10 Awful Prequels That Are Just The Worst

Exorcist: The Beginning

Alright, this goes far beyond just being a bad prequel and a worse movie. This, my friends, is desecration of a classic Hollywood film. The Exorcist is the benchmark of horror cinema, a film that has garnered an amount of success that the genre only wishes it could achieve. Released in 1973, it’s far too old to be rehashed or reused, right?

Come on, you’ve read far enough to know the answer to that. Over thirty years after the release of the original (and a handful of sequels), Exorcist: The Beginning reared its ugly head, chronicling the first time Father Merrin and the demon Pazuzu met in spiritual battle. This is an event only hinted at in the original, but its repercussions were felt throughout The Exorcist, never needing any explanation to make the drama more palpable.

We can attribute the existence of this bucket of green slime to Hollywood’s refusal to be subtle. Father Merrin has some demons (metaphorical and literal) haunting him in The Exorcist? Make a movie about him fighting one in hopes that money will soon follow. For anybody keeping their fingers crossed, no, this movie did not make its budget back. Thank you Based God!

Fun fact: there were actually two versions of this film, and this is the one that got wide release. Feel free to look up the other version (Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist) for a slightly less yet still still awful version of amateur filmmaking.