Other images in the film don’t work as well. Flashes of iconic religious statues that have been vandalized or modified sacrilegiously simply seem gratuitous. One statue looks so much like The Joker from Batman comics that it totally drew me out of the movie. The movie begins to falter irredeemably with the introduction of the villain, a man who may or may not be the reincarnated spirit of a long-dead serial killer… who may or may not be residing in the long dead body of the late Father Karras. This is where the studio’s tampering really gets the better of the film. Studio executives wanted to ensure a built-in audience for the film by bringing back Jason Miller, who’d played Father Karras in the original movie. Therefore, Blatty recreated his villain so that Miller and Brad Dourif could each play the role at different times in the film. Dourif delivers a fine performance for his part; his version of the bad guy is absolutely creepy and downright scary. Miller, however, seems to be phoning it in. And I don’t blame him. This duel-performance is a bad idea, and begins to sink the movie.