20 Movie Sequels Everyone Knew Were A Huge Mistake (But Still Got Made)

7. Exorcist II: Heretic

Considering that The Exorcist enjoyed unprecedented levels of success for a horror film at the time, why wouldn't Warner Bros. make a sequel?

Exorcist II: Heretic was released in 1977, four years after the original, with Linda Blair and Max von Sydow reprising their roles from the first film. So far, so good, right?

Well, neither original writer William Peter Blatty nor director William Friedkin had any involvement, while one of the film's producers, Richard Lederer, admitted that the intent was to basically produce a low-budget rehash of the original masterpiece.

Elsewhere, Linda Blair refused to wear any demonic makeup, requiring a stand-in for these scenes, while Max von Sydow had to be coaxed into returning, and Ellen Burstyn flat-out refused to reprise her role of Chris MacNeil.

Even during production, director John Boorman wasn't happy with the script and requested rewrites, enough that the film's ending wasn't decided upon before shooting started.

On top of all this, Boorman contracted a respiratory fungal infection during shooting, reshoots were required due to damaged footage, and original editor John Merritt quit mid-production.

In retrospect Boorman called himself foolish for deviating so far from the formula of the original film, being well aware that he wasn't giving audiences what they wanted - and he's totally right.