@@johnnypiss That's true, but even the original novel (which I have read) didn't really leave any room for a follow up, so it's still quite impressive.
Still really love the Exorcist 3. So underrated. I know the original is a cemented classic and a fabulous yet horrific story, but Exorcist III is my preferred favorite. A true psychological horror film. Really good performances, great story. I wish it got the praise then that it gets now but at least it's recognized as a great film now.
Brad Dourif does not get enough credit for this and he is so underrated. He is the only person that stands out and that you care for as well in the Rob Zombie Halloween remakes. He outshined everyone.
I quite like him in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. He's a real scenery-chewing antagonist in that film, but he also gives a kind of Shakespearean depth to the character.
The way they kept switching the actors in that final third of the film was really unnerving...it was so effective in keeping the audience on their toes
The Exorcist TV show from a couple years back is actually really great. It pre-dates Halloween 2018 people never mention that. And it did a legacy sequel story right if you ask me.
Exorcist 3 IS the official sequel to the original. It was written by William Peter Blatty - the author of the original - released in 1983 and was titled Legion. He reworked the story for the screenplay and then directed it himself. The only changes from the novel is the exorcism scene at the end which was demanded by the studio. It's one of the ONLY times I've thought a theatrical cut as deemed by the studio is the superior version. Such an amazing film. But yeah, genuine sequel from inception. :)
Please explain how you came to this conclusion because I’ve never understood Exorcist 3. Its not scary or really disturbing at all. Its a weird detective movie with a Patrick Ewing cameo😂 It lacks the atmosphere from the 1st film.
@@Silverfox1982 Don't forget about Fabio and Samuel L. Jackson. If you're gonna be that guy "be that guy." My best guess for the Pat Ewing Cameo is because he is probably the most prolific player in Georgetown history which is, of course, where The Exorcist took place. As to why Exorcist 3 is so lauded now, I believe it has to do with a relatively throw away character that stuck with people now being the main character as well as his struggles in such a "powerful" role. It is like PREDATOR but on the supernatural level. His friends and colleages are taken out whilst he is dealing with a crisis of faith and he is dealing with murders that are just abhorrent in every sense of the word. Couple that with the single best jump scare of all time and its' way of upping the creep factor in a surgical way pun intended that appeals to the masses on a subconcious level as opposed to the upper crust of the first film has obviously permeated the mainstream.
While the first Exorcist focuses on a Priest starting to lose his faith, Exorcist 3 focuses on a cop without faith. He has no faith despite the fact that his best friend is a Priest. By gaining faith he is able to defeat evil and save his friend's soul. The imagery of this movie is unsettling throughout the full movie. If a basketball star and Fabio cameo are the only take-aways...you might want to give it a rewatch. No disrespect.
I remember as a kid my mom and dad came home from the theater watched The exorcist they were truly horrified they had never seen anything like that before.
My ranking 1. The Exorcist 2. The Exorcist 3 3. Dominion 4. The Exorcist: Beginning 5. Exorcist 2 (I know I know 😅) 6. The Exorcist: Believer Keep up the great work Cody, love your content
The TV series of The Exorcist was way better than it had any business being considering it was made for network TV. It is easily better than half the movies on this list. Story wise.
Interesting list I agree on how 3 is underrated, same as Halloween 3 but Exorcist 3 is even better. I love your lists whether I agree or disagree, as the best parts come from the what??? moments when you like or love what never landed for me. Have a good weekend
I honestly find more value in The Exorcist 2 than I do the prequels or the new one. It’s a horrendous movie but it’s so entertaining! When I first watched it I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t hyperbole when people called it one of the worst sequels ever made. I find it so enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. 😅
Same. I think it's the worst sequel ever but I still owned it on vhs, dvd, and now blu ray, but I will never watch that try hard exorcist Beginning again. Now THAT is so boring and run of the mill...
My Exorcist Franchise Ranking: 1. The Exorcist (1973) 10/10 2. The Exorcist III (1990) 10/10 3. The Exorcist (2016-2018) 10/10 4. The Ninth Configuration (1980) 10/10 5. Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) 7/10 6. The Exorcist: Believer (2023) 6/10 7. Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) 6/10 8. Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) 1/10
I find Jason Millers performance in Exorcist 3 to be woefully underrated. Everyone talks about Brad Dourif, who is great, but Jason Miller REALLY grounds it and really compliments Dourifs. If it wasn't for him, I would have found Dourifs performance to be a little too over the top.
People were vomiting watching the original movie only because of the disturbing hospital scene. It wasn't because it was scary it was because it's hard seeing a child go through those tests.
