The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear

[cornerofmadness]

The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear by Nat Segaloff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have to say when I was contacted by the publisher as to if I'd like to read this, I almost passed. I'm not terribly interested in movie making. However, I AM a huge fan of The Exorcist so I took it on. I'm glad I did. I will say this for the book it is thorough, almost a little too much so.

It is well put together in a logical sequence all the way to today. Segaloff goes into details of both the director Bill Friedkin and the author, Bill Blatty's childhood, early career and their partnership. From there it launches into Blatty's book and the first movie. Each of the sequels follow in order (Heck I didn't even know there were two TV-only sequels and now I'm wondering how I missed that.) Each book/movie/tv show had a synopsis side-bar.

When I say this goes into a ton of detail I'm not kidding. We see every actor/actress, every one they thought about hiring but didn't, the stunt doubles, all the legal battles over the past 50 years. It goes into all the special effects innovations, who got hurt and when, the Exorcist 'curse' how the shots were taken, how the audio was done etc.

So for me, it was a bit much. I'm not into film making as I said. If you are interested in that, you should love all those details. Even though it wasn't my interest, I didn't find it dull so there's that. We also get a lot into Blatty and Friedkin's philosophies about the movie, how it's not really a horror but how it's proof of the divine (if there's a devil then there's a god fallacy and yes it does explore why that thought process has a fallacy in it) also how it's about the loss and gain of faith and how Blatty thinks of it as a mystery, not horror.

That actually could be one place I could ding this book. It's rather repetitive about the why's of what brought Blatty to write this, like it's in every chapter. It also gives an unpolished look at what went so very wrong with much of the sequels (and what went right). I particularly liked the slap at Fox TV and how poorly they promote most of their stuff (IMO accurate, it's why I stopped watching them, because so many good shows get cancelled after zero promotion)

All and all, this is a highly detailed love letter to The Exorcist and worth the read.



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Comments

[under_the_silk_tree]

When I was a teen at a sleepover, we decided to watch The Exorcist. I was probably a touch too young to see it because I was very much a scaredy cat when it came to horror movies. It really freaked me out and so I haven't seen it since. (Although I do wonder if I watched it as an adult if I would still find it as scary.) Even though I only saw it one time this book does sound interesting as I love getting a look at what happens behind the scenes of movies, tv shows, and books.

I'm glad you enjoyed it even though it was overly detailed!

[cornerofmadness]

I would rec this one when it comes out if you get it from the library. I'm not sure I'd spend money on it.

I loved the Exorcist but I'm not sure I've seen ANY of the sequels (maybe one...) It definitely could freak a person out