Passes the Bechdel test
Exorcist II: The Heretic
1977. Directed by John Boorman and Rospo Pallenberg, written by William Goodhart and Rospo Pallenberg.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
9 women characters. 10 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 8 scenes out of 110. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
Dr. Gene Tuskin works with troubled children, perhaps none more troubled than Regan MacNeil, who suffers from bad dreams and repressed memories. The memories she represses are of the time she was possessed by a demon. Dr. Tuskin's invention, a device that hypnotizes two persons and links their minds together, reveals that the demon, named Pazuzu, still lurks within her. It is desperate to emerge again and wreak havoc. Meanwhile, Father Philip Lamont is ordered by his cardinal to investigate the death of Father Merrin, the priest who died while performing an exorcism on Regan. Father Lamont undertakes his task reluctantly. He feels unworthy of his assignment. He also feels that Evil is literally an entity and that this entity is winning the battle over Good. His investigation takes him to Africa where he locates another recipient of Merrin's exorcising and learns something fascinating and terrible about locusts.
- Released
- 17 Jun 1977
- Genres
- Horror
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 3.8 / 10
- Metascore
- 39 / 100
- Awards
- 3 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Lamont 131 lines, man
- Regan 108 lines, woman
- Tuskin 107 lines, woman
- Sharon 40 lines, woman
- Liz 18 lines
- Cardinal Jaros 9 lines, man
- Edwards 9 lines, man
- Kokumo 9 lines, man
- Merrin 7 lines, man
- Monk 6 lines, man
Full cast, 28 people
- Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil
- Richard Burton as Father Philip Lamont
- Louise Fletcher as Dr. Gene Tuskin
- Max von Sydow as Father Lankester Merrin
- James Earl Jones as Older Kokumo
- Ned Beatty as Edwards
- Kitty Winn as Sharon Spencer
- Paul Henreid as The Cardinal
- Belinda Beatty as Liz
- Rose Portillo as Spanish Girl
- Barbara Cason as Mrs. Phalor
- Tiffany Kinney as Deaf Girl
- Joey Green as Young Kokumo
- Fiseha Dimetros as Young Monk
- Ken Renard as Abbot
- Hank Garrett as Conductor
- Lorry Goldman as Accident Victim
- Bill Grant as Taxi Driver
- Shane Butterworth as Gary Tuskin
- Joely Adams as Linda Tuskin
- Robert Lussier
- Charles Parks
- Richard Paul as Man on the Plane
- George Skaff
- Marianne Muellerleile as Patient (uncredited)
- Dana Plato as Sandra Phalor (uncredited)
- Kelley Karel as Singer (uncredited)
- Karen Knapp as Pazuzu (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 110
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 to 6 | 1 | 13 |
| 7 to 9 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 to 12 | 8 | 0 |
| 13 to 15 | 41 | 12 |
| 16 to 18 | 59 | 15 |
| 19 to 21 | 7 | 11 |
| 22 to 24 | 26 | 18 |
| 25 to 27 | 43 | 7 |
| 28 to 30 | 7 | 17 |
| 31 to 33 | 16 | 0 |
| 34 to 36 | 0 | 14 |
| 37 to 39 | 0 | 2 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 45 | 7 | 1 |
| 46 to 48 | 0 | 24 |
| 49 to 51 | 4 | 20 |
| 52 to 54 | 1 | 8 |
| 55 to 57 | 9 | 4 |
| 58 to 60 | 12 | 6 |
| 61 to 63 | 11 | 1 |
| 64 to 66 | 4 | 1 |
| 67 to 69 | 3 | 2 |
| 70 to 72 | 4 | 1 |
| 73 to 75 | 3 | 1 |
| 76 to 78 | 1 | 0 |
| 79 to 81 | 0 | 0 |
| 82 to 84 | 1 | 0 |
| 85 to 87 | 0 | 0 |
| 88 to 90 | 0 | 1 |
| 91 to 93 | 5 | 0 |
| 94 to 96 | 2 | 0 |
| 97 to 99 | 0 | 0 |
| 100 to 102 | 1 | 1 |
| 103 to 105 | 1 | 0 |
| 106 to 108 | 0 | 0 |
| 109 to 110 | 5 | 2 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
REGAN: Sorry to disturb you. TUSKIN: What is it, Regan? REGAN: Gene, I've changed my mind. I'd like to do it after all. TUSKIN: Fine.
TUSKIN: What happened? REGAN: Are you all right? Tuskin nods. Regan is very relieved .
TUSKIN: Do you remember anything? REGAN: Was it in Africa? REGAN: It was like something I saw with our class at the Natural History Museum. TUSKIN: You weren't supposed to remember anything.
SANDRA: Mother, it's all right ... TUSKIN: What is it?
TUSKIN: All right! Take her home. Liz, you go with them. TUSKIN: What did you do? REGAN: Nothing. I just started ·talking to her. First she was talking inside, and then she was talking outside. REGAN: Gene, do you think I could help some of your other kids?
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 61 are women's.
283 lines from women, 184 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
9 women and 12 men in the cast. 10 women and 5 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 26 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 51% of the words (3,020), men 49% (2,884). Women have 61% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
27
Two men
10
Exhibit F: behind the camera
None of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 10% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- John Boorman (man)
- Written by
- William Goodhart (man), Rospo Pallenberg (man)
- Produced by
- John Boorman (man), Richard Lederer (gender not listed)
- Shot by
- William A. Fraker (man)
- Edited by
- John Merritt (man), Tom Priestley (man)
- Music by
- Ennio Morricone (man)
- Production design by
- Richard Macdonald (man)
- Costumes by
- Robert De Mora (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
1 women, 9 men, 4 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 3 men, 7 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 7 men, 3 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 8 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 29 on average. Men: 51 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Linda Blair 18, Rose Portillo 23, Kitty Winn 34, Louise Fletcher 42
Men
Ned Beatty 39, James Earl Jones 46, Max von Sydow 48, Richard Burton 51, Paul Henreid 69
Exhibit H: the money
It made 2.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $14 million
- Box office
- $30.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 110 scenes and 498 lines of dialogue. How the test works