The original and the third one is the only ones worth mentioning. The others contribute to the down spiral of horror and saturation of demon possession content to begin with. But good list Cody!😊
For me, Exorcist II is far from the worst one. It’s so ridiculously bonkers that it’s entertaining. It feels like one of those Italian rip-off sequels, yet it’s an official follow up to the original. I’d watch it a dozen times over The Beginning, Dominion and Believer.
I know I'm in the minority, but i really enjoyed the new Exorcist film. Not perfect, but very good. So far, David Gordon Green is 3 for 4 when it comes to these horror movies. The only one I didn't like was Halloween Kills.
I like Exorcist Believer. I hadn’t seen a horror movie in a theatre for a long time and loved the original one. Didn’t have big expectations given all the hate, but came out happy I went and saw it in the theater.
The disdain for Exorcist 2 isn't as universal as you might think. Here is a legitimate quote from Martin Scorsese: "The picture asks: Does great goodness bring upon itself great evil?... I like the first Exorcist, because of the Catholic guilt I have and because it scared the hell out of me; but The Heretic surpasses it. Maybe Boorman failed to execute the material, but the movie still deserved better than it got." Haven't seen 2 myself, and somehow I'm not sure when I'll get around to it, but I find the debate surrounding it to be very fascinating... perhaps more worthy of my time than the actual movie.
It doesn't feel like it belongs in the same universe as The Exorcist, but it's got some interesting ideas and I've always kind of enjoyed it for how strange and trippy it is.
The Exorcist and Legion are really the only 'real' or 'true' entries to this universe. The original was never a film that lent itself to being a franchise but The Exorcist III/Legion is an underrated gem. If anyone has the opportunity to check out the Blu Ray release that attempts a sort of 'Assembly Cut' with restored unused footage it is well worth your time. It's probably because I do love that original film so much that I truly hated Believer and while the Heretic is irredeemably terrible, it's unintentionally hilarious in places. With Believer, it's film made by someone who had absolutely no understanding of The Exorcist and it's characters and themes, and like you say such a shameless, cynical cash in. Believer is as close to walking out of the cinema as I have come in a long time. My ranking would be - 1. The Exorcist 2. The Exorcist 3 3. Dominion 4. The Exorcist: Beginning 5. Exorcist 2 (Utterly batshit to the point of being at least amusing in places) 6. The Exorcist: Believer
I've always said if you're going to attempt to topple greatness you cannot be scared to go beyond normal measure. If you're gonna go for it, fuckin go for it.
My Ranking of the Exorcist films: 1. Exorcist 3 2. The Exorcist 3. Exorcist The Beginning 4. Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist 5. The Exorcist: Believer 6. Exorcist 2 The Heretic
Hey Cody. Would recommend checking out The Ninth Configuration. Blatty's film that follows the astronaut who is 'going to die up there'. It's a fairly wild black comedy in the spirit of MASH. The guy that plays Karras in the original plays a guy who is starting a Shakespeare theatre group for dogs... what's not to like?
My ranking: 1.) The Exorcist - I don't think there's anything that needs to be said with this one! The only real debate with the original Exorcist is whether you prefer the Theatrical Cut or the Extended Director's Cut, as there's no right or wrong answer in that regard. The Extended Director's Cut is probably better(?), while the Theatrical Cut's pacing is more consistent and it feels more special when you're watching it. Either way, it's still a masterpiece 50 years later. It'll never be topped... ever. And I'm not expecting that to happen either, because we live in a totally different era now. So pick-and-choose any version you want (or both) and have fun with it! R.I.P. William Friedkin. 2.) Exorcist III (Legion) - After 33 years, this is still the best sequel of the franchise. I can't believe I'm actually typing those words, but here we are. The Director's Cut (a.k.a. Legion) is the way to go (unless you have nostalgia for the theatrical version). Unlike the first movie where it didn't really matter all that much (because both cuts of the original do work regardless of which one you end up with), but for Exorcist III it actually does matter quite a bit. 3.) The Beginning - Not a fan of prequel movies as a whole, but I gotta say: This could've been a lot worse. (And as it turned out, it actually was worse, because of how much of a snoozefest Dominion is... we'll get to that later...) This is probably the only Exorcist prequel that is worth watching... unless you're a pretentious film-snob. In which case, have at it! But I think most people would rather watch The Beginning over Dominion at this point, for justifiable reasons. 4.) The Heretic - Well... now that Believer is "technically" the official sequel to the original (no matter how much we all don't want it to be), I will say that it does make The Heretic more tolerable and easier to swallow. Simply because of the fact that it's no longer the actual sequel to the first one; it's just Exorcist fan-fiction now. And I'm okay with that. Plus, if you love bat-@#%& insanity, this is your movie! 5.) Exorcist Believer - So... where to even start? This movie proved to me that David Gordon Green cannot be trusted to make any movie. Period. I'm honestly terrified on how this supposed "trilogy" is going to turn out, because if it ends up like DGG's Halloween Trilogy (mostly when it comes to pissing off the fans)... brace yourselves! We're screwed! And it's looking more and more likely that this new trilogy will head in that direction. Unless you're the type of person that will just enjoy anything you'll see on the screen. Those people exist, and they're allowed to exist. But they also deserve way better movies than Exorcist Believer. 6.) Dominion - Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... All jokes aside... look: If a movie is so boring and dull that it makes you feel sleep-deprived, then how am I or we supposed to even talk about it? Say what you want about the other Exorcist movies, but at least there are a lot of things that spark debate and things that people can argue over time and time again. But with Dominion, there's really nothing to discuss, aside from the insane production history and comparing it to The Beginning. Otherwise, you're better off taking a nap on your couch than watching this movie if you want to have a normal sleep cycle again.
