Louise Fletcher – Tripping Through Gateways

Looking at the basics? The Exorcist II seems like it could be a winner. Returning cast members, an established director and dependable new cast members…

And yet?

Father Lamont is in Rio. He is struggling with his faith, and attempts to exorcise a demon from a young woman, but he fails and she kills herself. When he returns to the United States, the Diocese assigns him to investigate the death of Father Merrin four years prior.

This brings him into contact with Regan, now eighteen and having pushed the horrors of the first film from her mind. She is working with the psychiatrist Dr. Tuskin who believes she can help Regan recover those lost memories.

The investigation takes Lamont deeper and deeper into a rabbit hole leading to one of Father Merrin’s early exorcisms. And then things go crazy. Giant Locusts, exploding houses, duplicate Regans…and the end result is a crazy mess.

This film is just so bizarre and it’s attempts to build off the first film miss a distinct aspect. Sincerity.

Here, we see Lamont is a man struggling with his faith. And that is something that horror really can explore well. The first film does that. In part, it features Karras and his doubts, but how they are played out against Merrin’s confidence. The Exorcist II tries to recapture the spiritual horror of the first film, but instead ends up seeming like a hilarious joke.

One night, young David witnesses a spaceship landing just beyond the hill. After his father returns from checking it out, he seems…different. His father seems detached. Like he is trying to determine how to behave. David uncovers an invasion from the martians and must try and figure out who to trust. His teachers? The Military? His fellow students?

Based on the 1953 film, Hooper returned to sci-fi quickly after his space vampire movie Lifeforce. A decidedly more mainstream film, this falls squarely into the territory of the paranoid alien invasion films. And it is pretty effective in that regard. David soon finds his parents and classmates under the influence of the martians, and his only chance for help from Linda, the school nurse. They eventually find help from the military, who lead a retaliatory attack.

The film is very lush and colorful, with Hooper embracing vibrant reds. The creature effects by Stan Winston are great and the Martians are utterly unearthly.

The script is very effective. In a few brief moments, Dan O’Bannon establishes how close David is with his parents, so that we can tell that something is wrong a scene later when his dad has been taken over by the martian invaders.

There are some great performances here, with a solid group of actors including Karen Black and James Karen.

Really, the only thing that frustrated me with the film was the choice of ending. It is frustrating with it’s choice to muddy the reality of the story. But aside from that, I found Invaders From Mars an enjoyably film from Tobe Hooper’s filmography.

Tag: Louise Fletcher

Vulgar Display of Power Pt 2 (the Exorcist II: The Heretic, 1977)

They Are Us (Invaders From Mars, 1986)