The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear by Nat Segaloff

Foreword by John RussoUpdated and Expanded with a New CodaA provocative, fascinating, and compulsively readable account of one of the most shocking, influential, and successful films of all time, The Exorcist, with a new coda on The Exorcist: Believer and the upcoming The Exorcist: Deceiver.On December 26, 1973, The Exorcist was released. Within days it had become legend. Moviegoers braved hours-long lines in winter weather to see it. Some audience members famously fainted or vomited. Half a century later, the movie that both inspired and transcends the modern horror genre has lost none of its power to terrify and unsettle.The Exorcist Legacy reveals the complete story of this cultural phenomenon, from the 1949 real-life exorcism in Maryland that inspired William Peter Blatty’s bestselling novel on which the movie is based, to its many sequels, prequels, TV series, and homages. Nat Segaloff, biographer of the film’s director, William Friedkin, draws on original interviews with cast, cr