he 1970sare rightly remembered as the dawn of the blockbuster era. Jaws (1975) and stars wars (1977) shattered box office records and, perhaps more significantly, permanently altered the very nature of movie marketing. but several years earlier, it was the exorcist that shook the pillars of the earth, with its now-iconic tale of the demonically possessed young girl regan mac- neil (linda blair), her distraught mother chris (ellen burstyn) and two priests (Jason miller and max von sydow as father karras and father merrin, respec-


tively) determined to drive the demon out. the story – set in washington, dc – is fleshed out with a homicide detective (lee J. cobb) investigating the gruesome death of a film director (Jack mcgowran), with close ties to the girl’s mother.


Adapted for the screen by William Peter Blatty from his own best-selling novel


and directed by William Friedkin, it created a sensation – occasionally crossing the line into outright hysteria – that has never been matched. With figures properly ad- justed for inflation, it remains the highest-grossing R-rated movie in history, and the most profitable film of any kind to date for Warner Bros. Not surprisingly, on the eve of its newest special edition reissue, the now 82-year-old Blatty, who also produced the film, is as proud and confident of its power as ever. “Each time the film has been re-released, it has drawn a huge audience,” he says


in an exclusive interview with Rue Morgue. “As you will see with the release of the Blu-ray, thanks to Billy Friedkin’s direction, it is in no respect even slightly dated. It looks better than ever in its digital format and, according to a most re- cent poll [conducted by subscription service LOVEFiLM], remains ‘The Most Disturbing Film of All Time.’” Even today, many fans are shocked to learn that Blatty’s infamous


tale was actually a diversion from his career as a comedy writer. Prior to penning The Exorcist novel in 1969, he enjoyed a brief but highly successful stint as a comedy screenwriter. His early credits include the Warren Beatty romantic farce Promise Her Anything (1965) and several collaborations with powerhouse director Blake Edwards, in- cluding the satire What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) and A


Shot in the Dark, the 1964 sequel to Edwards’ smash hit The Pink Panther. When Blatty suddenly found himself short of work in the latter part of the decade, he dove headlong into a novel he’d been meaning to write for years, very loosely based on an allegedly true case of demonic possession he had read about in the 1940s. His re- search on the subject took him well beyond the confines of Christianity itself, let alone the Western world – something that is reflected in the film’s opening, when Father Merrin uncovers a small statue of the ancient Sumerian demigod Pazuzu, while on an archaeological dig in Northern Iraq. Blatty explains, “In the Third World, the phenomenon remains common, whereas in


America, in 1969, when I sat down to write the novel, my research had turned up only two definite cases in which the Catholic Church had authorized the solemn and formal rite of exorcism. One in Maryland and another in Earling, Iowa, and a possible third in Cleveland, Ohio. ... From the be- ginnings of recorded history, including written chronicles of posses- sion and rites of exorcism in ancient Egypt, and in every part of the world, possession has been uniformly described in terms of its symp-


toms, and if it is a mental illness, it has always been one for which psychiatry has never had a name.” The struggle to overcome the skepticism of both the medical com- munity and the Church is a key point in the story, as Old World super-


41 RM


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