Why The Exorcist Still Tops Every Horror List

If you saw The Exorcist in a theater back in 1973, you probably remember exactly where you were sitting. It was that kind of movie.

More than fifty years later, it still holds the crown. The publication Collider recently ranked it number one on a list of the ten most perfect horror movies based on books. The Academy Award-nominated film beat out a long list of memorable titles, including 1990’s Misery, American Psycho from 2000, and The Silence of the Lambs, released in 1991.

So what is it about this film that refuses to let go?

William Peter Blatty, who wrote the original 1971 novel and the film’s Oscar-winning screenplay, had his own answer. In a 2013 interview with World Over, he called the story of young Regan MacNeil’s possession, played by Linda Blair,

“a wonderfully carpentered and told tale filled with suspense.”

But Blatty believed something deeper was at work, too. He said he wrote the novel with a spiritual purpose in mind.

“I wrote the novel in the first place, which was apostolic, which is to reach souls by way of supporting their faith by giving them evidence that God exists, and this is done by implication,”

he said during that same interview.

His thinking went further. He believed that by convincing audiences there truly is such a thing as demonic possession, the story quietly opens a door to something hopeful. If demons are real, then so are angels. And if angels are real, then death is not the end.

Then there is the real-world story behind the film. In a 1984 appearance on Good Morning America alongside Linda Blair, Blatty revealed that both the novel and the movie were inspired by an alleged 1949 supernatural case involving a teenage boy.

“The film and the novel were inspired by that particular case. It gave me a sense of credibility that I was able to communicate, hopefully in the novel and the film. But I had to disguise it to protect the identity of the boy, who is still living and is married and has a family,”