea what they mean, to this day.
• Harsher in Hindsight: This Exorcist sequel was accused of not even trying to be a horror movie. Many years later, this exact complaint fell on Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
• Heartwarming Moments: James Earl Jones' brief role talking about the balance of nature is genuinely heartwarming. His character, Kokumo, had been a child with paranormal healing abilities who was possessed by Pazuzu and aided by Merrin, as mentioned in the first film. (there's a brief scene where he's curing a sick child with Max von Sydow as young Fr. Merrin recording it) Martin had visions of him as a stereotypical witch doctor - and he turns out to be a learned biologist studying locusts.
• Memetic Mutation: "I will spit a leopard."
• Narm:
  • James Earl Jones dressed in a grasshopper costume and threatening to spit a leopard (while spitting a cherry tomato).
  • This scene sums it up best the entire film's atmosphere (or lack thereof):
    Sandra: What's the matter with you?
    Regan: (in a rather matter-of-fact tone) I was possessed by a demon.
    (Sandra's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates)
    Regan: Oh, it's okay. He's gone!
  • The Babylonian god Pazuzu was actually quite a frightening figure. Shame his name sounds so silly, though that's hardly this movie's fault.
  • Many of Father Lamont's lines are absurd, and Richard Burton's Large Ham delivery doesn't help either:
    Father Lamont: You realize what you're up against?
    Dr. Tuskin: What am I up against?
    Father Lamont: EEEEVIL!
  • Yet another example of ridiculous dialog:
    Father Lamont: I've flown this route before, on the wings of a demon.
    Edwards: (chuckling) Did he take you to Jepthi?
    Father Lamont: Yes!
• Nightmare Fuel: The absolute scariest moment in the film is when Regan is perched on the edge of a skyscraper, and looks like she's one bad gust from being street pizza. Even scarier? It was real. Yes, that was Linda Blair teetering on a skyscraper ledge with no harness to protect her from a tragic death.
• Nightmare Retardant: The movie is notorious for being this. The recurring motif of locusts and to quote The Nostalgia Critic: "The name Pazuzu is not scary! It sounds silly! Very, very silly! And yet, they constantly repeat his name over and over again. Doesn't it sort of suck out the fear when your villain is named something so goofy?" In hindsight, this might be why Pazuzu is never named in the first film.
• Sequelitis: When the sequel to one of the most iconic horror films ever made is... well, this, you know you're witnessing a textbook example.
• So Bad, It's Good: The film suffers from a Genre Shift away from horror as well as a generally bizarre storyline, but the end result is also considered unintentionally funny.
• Sophomore Slump: The first film is considered an all-time classic, but this one suffers from a Genre Shift away from horror as well as a generally bizarre and unintentionally funny storyline, and is considered the worst of the film series (the third is considered nowadays an underrated cult hit, and while opinions on the two attempts at a prequel film, Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, tend to vary, very few consider them to actually be worse than the second film).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: As The Cinema Snob and The Nostalgia Critic made sure to point out, the movie has plenty of intriguing ideas and a great visual flair. However, the nonsensical plot, incoherent narrative and the more notable fact it barely tries to be a horror movie just ruins any ambitions.
  Nostalgia Critic: Just like the first film, where people had to be rushed to the hospital because of scariness, the people had to be rushed to the coffee shop to wake the fuck up. This is certainly one of the strangest sequels to ever been constructed. It has a lot of scary ideas but no real scary scenes. Its concepts are fascinating but the delivery is downright silly.
• Tough Act to Follow: A given, as the first film was one of the greatest horror films in history of cinema.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: While the movie is undoubtedly flawed, the house destruction on the climatic scene is an awesome spectacle to behold with special effects that, surprisingly, still hold up to this day.

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