Director David Kittredge On Boorman And The Devil And Exorcist II

How does one go about treating a much-maligned movie with dignity and affection? For director David Kittredge, his new documentary Boorman and the Devil, which explores the disastrous making of 1977’s Exorcist II: The Heretic, was never about punching down.

Instead, the doc spins a wonderfully human and engrossing portrait of the cost of pursuing one’s vision to the max. Kittredge gets fascinating one-on-one access with the film’s director John Boorman, eliciting rueful and philosophical answers that mix slight regret with steadfastness and wry humour, even when he recounts how the production nearly killed him.

The insights don’t stop there: Kittredge’s passion project whisks us through the film’s origins, its ever-mutating and troublesome script, and the superbly bemused recollections from original stars Linda Blair and Louise Fletcher. The mishaps along the way are genuinely jaw-dropping, culminating in one of the most infamous preview screenings of all time.

Read our review of Boorman and the Devil →

It is, in short, a goldmine for cult movie buffs, horror lovers and everyone in between. Watch our full interview with David Kittredge below, in which he discusses the long gestation period of the documentary, whether anyone truly sets out to make a bad film, and what it takes to maintain artistic integrity in the face of overwhelming odds.