The Exorcist

The Exorcist (1971)

The Exorcist is a 1971 novel by American writer William Peter Blatty. The book details the demonic possession of twelve-year-old Regan MacNeil, the daughter of a famous actress, and the two priests who attempt to exorcise the demon. It was published by Harper & Row.

The novel was inspired by a 1949 case of demonic possession and exorcism that Blatty heard about while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University.^[1] As a result, the novel takes place in Washington D.C. near the campus of Georgetown University. In September 2011, the novel was reprinted by Harper Collins to celebrate its fortieth anniversary, with slight revisions made by Blatty as well as interior title artwork by Jeremy Caniglia.

Legion (1983)

Legion is the 1983 follow-up to the Exorcist novel. It was made into the movie The Exorcist III in 1990. Like The Exorcist, it involves demonic possession. The book was the focus of a court case over its exclusion from The New York Times Best Seller list.

Blatty based aspects of the Gemini Killer on the real-life Zodiac Killer,^[2] who, in a January 1974 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, had praised the original Exorcist film as "the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen".^[3]

The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted by William Peter Blatty from his 1971 novel of the same name, and starring Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, and Jason Miller. The film is part of The Exorcist franchise.The book, inspired by the 1949 exorcism of Roland Doe,^[4][5] deals with the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother's attempts to win back her child through an exorcism conducted by two priests. The adaptation is relatively faithful to the book, which itself has been commercially successful (hitting the New York Times bestseller list).^[6][7]

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic was released in 1977, and revisited Regan four years after her initial ordeal. The plot dealt with an investigation into the legitimacy of Merrin's exorcism of Regan in the first film. In flashback sequences, we see Regan giving Merrin his fatal heart attack, as well as scenes from the exorcism of a young boy named Kokumo in Africa many years earlier.

The Exorcist III (1990)

The Exorcist III appeared in 1990, written and directed by Blatty himself from his own 1983 novel Legion. Jumping past the events of Exorcist II, this book and film presented a continuation of Karras' story. Following the precedent set in The Ninth Configuration, Blatty turned a supporting character from the first film—in this case, Kinderman—into the chief protagonist. Though the characters of Karras and Kinderman were acquainted during the murder investigation in The Exorcist and Kinderman expressed fondness for Karras, in Exorcist III Blatty has Kinderman remembering Karras as his "best friend". Jason Miller reprised his Academy Award-nominated role in The Exorcist for this film.

Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Because of the studio's dissatisfaction with Schrader's version of the prequel (see "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist"), Renny Harlin was then hired as director to retool the movie. Harlin reused some of Schrader's footage but shot mostly new material to create a more conventional horror film. Harlin's new version Exorcist: The Beginning was released, but was not well received.

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)

A prequel film attracted attention and controversy even before its release in 2004; it went through a number of directorial and script changes, such that two versions were ultimately released. John Frankenheimer was originally hired as director for the project, but withdrew before filming started due to health concerns. He died a month later. Paul Schrader replaced him. Upon completion the studio rejected Schrader's version as being too slow, and hired another director to retool the movie. Nine months after the release of the retooled movie (see "Exorcist: The Beginning") Schrader's original version, retitled Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, was given a small theatrical release.

Box office

Related films

The Exorcist (2012)

In February 2008, American playwright John Pielmeier expressed an interest in adapting William Peter Blatty's novel of the same name into a play and soon met with Blatty. He then began working on a script for the play, in which the first draft was completed in ten days.^[21] The Exorcist first premiered at the Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles in 2012.

The Exorcist: Legion VR (2017)

A horror VR video game, called 'The Exorcist: Legion VR', was published on Steam in 2017 and was created by William Peter Blatty. ^[22][23]

Other references

A 1995 episode of The Simpsons (titled "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily") features Bart, Lisa and Maggie getting put under the care of the Flanders family. After Lisa reveals that neither she, Bart nor Maggie is baptized, Ned decides to baptize them. On the way to the baptism, Maggie turns her head around like Linda Blair in The Exorcist. It was also parodied in Treehouse of Horror I, Treehouse of Horror XVI and Treehouse of Horror XXVIII. It was also parodied in "Fland Canyon".

A meta-reference to the film was made in an episode of Supernatural titled "The Usual Suspects". On the show, demons possessing humans is a common plot element; demons in the series are human souls corrupted by their time in Hell, lacking physical bodies of their own to interact with Earth. Linda Blair appeared in "The Usual Suspects" as a police detective, with protagonist Dean Winchester finding her character familiar and expressing a strange desire for pea soup at the episode's conclusion.

In Angel: Earthly Possessions, a spin-off comic story based on the TV series Angel, protagonist Angel finds himself dealing with a priest who performs exorcisms, but comes to realize that the priest is summoning the demons for him to exorcise in the first place. He also makes a note of The Exorcist film, noting that the vision it created of possession actually made things easier for possession demons by making it harder for humans to know what to expect from a possession.

In the animated Horror-comedy show Courage the Cowardly Dog, the episode "The Demon In The Mattress" is a direct spoof of the film, using several plot elements that was lifted straight from The Exorcist. In the episode, Muriel orders a comfy new mattress, not paying attention to the grotesque deliveryman nor the sinister Horse-drawn carriage that delivered it. Unaware of the demon in the mattress, she is later possessed by it when while she sleeps.

In the paranormal TV show Ghost Adventures visited the Exorcist House for their 100th episode of the series. In the episode, Zak, Nick, and Aaron visit the house to see that an exorcism occurred there in 1949. The episode has been announced as one of the scariest lockdown since Bobby Mackeys.

The film was parodied in The Boondocks episode "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back" (season 2, episode 4).

The 2013 disaster comedy film This Is the End referenced the exorcism when Jonah Hill is possessed by a demon and Jay Baruchel performs an exorcism on by repeating lines from the movie.

In 2014, British author Saurav Dutt released a book entitled "Pazuzu Unbound", which is a book set in contemporary times dealing with the demon Pazuzu but which does not deal with the original characters in the film and novel on which the book is inspired.