the exorcist by william peter blatty summary

Regan ‘Rags’ MacNeil, the girl at the centre of this story, is refreshingly human – whilst she ishuman. And to add to the conflict coming her way, she’s an atheist.

These misgivings resurface when the specialists treating Regan want to institutionalise her. Chrishas a distrust of doctors from when her first-born son Jamie died, aged three, due to a new drug he’d been prescribed. She’s also the mother of a loving daughter, Regan. With the finest medical brains unable to agree on a diagnosis, and the police sniffing around due to a suspicious death near the house, distraught mother Chris turns to the Church, and asks about an exorcism … The CharactersĬhris MacNeil is a film star, with the director’s chair her possible next role. Soon, inexplicable events beset the household, and it’s not long before Regan claims to be possessed by a demon. Shortly before her 12 th birthday, Regan MacNeil undergoes a change that has nothing to do with puberty. So say a prayer, and let’s see if the power of Christ compels me to choose a winner … It’s the film that became the first horror to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.It’s William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist! It’s the book that remained on The New York Times bestseller list for over a year.

Though dressed up with a lot of talk about faith and the nature of Evil, Exorcist III is essentially yet another variation on the cycle of movies (The Hidden, Shocker, The First Power) in which a cop pursues a body-hopping serial murderer, with mad-eyed Dourif doing the act he had already perfected in Child’s Play.It’s Halloween, so for this year’s horror-themed Book Vs Film we’re comparing one of the classics. Examining Blatty’s original cut, the producers decided an Exorcist sequel ought to have an exorcism in it, and so Nicol Williamson was called in for extra Bible-thumping scenes which look exactly like tacked-on additions that pad out an already-ludicrous climax (‘I believe in slime,’ Scott yells) to insane proportions. However, the film comes to life in a few brief, illogical flashes that deliver genuine scares – a possessed old woman crawling ignored on the ceiling, a white-robed figure with an impressive decapitation implement drifting after a doomed nurse. Too much of the movie takes place in dark rooms where people describe horrors that might more profitably have been on the screen, and the plot is a house of cards that constantly collapses as Blatty the screenwriter poses Blatty the director challenges that he can’t meet. Here, William Peter Blatty, original author of the novel, steps up to write and direct, ignoring Exorcist II: The Heretic and adapting his own follow-up book, Legion. All three Exorcist sequels have been troubled, disappointing films which exist in multiple versions because of clashes between the studios who own the franchise and the visionaries they hire to follow up William Friedkin’s hit.

The exorcist by william peter blatty summary