Jean de Boorman

British film director John Boorman, a long-term figure of abuse from Mark Kermode ever since he made Exorcist II: The Heretic. Simon Mayo is of the belief that Mark can never have an open mind towards a John Boorman film.

Mark has a well-worked theory about Boorman. He is actually keen on Boorman's early work: Catch Me If You Can; Point Blank; Hell In The Pacific amongst it. However, Boorman then made Deliverance - which Mark thinks is great - but the problem was that critics like Michael Cement started to say on the back of Deliverance that Boorman was not just a director, he was an auteur. At that point, the quality of Boorman's work rapidly deteriorated, with the aforementioned Exorcist sequel and its giant locusts being joined by the likes of Zardoz and Excalibur - let's all say it together - "you brought me back..."