10 Movie Sequels Way Better Than They Had Any Right To Be

William Friedkin's The Exorcist is one of the greatest films ever made. The Exorcist II: The Heretic, by comparison, is one of the worst films ever made. Directed by the otherwise brilliant John Boorman, who directed such inimitable classics as Point Blank and Deliverance, The Heretic quite notoriously departed from the tone and verve of Friedkin's movie and paid a heavy price. In truth, it should never have been made in the first place. The writer behind The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty, had no involvement with the sequel, and the success of the original film - while undoubtedly indebted to Friedkin's deft execution - was inextricably linked to the author, whose theological interiority formed the basis of The Exorcist's heartfelt and human subtext.

Blatty himself wasn't just an author, though. He had originally started his career as a screenwriter, and a few years after the release of The Exorcist, he directed his own film - The Ninth Configuration, an adaptation of his novel of the same name. A brilliantly bizarre film that occupied a similar thematic space to The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration was one of only two films Blatty directed - the other being The Exorcist III, which is also one of the greatest horror movie sequels ever made.

It has taken a long time for Blatty's Exorcist film to be recognised as such, however. It was met with a tepid response when it released in 1990, but has, over time, developed a cult following. With such interest has also come greater scrutiny surrounding the film's development, which, from what we now know, makes the fact The Exorcist III is so good even more impressive.

The Exorcist III began life as Legion, a novel Blatty had written following failed attempts at developing a direct sequel to The Exorcist with Friedkin. The novel, which is just as soulful and gripping as Blatty's previous Exorcist book, sold so well that he was able to get a film adaptation off the ground with himself as director. Unfortunately, during production, Blatty met numerous roadblocks with production company Morgan Creek and 20th Century Fox, who demanded the insertion of an exorcism plotline despite the novel lacking one entirely. The final indignity the studios imparted on the film was to throw out its original title and call it The Exorcist III, which ended up damaging rather than encouraging its box-office prospects as a result of Heretic-related scepticism - something Blatty explicitly warned against during production.

Despite the ridiculous studio interference Blatty had to contend with, though, The Exorcist III is still a horror masterpiece - a soulful and sorrowful confrontation with life and death that, while compromised, is still a fine illustration of the writer and director's talent. A salvaged "Legion Cut" - made from a composite of 35mm footage and VHS dailies taken on set and available to watch in the Scream Factory and Arrow Video Blu-ray releases of the film - goes some way in realising more of Blatty's vision, but the original cut is still an impressive testament to what Blatty was able to achieve under less than ideal conditions.