A review by jaymoran
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

4.0

The Exorcist is a story that has haunted me for years. The mere notion of possession was (and still, admittedly, is) terrifying to me and from a young age, even the title sent trickles of ice cold down my spine. I was only able to watch Friedken's stunning film adaptation when I was about nineteen-years-old and now, after multiple attempts, I have managed to read the book.

This is a fantastically written book, first and foremost. I don't know why I sometimes associate these sort of books with terrible writing so I was immediately corrected upon reading the first page. This is a very atmospheric and haunting read, with sections that truly horrified me (
the moment Regan first speaks with Dennings' voice was one I hadn't picked up on in the film and so, realising that, made my stomach churn a little, not gonna lie
) and I can now admire the film adaptation even further as it was very loyal to its core material.

However, as I've found with some other books where I've seen the film before reading it, I know the story too well to find it entirely fresh and original. I encountered this issue in reading Robert Bloch's Psycho; I found it practically impossible to disentangle it from Hitchcock's masterful picture and Bernard Hermann's cutting score. Similarly to this, I couldn't stop myself from constantly plucking out lines that I knew from the film, picturing the scenes etc. Obviously, this is no fault of the book or the writer whatsoever yet it did detract me from the text slightly.

The highlight of this story for me is the character of Father Karras, the priest/psychiatrist who is approached by Regan's desperate mother for help despite his own ailing faith. He is such an interesting character (again wonderfully portrayed by Jason Miller in the film) and he was definitely my favourite aspect, something I came to appreciate more from reading the book.

The Exorcist is one of those older horror/thriller stories that does not grow tame or mild with age. It's still a violent, truly horrifying piece of writing, executed brilliantly and thoroughly researched by Blatty, and will continue to chill new readers for a long time to come.