10 More Movies Where The Reshoots Were Painfully Obvious
9. The Exorcist III
William Peter Blatty's underrated sequel The Exorcist III was never supposed to end with an exorcism, but the power of studio interference compelled the writer and director to shoehorn one into the final act.
It's obvious the movie's dramatic conclusion, in which the demon is driven out of Father Karras, was the result of enforced reshoots and never in the original script.
For starters, the book the movie is based on, Blatty's Legion, doesn't end this way, but the biggest giveaway is the jarring tonal shift right at the end. The Exorcist III spends most of its time gradually building suspense and creeping horror, yet it veers towards balls-to-the-wall action territory and a bullet to the head at the death.
Although the reshot scenes are noticeable, this ending certainly has its merits. The powers that be achieved what they set out to do here by making the cinematic cut infinitely more dramatic, so this goes down as one of those rare instances of studio interference actually being a good thing.