There was one scene deleted from the film that Blatty felt was crucial, he felt the short scene explained a great deal of the plot. It must be said that Blatty and the film director Friedkin, did not agree on all scenes in the film. I saw the film version of the Exoricst when I was very young and closed my eyes at the grotesque scenes with the demon. The profanities in the book spoken by the demon were viewed as scandalous in the 1970’s. But the Exorcist is written like an excellent thriller with philosophical questions and faith being one of the main themes. Over time, many misinterpretations about the novel were passed person to person. This is partly due to the controversy surrounding the book and film, and the religious themes that in the novel. The Exorcist can elicit a negative reaction from people who do not read novels in the ‘Horror Genre’. Not that the posession idea had anything wrong with it, it was a dramatic way for Blatty to discuss his other ideas in the novel and it did create fear. If one looks at the statistics and numerical data regarding the sale of the book and films, I would argue that there was something much deeper at work that attracted people to the story. Why was the Exorcist so popular? Why did it create such a reaction? It was more than simple shock value and the simplistic idea of a demon ranting obscenities as he possessed a young girl. The film 'The Exorcist' made $7.4 million nationwide in the first month. The horror novel was widely accepted at a time of great cultural exploration and huge societal change: a time when people were questioning everything around them, including religion.
The exorcist surpassed sales and profits more than most horror novels through the decades. Other big sellers at this time were Rosemary’s Baby and Audrey Rose. In the late 1960s and early 1970s horror novels sold millions of copies. In 1974, Blatty won a prestigious Academy Award for the best adapted screenplay for the Exorcist. It was the ninth highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. The Exorcist became more than a book or film, it became a cultural phenomenon of its time. Attendants at the cinema were armed with smelling salts for those that inevitably fainted, often a dozen at each showing. The film shown in 1973 in Los Angeles attracted huge crowds, newspaper journalists and news television channels were focused on the unfolding drama of the films release. It spent fifty-seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. William Peter Blatty’s novel ‘The Exorcist’ sold 13 million copies when released. They are always with me.’ That’s when you know that you have created people you care about.’ William Peter Blatty ‘The characters lived with me a long time, they haunted me. About Home The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
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