Exorcist II: The Heretic New York City. William Peter Blatty claimed to have been the first person to start laughing at the theater in which he saw the film, only to be followed by the other patrons ("You'd think we were watching "The Producers""). William Friedkin, director of "The Exorcist", recalled hearing a story in which angry audience members at "Exorcist II"'s first public performance began chasing Warner Bros. executives down the street within the first ten minutes of the screening. Friedkin saw half an hour of the film: "I was at Technicolor and a guy said 'We just finished a print of "Exorcist
The Exorcist (film series) who has criticized it for messy plot construction, conventionality and overblown pretentiousness, among other perceived defects. Writer James Baldwin provides an extended negative critique in his book length essay "The Devil Finds Work". II: Stephen H. Scheuer wrote that "Exorcist II" “may just well be the worst sequel in the history of films – a stupefying, boring, vapid and "non-scary" follow-up to the box-office champ of 1973..."Exorcist II" is a disaster on every level – a sophomoric script, terrible editing, worst direction by John Boorman, inevitably coupled with silly acting. In one scene that typifies this lamentable sci-fi horror pic,