10 Horror Movie Sequels That Saved The Franchise
8. The Exorcist III
When you're creating a sequel to an iconic horror, the worst thing you can do is simply try to recreate the first film's success.
At least, that was the mindset which led Deliverance director John Boorman to create Exorcist II: The Heretic four years after William Friedkin's original film became a critical and commercial success.
Though star Linda Blair did return, Boorman's surreal and deeply misjudged film abandoned everything else that made the first film so scary in favour of biblical plagues, needlessly overcomplicated exposition, and bizarre "brainwave synchronising" subplots. Reviled by critics and quickly labeled one of the worst films ever made, this ridiculous flick had none of Deliverance's harsh effectiveness and seemed to put the Exorcist franchise to bed for good.
However, 1990 saw the original novel's author William Peter Blatty direct The Exorcist III, a twisty slasher-style murder mystery whose total tonal shift was the only thing that could salvage this series after the terrifying original and its terrible sequel.
A wholesale departure from the first film's possession horror, this one owed more to the psychological horror sub genre and won over critics by wisely ignoring the second film's existence.