Projectile vomit and spontaneous latin? Hmm... call a doctor or a priest? (The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty)

Member Name: Charliewhippet

Product:	The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty
Date:	31/05/09 (166 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compelling read, more depth than just a "monster" story

Disadvantages: Don't read this is you're squeamish about blood, offensive language and dodgy uses for a crucifix.

(Warning: This review contains spoilers... but I've included them because I think most people know the story of the Exorcist - I for one knew how the story ended long before I read the book or watched the movie. And I enjoyed the book so much that I wanted to write a comprehensive review. So if you don't want to know my opinion of the ending, look away now....)

I wonder how many people would have read this book if it hadn't been made into such a ridiculously famous film? If you ask anyone what they think of this story, chances are they will start talking about the green spew, the spinning head and the creepy theme tune. So, without all these hair raising effects, what's the book like? Well, I read this after finding it in a charity shop (where else?) - I was a little afraid to watch the film on my own, in case it was as scary as everyone seemed to think, and none of my friends wanted to watch it with me! So I curled up with the novel instead.

What I really, really love is that this book is not about a little girl being possessed and all the scary things that happen to her. It's a story about a mother who knows there is something terribly wrong with her child and cannot find anybody to tell her what it is or how it can be cured. The exorcist of the title is only called in at the very last minute, when all else has failed.

We probably all know the basis of the story - Regan is a seemingly happy, well adjusted pre-adolescent girl who lives with her mother, the actress Chris MacNeil. It may be a slightly unconventional childhood, but mother and daughter are very close. So close, in fact, that when Regan makes a new friend via a Ouija board, she is eager to introduce her mother to "Captain Howdy," as he calls himself.

It's only after Regan's seemingly harmless playing with a ouija board that odd things begin to happen - wetting herself, night terrors, complaining of odd noises in her room, and her bed shaking. So far, so typical of a child with a couple of problems - Chris begins to think that it is all a result of her recent-ish divorce.

As Regan's symptoms worsen, Chris becomes more worried. What started as a few problems that were embarrassing in front of her friends are now full scale psychotic episodes. She takes Regan to doctors, to no avail - the symptoms sound like that of a brain tumour, but seem to have no physical cause.

Soon Regan is locked in a room, strapped to a bed and kept away from prying eyes, like some sort of freak. Chris becomes fixated on the idea of getting her daughter exorcised - but the priest tells her that to do that he could have to go "back to the thirteenth century." There is emphasis on the church being reluctant to be over zealous in this area. Chris is merely desperate for someone to acknowledge her own pain and frustration - "Oh my God, someone help me!" You can really emphathise with her feelings of helplessness and utter loneliness as she carries the burden of her troubled daughter alone.

The priest (Father Karras) refuses to believe in demons, and comes up with lots of complicated explanations as to why and how Regan is behaving this way. She could have picked up foreign languages from the household help. She could be speaking up Latin from reading his mind... You know what? Maybe she has a mysterious brain condition that is undetectable by doctors, and is also psychic. Or maybe she just has a demon. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the true one. This book doesn't give us any easy answers. I suppose it just proves that there are some things we may never understand.

After Chris's agent has "fallen" to a mysterious death (whilst alone in the house with Regan), the family are gently pursued by a cop, Kinderman, who starts the Columbo tradition of "Oh, and just one more thing I don't understand...." (As the book predates the TV show, I can only assume that Columbo was vaguely based on him.)

The exorcist of the title is an elderly, gently priest, Father Merrin, who makes you feel safe the moment he enters the book. (Oddly enough, perhaps because of the comforting presence of the more down to earth characters, I never found this book as scary to read as I might have expected. And I am the sort of person who reads a Stephen King book and then develops a genuine fear that the bogeyman might be hiding in my wardrobe.)

Unfortunately Merrin is not strong enough to stand up to whatever is in Regan, and it is left to the waveringly agnostic Karras to do the business. He taunts the demon to come out and pick on someone his own size, and succeeds in freeing Regan from Pazau's clutches - at the cost of his own life.

A lot of Christians take umbrage at this ending - seeing it as the God Squad "losing." Well, if you think that losing your own life in order to save someone else's is "losing," you're in the wrong religion.

Summary: Quality story, and you won't giggle at the bad dubbing, as you may if you watch the film.