{"id":41036,"date":"2023-10-06T00:10:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T04:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41036"},"modified":"2023-10-03T22:52:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T02:52:49","slug":"ranking-the-exorcist-series-from-best-to-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/ranking-the-exorcist-series-from-best-to-worst\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d Series from Best to Worst"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s been fifty years since the release of the late, great William Friedkin\u2019s horror masterpiece \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d and we\u2019re getting two really big, and anticipated sequels that follow after the original film. \u201cBeliever\u201d is setting high expectations and has a high bar to hit. \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d has yet to be topped by its follow ups, or its bevy of imitators. Here\u2019s my list of films from \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d series from Best to Worst. Fingers crossed \u201cBeliever\u201d ends up wowing fans and audiences alike.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Exorcist (1973)
\n<\/strong>William Friedkin\u2019s horror drama is easily my favorite horror film of all time and one of my all time favorite films. It\u2019s a complex, and emotional tale of family torn apart and infiltrated by a horrendous supernatural force. Every moment of the film is just immense with high stakes both personal and emotional, as a massive battle of faith, science, and reality unfolds before our eyes. Friedkin directs a dazzling cast including Max Von Sydow, Jason Miller, Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair in her star making performance. \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d is just a non-stop journey in to darkness that also introduces Pazuzu, one of the most enigmatic villains of the genre. It hasn\u2019t aged a bit since its release in 1973. It\u2019s often imitated but has yet to be duplicated.<\/p>\n

The Exorcist III (1990)
\n<\/strong>William Peter Blatty\u2019s adaptation of his novel \u201cLegion\u201d is a wonderful horror film in its original form and in its uncut form. You really can\u2019t go wrong with this film when all is said and done. \u201cThe Exorcist III\u201d achieves so much of what the original held with its sense of unease, the sheer terror, and the wonderful cast from Brad Douriff, George C. Scott, and the return of Jason Miller respectively. It just excels in an engaging narrative, some wonderful bits of sheer terror, and moments that have become iconic to the horror genre. Whether it\u2019s the elderly woman crawling on the ceiling, or the pitch perfect jump scare in the hospital, \u201cThe Exorcist III\u201d is pitch perfect.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
\n<\/strong>\u201cThe Exorcist\u201d prequel debacle is one of the more infamous incidents of the early aughts that have just being a terrible stain on Renny Harlin and Paul Schrader\u2019s careers. It didn\u2019t kill their careers, but it was an unnecessary difficulty that didn\u2019t need to happen if Morgan Creek would have decided on a film tone. Renny Harlin\u2019s \u201cThe Beginning\u201d is just a terrible film filled with a dull story, some awful CGI and some terribly mean spirited violence that does nothing to further the story of Father Merrin at all. \u201cThe Beginning\u201d is a pointless attempt to expand the mythology of Friedkin\u2019s movie and sadly just falls flat at every turn.<\/p>\n

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist 2005
\n<\/strong>\u201cDominion\u201d is the film that Paul Schrader apparently originally intended to deliver to audiences and it\u2019s just no better than Renny Harlin\u2019s. Despite Schrader offering a more coherent film, \u201cDominion\u201d is just as dull as Harlin\u2019s. It also feels wholly unimportant and insignificant to the whole mythology of Friedkin\u2019s movie. Father Merrin\u2019s original battle with Pazuzu should have been an epic test of the body and his emotions that left him war torn for years. \u201cDominion\u201d feels low in stakes and doesn\u2019t entirely prop Pazuzu as an interesting villain. Merrin\u2019s character just warrants a better, scarier film, and this isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
\n<\/strong>Believe everything that you\u2019ve read about \u201cThe Heretic.\u201d It\u2019s not just an awful sequel, but it is an awful movie altogether. John Boorman was known to have hated \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d and allegedly sought out to deliver a sequel that was almost nothing like the original. What we get is a silly, unscary, boring and convoluted genre picture filled with idiotic mysticism, and some of the dumbest scenes ever staged. It\u2019s all seemingly intent on ruining the ambiguity of the original film, even ruining one of the best moments of the original film. It wastes Linda Blair, it wastes Max Von Sydow, and it wastes James Earl Jones. It is just absolutely unwatchable, even with an ironic approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been fifty years since the release of the late, great William Friedkin\u2019s horror masterpiece \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d and we\u2019re getting two really big, and anticipated sequels that follow after the original film. \u201cBeliever\u201d is setting high expectations and has a high bar to hit. \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d has yet to be topped by its follow ups, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[64,477,793,922,1087],"class_list":["post-41036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-list-junkies","tag-adaptation","tag-horror","tag-possession","tag-sequel","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41041,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41036\/revisions\/41041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}