the exorcist book by william peter blatty

The things he’s seen (not to mention done) haunt him. Father Damien, sometimes likeable and sometimes annoying for his own inability to decide and his self-destructive logicality, is torn between hope and a certain nihilism. Simply put, The Exorcist is a book with teeth.Ĭonverse to what you might think, The Exorcist is essentially a story about doubt, told mostly from the prospective of a faulted priest who has embraced psychology and science over the rigid fantasy play of religion. What’s the truth – science or supernatural? Should faith be replaced by fact and if so, what exactly do facts reveal in cases where there simply is no explanation? Taking the entire gross-out horror to another level, Blatty gives readers the chills and thrills they want while mixing in something far more somber and disquieting.

hitting on the bestsellers list and spawning legions of movies) underscores our continuing fascination with the inexplicable. The story is one we’ve all known since the 70’s when Blatty’s fictionalization based on actual events in a 1940s demon possession case was explored through fiction. When a tattered copy of The Exorcist appeared within one of my mystery boxes, I decided that any novel based on such a compelling location must be beautifully sinister. The iconic movie with its no-holds bared research into the profanely occult only exacerbates the sense that there is something else lurking around this glass strewn parking lot.

Lovecraft-esque architectural dereliction would haunt me even if I hadn’t witnessed the famous stair scene in The Exorcist of the priest plunging into a brutally sprawled death. This location with its moody lighting and H.P. Rating: An Ageless Story of Faith and Doubtĭriving by the Exorcist stairs always chills me – the fancy yet eerily run-down M-street corridor – unnatural steepness of the dark, misshaped stairs.

The exorcist book by william peter blatty