William Friedkin‘s The Exorcist hit theaters in 1973 and made an impact that changed not just horror movies, but cinema itself. The demonic possession tale is still considered one of the scariest films ever made, and its story continues to inspire—genre master Mike Flanagan’s new take on the Exorcist franchise opens in 2027.
But that doesn’t mean everything associated with The Exorcist has been able to capture its success. Some have: released in 1990, The Exorcist III, written and directed by Exorcist novelist William Peter Blatty, who won an Oscar for scripting Friedkin’s film, is excellent and disturbing and well worth seeking out. The dueling Exorcist prequels—2004’s Exorcist: The Beginning and 2005’s Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist—offer a fascinating glimpse of how Hollywood’s hunger for do-overs can manifest in freaky ways. The Exorcist TV show, which was tangentially tied to the first movie, ran from 2016 to 2017 on Fox and delivered two genuinely spooky seasons. But though the less said about 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer, the better, it’s still not the most notorious entry in the Exorcist franchise. That title is absolutely claimed by 1977’s Exorcist II: The Heretic, and a new documentary will explore what went wrong with a movie that must have seemed at first to be a surefire slam dunk.
