William Peter Blatty, best known for writing the horror classic, The Exorcist, says that wasn’t what he had in mind at all, according to this article at Fox News:

…for the humiliating God’s-honest truth of the matter is that while I was working on “The Exorcist,” what I thought I was writing was a novel of faith in the popular dress of a thrilling and suspenseful detective story – in other words, a sermon that no one could possibly sleep through — and to this day I haven’t the faintest recollection of any intention to frighten the reader, which many will take, I suppose, as an admission of failure on an almost stupefying, scale.

I’ve read the original book, though that was a long time ago (I clearly remember reading it in the Minneapolis bus station while waiting for transportation home to the farm for Christmas, and I haven’t ridden a bus or had the farm to go home to in a long, long time). My memory is faint, but I’m pretty sure he’s telling the truth. The book is a thriller about a crisis of faith, not a work of horror in the usual sense. Even the movie bears the marks of that purpose, although the pea soup and revolving head tend to dominate one’s attention (Did her head spin around in the book? I don’t actually recall).

Anyway, if you’re looking for Halloween reading that’s strong-flavored and faith-friendly, you can do worse than The Exorcist.

On a side note, when I hear Blatty’s name, I don’t think first of The Exorcist, but of a TV movie he wrote earlier, a comedy western movie called “The Great Bank Robbery,” starring Zero Mostel, Clint Walker, and Kim Novak. I particularly recall one scene where Kim kisses the shy and quiet Clint, making him visibly uncomfortable.

“Did you like it?” she asks with a smile, as she walks away.

“Ma’am,” he replies, “Just ’cause I talk slow don’t mean I’m peculiar.”