The Exorcist

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This article is about the novel published in 1971. For the article about the film released in 1973, please see The Exorcist (film).

The Exorcist is a horror novel written by William Peter Blatty. It is based on a 1949 exorcism Blatty heard about while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University, a Jesuit and Catholic school. The exorcism was partially performed in both Mt. Rainier, Maryland [1] and Bel-Nor, Missouri. [2] Several area newspapers reported on a speech a priest gave to an amateur parapsychology society, in which he claimed to have exorcised a demon from a thirteen-year-old boy named Robbie, and that the ordeal lasted a little more than six weeks, ending on April 19, 1949.

[edit] Plot

An elderly Jesuit priest named Lankester Merrin is leading an archaeological dig in northern Iraq and studying ancient relics. Following the discovery of a small statue of the demon Pazuzu (an actual ancient Sumerian demigod) and a modern-day St. Christopher medal curiously juxtaposed together at the site, a series of omens alerts him to a pending confrontation with a powerful evil, which unknown to the reader at this point, he has battled before in an exorcism in Africa. Meanwhile in Georgetown, a young girl named Regan MacNeil living with her famous actress mother, Chris MacNeil, becomes inexplicably ill. After a gradual series of poltergeist-like disturbances, she undergoes disturbing psychological and physical changes, appearing to become "possessed" by a demonic spirit.

After several unsuccessful psychiatric and medical treatments, Regan's mother turns to a local Jesuit priest. Father Damien Karras, who is currently going through a personal crisis of faith after the loss of his mother, agrees to see Regan as a psychiatrist, but initially resists the notion that it is an actual demonic possession. After a few meetings with the child, now completely inhabited by a diabolical personality, he turns to the local bishop for permission to perform an exorcism on the child. After consultation with the Jesuit president of Georgetown, the bishop appoints the experienced Father Merrin, recently returned to the States, to perform the exorcism and allows the doubt-ridden Karras to assist him. The demon supposedly possessing Regan calls himself Pazuzu, the same demon whose statue was found earlier.

The lengthy exorcism tests the priests, both physically and spiritually. After the death of Father Merrin, the task ultimately restores Father Karras' faith, leading him to give his own life to save Regan's.

[edit] Film adaptation

Main article: The Exorcist (film)

The novel was made into a successful Academy Award-winning horror film in 1973, with the screenplay written by Blatty. The film originally contained several key sequences from the novel, which were cut prior to release by director Friedkin over Blatty's protests. The deleted scenes—and some new digital effects—were inserted into the re-release subtitled "The Version You've Never Seen" in 2000.

[edit] Trivia

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• While he was writing the novel, William Peter Blatty was collecting unemployment benefits. [3]

• William Peter Blatty based the character of Chris MacNeil on his good friend Shirley MacLaine. Prior to the 1973 production, MacLaine attempted to have a movie made of Blatty's novel and interested Lew Grade in backing the project, but the plans fell through. According to one of Blatty's subsequent books describing the making of the film, MacLaine's adopted daughter Sachiko was the subject of curiosity and ostracism after the film's release, as it was at once apparent that Chris was meant to be MacLaine, and Sachiko's classmates and even some teachers assumed that Sachiko had been possessed and had perhaps committed the murders and sexual atrocities described in the book. According to Mark Kermode, the photo of the girl on the cover of the novel is MacLaine's daughter.

• According to Rev. Father William O'Malley (who played Father Joseph Dyer in the film), the events depicted in the film are approximately 80% true. He claims the big discrepancies between the movie and case it was inspired by were: it was a boy who was possessed, not a girl; the possession did not occur in Georgetown, but just outside DC in Cottage City, MD. In this case, the boy's head did not rotate 360 degrees, though he claims that nearly everything else in the movie actually occurred. The name of the boy who was subject of the true exorcism that inspired Blatty's novel was Ronald Hunkeler. After he was cured he went on to attend Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC, graduating in 1954. He was later a scientist with NASA. He refuses all interviews regarding his exorcism. At last account, he was rumored to be living in Laurel, MD.

• Author William Peter Blatty once won $100000 on the Groucho Marx television show "You Bet Your Life" (1950). When Groucho asked what he planned to do with the money, he said he planned to take some time off to "work on a novel." This was the result.[4]

• Many years later, Blatty followed the first sequel of the film with a novel, Legion. The movie Exorcist III was based on this novel and directed by Blatty.

[edit] External links

• The Haunted Boy of Cottage City: The Cold Hard Facts Behind the Story that Inspired The Exorcist, by Mark Opsasnick
• St. Louis Exorcism Case
• The Exorcist Fansite
• Washington Post article and interview with Blatty
• The Return of the Exorcists A film about the resurgence of Exorcism in Italy
• The Exorcist (1973) at the Internet Movie Database