The Exorcist II: first watch

Just wanted to share this theory I have regarding John Boorman's sequel which - everyone will agree to this - is a bit of a mess. But what if it all happened in Richard Burton's head?

Quoting from my initial post on Letterboxd:

"Finally, after all these years of carefully avoiding this movie like a plague of locust, I caved in and sat down to watch, bewildered and greatly amused, this train-wreck. What can I say? Definitely a product of its time: Uri Geller, ESP, nonsensical parapsychology all mixed up with - faint - traces of the original and at least a more serious attempt to give Father Merrin and good ole Pazuzu a bit of an origin story.

But as I was watching it, a creepier thought entered my mind and I started to see things through a different prism: what if the story of Exorcist II is that of a priest (Richard Burton) trying to refrain the sexual urges he feels for a young girl (Regan)? The dream-like travels to Africa then start to make sense as he's not really going there but staying in his cheap hotel room hallucinating the dreaded thing, trying to fight and repress his pulsions... and his final 'casual dress' appearance near the end -- where he literally *kidnaps* Regan back to where the overtly sexualized 'possession' shown in the first movie happens also takes on a whole different meaning. And it gives a kind of superior excuse to all the gratuitous shots of Linda Blair in see-through lingerie other than the usual 'oh that was the 70s' David Hamilton-type of apology. Probably not what Boorman intended but I'm liking my theory."