The Exorcist (film series) was refilmed by director Renny Harlin. However, Schrader's version received a limited release in 2005, after Harlin's, and was titled "". On January 22, 2016, 20th Century Fox Television announced they were developing a television series of "The Exorcist". It premiered on September 23, 2016. Based on the 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty, "The Exorcist" marries three scenarios into one plot. The film opens with Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) on an archaeological dig in Al-hadar, near Nineveh, in Iraq. He is alerted that a small carving is found in the dig, resembling a grimacing, bestial creature. After talking
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,