The 3rd movie was always an Exorcist sequel (the only real sequel). With that said in the novel there isn't an exorcism at the end, that was forced by the studio. The version just called Legion (the director's cut) doesn't have it. Either version is good but I like the novel and the director's cut better.
For anyone wondering about timestamps: 6th/Least Favorite - Exorcist 2 @0:50 5th - The Dominion @3:38 4th - The Exorcist: Believer @5:50 3rd - Exorcist: The Beginning @9:40 2nd - The Original Exorcist @11:10 1st/Favorite - The Exorcist 3 @13:25
Nice rankings, I fully agree, exorcist 3 was very creepy and did not copy the original, Brad Dourif was awesome and George C Scott as well. And the hospital scene freaked me out the first time, I didn’t see it coming or better yet I didn’t know when it was coming. The first one did not scare me as much because my family saw the original in the 1970’s and made it out to be something horrible and almost legend like in my kid mind. My expectations of the film were now really high for this to be a nightmare inducing , vomit inducing horror pic that’ll haunt you and when I finally rented it from blockbuster one night I was 12. I was already numb to it from watching many horror films . It’s a great film and in the context of when it came out yes it’s the scariest of that time because it was something many people had not seen on screen yet, similar to how Alien was something audiences were not prepared for. I kinda wish i could go back in time to the 70’s to experience these films without knowing any plot and just lose my shit.
I’m obviously on an island in thinking Exorcist 3 was boring lol. Brad Dourif was the saving grace of the film for me. I just came back from doing a double feature of Saw X and Exorcist Believer and whoa boy. Saw X was indeed way better lol.
I have not watched the Exorcist III so thank you for this!! I had watched the second film and stopped after that. Also-I agree with all of your critiques of the Exorcist: Believer. Watchable, but not in the same league as the first film.
For me it’s a coin flip between which prequel I like more since I find some enjoyment out of both attempts to tell the same story Beginning I like the style more and has a better climax and character growth for Merrin Dominion has a better characters and explores the themes more while being more story driven
William Peter Blatty didn’t want it called The Exorcist 3. It’s based off his psychological horror novel legion. It originally didn’t have an exorcism scene in the novel. The production company wanted him to write an exorcism scene to capitalize on the ‘exorcist’ name I read that Blatty considered‘the exorcist’ a mystery about faith and not a horror film.
Im sorry, off topic but that is one of the best t-shirts ive ever seen 😂 I watched that film the other night. First time since i was a kid. Here in the UK though it was called Nightmare Vacation 2. Oooooh im a happy camper 😂
Exorcist 3 is also my favorite and I think they could make the perfect follow up to it with Linda Blair being older. Start modern day with the emotional and psychological impact being possessed had on her. Add most people not believing her still all these decades later. Make it a psychological thriller with her trying to grasp what happened to her and maybe lean into the Burt dennings molestation a bit
The Exorcist 3 is a good movie. It doesn't get treated right. I like the beginning. When talking about the steps from the first Exorcist. It looks like the demon breaks into a church. That was good. The Exorcist Believer has a lot of growing up to do.
Hey Cody, as always I love hearing your personal opinions, but I do have a question for you... have you ever made a Chucky characters tier list on this channel?😱👍💀👀
Please! The original is regarded as the pinnacle of horror movies of all time. 3 is okay but slow in its story development and the story dragged throughout. If Exorcist 3 was the first movie that was released it would never have become the phenomenon that THE EXORCIST did. Not even close.
7:36 Cody you describing them beating the demon with the power of friendship in your review made it sound like the CW Flash show where in one of the seasons him and his wife beat a villain by holding hands with her.
Love your channel. Got to admit I disagree completely about Dominion. I loved that movie. I found the story compelling. I also admit I’m probably alone in this. Agree about Exocist 3.Brilliant.
