I remember having watched this about 15 years ago, and finding it very good. Watching it now confirmed several things – I still think it is very good – but the ending was very annoying and smothered what could have been an excellent film. The great bits: dialogue and character, especially between the policeman and the priest; the surreal vision of heaven, and the restrained implications of things going wrong (mostly); and one particular ‘shock’ – which was one of my clearest memories from when I first saw it, and remains one of the most frightening moments in any film for me. That sequence works extremely well, and would repay study I think. But the ending was overblown and awful, lacking in all the theological subtlety that had been apparent up until then. The character of the exorcist priest also needed a little more fleshing out and integrating with the remaining narrative.

Having said all that, it is undoubtedly the best of all the Exorcist sequels.