10 Movie Franchises That Embarrassed Their Creators

8. The Exorcist

William Friedkin's 1973 horror classic The Exorcist was adapted from William Peter Blatty's hit 1971 novel, with Blatty himself both writing the Oscar-winning screenplay and serving as producer.

And though Blatty was by all accounts incredibly happy with the end result of the original film, both he and Friedkin were firmly against the idea of a sequel - or, gasp, a franchise - to the extent of having zero involvement with John Boorman's slapped-together 1977 sequel.

Blatty did go to the premiere of Exorcist II: The Heretic, however, and pulled no punches in describing how he was the first person in the audience to laugh at the travesty occurring on-screen. He said, "You'd think we were watching The Producers."

And though Blatty was seemingly good-humoured about the sequel's failure, he clearly felt the burn enough to return to the franchise himself for its third installment, keen to reclaim the series' good name and tidy up his association with the Exorcist brand.

In fairness, The Exorcist III was a major improvement over its predecessor, even including one of the best-executed jump scares in movie history.

But Blatty again came away dissatisfied, this time due to executive meddling, with the studio forcing him to shoot a more conventional ending, while his much-discussed Director's Cut has never been released in its original form.