10 Exact Moments Horror Movies Stop Trying

7. Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

Given the runaway success of The Exorcist, it’s no surprise that the studio and producers wanted to get another one in the can ASAP, but writer William Peter Blatty and director William Friedkin wanted nothing to do with it, and rightly so. 

Exorcist II: The Heretic takes place four years after the first, with previously possessed Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) now a moderately well-adjusted teenager who has buried her experiences deep within her psyche. But her therapist Dr. Gene Tuskin (Louise Fletcher) is keen to put Regan in touch with her past, while reluctantly helping Father Philip Lamont (Richard Burton) – the man tasked with investigating Father Lankester Merrin's (Max von Sydow) death from the first film – find answers.

On the one hand, the film does an interesting job of delving into Merrin's past, while keeping Regan and her affliction as the focus, and even finding ways to revisit Pazuzu post-banishment. But it really stops trying (and the acting drops off) at the point when Father Lamont connects with Regan's mind.

Hooked up to an innovative new machine that Dr. Tuskin has been working with that allows two users to synchronise their brainwaves, Lamont sees into Regan’s mind and past, via Tuskin. In a pivotal yet absolutely nonsensical scene, he witnesses possessed Regan literally reaching into Merrin and Dr. Tuskin's chests and squeezing their hearts. And from here through to the climax at the original house in Georgetown, it doesn't get any better.