Mine and Cody's ranking are the same lol! Exorcist lll: Legion is one of my favorite horror films of all time bc you encourage us to watch, and now that's all that's what my dad will see playing on TV, lol
1. The Exorcist A+ - Favorite Horror Film Of All Time 2. The Exorcist 3 A+ - Favorite Horror Sequel Of All Time The rest aren't really anything special 3. The Exorcist: Believer C+ - I didnt hate this movie as much as most of people seemed to be despite being a very flawed movie. I had a good theatre experience and enjoyed quite a bit of the first half. But your right the second half falls off the rails and ya Chris McNeils envolvment in the film is kind of disastrous. But overall while i probably wont watch it again i think i could watch it more than any of the ones lower 4. Exorcist: The Beginning D+ 5. Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist D+ 6. Exorcist 2: The Heretic F - My worst Horror film of all time Overall I think Exorcist 1 and 3 are masterpieces and both in my top 10 Horror films of all time. The rest of the franchise I could do without
I saw Exorcist III when I was 20 years old during its original theatrical release. One of a handful of movies that scared the shit out of me. I first saw the original Exorcist a couple years ago. Quality production but not that scary.
Cody, what about The Ninth Configuration? It has ties to the first and third movies. It was written and directed by William Peter Blatty who directed and wrote Exorcist III and wrote The Exorcist. I haven't seen it yet, but if you like the other two movies, them maybe you'll like that one. I just bought it and plan on watching it soon. I've heard good things about it.
Yes cody you are correct. Sure the og exorcist is a good film but you put a gun to my head and I will pick exorcist 3 any day over the original. Exorcist 3 is one of the few horror films I find legitimately scary. I mostly like horror cause I find it fun but Exorcist 3 is a truly scary horror film.
I have only seen the 1st one but I’ll definitely check out exorcist 3. Great content and the way you review movies is amazing. You’re the best movie review and the only one I go to. Keep up the amazing work. Weird question but where do you get your horror movie themed shirts?
I feel I can speak for millions of genuine horror fans when I say that you would think that when the Fanbase is criticizing the shit out of these movies for trying to make an “acceptable” movie, rather than one that genuinely scares the hell out of people, no pun intended, that eventually they would get the message and be like “OK. This is what the real fans really want, let’s give it to them. Screw what the studios and the distributor say, let’s give the fans the movie that they want. Yes, under age, people will not be able to see it… Yes, it might, in fact make some people throw up or even walk out of the theater… Yes, through word of mouth, there will be people see the movie and recommend to others not to see it, unless they have a strong stomach… But that’s the whole point of a horror movie. You’re supposed to be uncomfortable. You’re supposed to get queasy from the disturbing images. You’re supposed to be so scared that you actually want to cover your eyes because you’re not sure if you can take watching anymore. Unfortunately, and I’ll keep this next paragraph short and sweet… We live in a generation of people that are way too easily offended by every single little bitty thing, and they will raise loads of hell, again, no pun intended, over something they don’t like. Thus, Making horror, film, directors, and writers and screenwriters feel the need to walk on eggshells. But then in that same hand, you also need to get a Director in there that wants to make a genuine horror movie and not somebody who is just there to make a quick cash grab. Me, my girlfriend, and some of my relatives are going to see Exorcist Believer tomorrow, and I’m sure we will enjoy it. We don’t have super high standards as far as our horror, movies. But all of the reviews that I’ve seen, I’m sure that I will end up agreeing with the whole cash grab thing
This guy is seriously putting Exorcist 3 over the original. That’s insane. It’s an ok film but saying it’s better than the original. Has this guy even seen any of these films?
@@Matt.Savage it’s way to dialogue heavy. Not surprising since it was directed by a writer. The goofy comedy doesn’t fit. The story is convoluted at best. And other than that one jump scare, which has been talked about endlessly, the film really isn’t scary. Actually it doesn’t even seem like it’s trying to be scary. And don’t get me wrong. Despite its MASSIVE flaws, I’d still say it’s a good flick. Lot of great scenes, George C Scott Is always good. But saying it’s better than the original, That’s INSANE
Exorcist 3 is by far my favourite out of all of them, your view of the original is basically the same as mine it just doesn't effect me as much as it does with other people but i do respect it on such a high level for what it was able to achieve at the time and even holds up extremely well to this day and the filmmaking is top tier! but with the 3rd movie even just on a filmmaking standpoint with the editing, sound design, the murders, just everything makes me feel uneasy and it's such a great example of less is more, im glad it doesn't show you the murders you just hear the details after them which is wayyyy more effective IMO, Brad Dourif's best performance for me tbh it's right up there with One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest which he was also fantastic in. The true and only sequel to the original movie, a lot of moments chill me in it, very effective.
