I was an obsessive teenage horror fan who grew up in the UK during the eighties and by this time The Exorcist had near mythical status due to the fact that it was almost impossible to watch. After being briefly being available in the early days of home video it was withdrawn and shoe-horned into the Video Nasty censorship campaign that made classics such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Driller Killer unavailable for many years. Considering the number of Oscars it was nominated for and money it made, along with Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, it was undoubtedly the most famous, written about, and discussed film the general public could not watch unless they had a pirate copy on VHS (where I finally saw it).

Nat Segaloff’s The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear takes a very deep dive into this culturally significant and iconic horror film (the director and writer of the novel both argue both argue it is not horror) which also covers all the sequels and recent television spin-off. This is very specialised stuff which is aimed at horror film fans and those who have a general interest in franchise development.

About 50% of the 304 pages deal with the original film and the second half the lesser successful sequels. I enjoyed the fact that Segaloff spent plenty of time looking at the franchise as a whole, especially considering most of it is considered a failure, but still makes lots of fascinating observations into the lengths the studio went into keeping the series going. I found having action director Renny Harlin reshoot 90% of art house director Paul Schrader’s Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist as Exorcist: the Beginning particylarly fascinating. Schrader later watches Harlin’s film with Exorcist author William Peter Blatty on the cinema, with the former laughing at the film and the latter screaming, both because it was so rubbish! The book is loaded with amusing anecdotes but subject knowledge is required to appreciate many of them, particularly regarding what the book calls ‘The Two Bills’.

Even for a deep dive into The Exorcist mythology there is probably too much information for casual readers and the multiple synopsises of the sequels were unnecessary and came across as padding. I lost track of the alternative versions available particularly of the lesser films, how DVD versions differed and what exactly was the true director’s cut? The book points out that director William Friedkin had extensive creative control when making The Exorcist and the original theatre release was probably the true ‘director’s cut’ no matter how many versions have appeared since.

The most interesting parts of the books were those which involved William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin, who both had long successful careers beyond The Exorcist but neither truly escaped its shadow. They clashed here and there, but generally were on the same page. After the success of The French Connection Blatty was very happy Friedkin was chosen as director and the book spends a lot of time on how the film was made, working with underage Linda Blair and how some of the now infamous self-mutilation, spider-walk, and pea soup scenes were filmed. There was even a deep dive into which extra/Blair body double actually did the spider walk. The book also backtracks into the real-life exorcism case which supposedly influenced Blatty’s novel and author Nat Segaloff was perfectly placed to write this book as he had previously authored Hurricane Billy: The Stormy Life and Films of William Friedkin which covers some of the same territory and has an impressive list of books about a wide range of directors and others involved in film.

Although the book does not mention The Exorcist’s historical UK censorship problems it does feature distinguished critic Mark Kermode who has written about the film extensively and has reportedly seen it over 200 times. Another critic who I have always loved for his brilliant work on the magazine Video Watchdog, Tim Lucas, also makes welcome contributions.

To long term fans much of the discussions about the film itself will be very familiar, such as what exactly happened in the end regarding the demon jumping into the priest. However, the discussion is always lively and it was interesting to understand why a horror film from this period being given such a significant budget. Interestingly, and I had never given this much thought, until Godfather 2 came along, it was exceptionally rare for sequels to outdo the original in both financial return and quality, so Exorcist 2 was filmed had very low expectations from the start and had a much smaller than the original. This would never happen these days and so there was no surprise it was a flop.

Blatty and Friedkin original goal was far more ambitious than making a scary movie; they aimed to make people “think about the concept of good and evil” and Nat Segaloff leaves no stone uncovered in his digging into one of the most famous horror films of all time. A lot of books have been written about this fascinating film, there are even books on John Boorman’s misguided Exorcist 2: The Heretic, and as the original passes its fiftieth year anniversary it will be interesting to see if younger film goers are as interested in the new trilogy of films, the first of which is slated for a release later this year.

It was a shock when I realized The Exorcist was turning 50 years old this year. I still vividly remember my first viewing of the film in the theater, and being blown away by the experience. I’ve also seen the various not so good sequels, and enjoyed the TV series.

The Exorcist Legacy is a great book when it deals with the original film. There’s such a wealth of information but it’s presented very well. I very much appreciated the brief biographies of both Friedkin and Blatty, and chuckled over the description of their first meeting. The book unfortunately then bogs down in its discussions of the four followup films, with too much attention being paid to synopses of the various versions of each film. While there are readers out there who would enjoy these sections, they were just too burdensome for me to read. Things picked up with the discussion about the new trilogy (first film due October 2023), and then reviewed the religious evidence as to whether Satan exists.

3.5 stars rounded up to four.

My thanks, to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of the book.

It's hard to believe that the film The Exorcist is almost 50 years old. And that is has as much of a legacy as it does. But this book, for the most part, does a wonderful job of regaling the reader with everything Exorcist from the time of the seminal film. That legacy is told in documentary style including first-hand experiences and observations by the author as well as including excerpts from numerous interviews and other publications over the decades. With regards to the original film, not only did I learn behind-the-scenes information I had not heard before, but there were movie factoids and deeper meanings in the film itself that I had never heard of or, somewhat to my embarrassment, realized before. Not only was the story behind the story very engaging and informative, but at times was even hilarious. Where the book is weaker, and arguably because of its source material, is in the latter part of the "legacy," pretty much steadily becoming less interesting the farther from Exorcist III/Legion it got. Though the troubled history of the Dominion/The Beginning films and the short-lived TV show (which I really enjoyed and felt was sorely underrated) were intriguing, the time spent on the not even yet released upcoming movies felt like it got too much attention in the book, and the subsequent chapters on actual religious mythology felt unnecessary since such matter were previously addressed as they specifically applied to the original film. But overall it was a very informative and enjoyable read about The Exorcist.

I’m a big film fan so wanted to dive into The Exorcist Legacy to see why the film has such a hype around it and of course learn more about the “curse” of the film.

I felt like in some places it felt a bit much of information overload- for example when it was discussing the synopsis of the films after previously discussing how the film was made, I would have preferred a brief synopsis before the films were discussed.

If you are a big fan of The Exorcist then this book is for you as it has very detailed accounts on each Exorcist film and the series as well as the plans for the continuation of the legend.

I've been a huge fan of THE EXORCIST, book, film, sequels, TV show, and all of the various permutations since I was a little boy, and my mother foolishly decided that it was OK to let me watch it when it premiered on CBS. To say I was traumatized would be an understatement. I'm finally, decades later, able to stumble across the film on TV without jumping in fright if I catch a glimpse of the possessed Regan.

So, needless to say, I've read and seen a lot about the making of the film and the behind-the-scenes lore. I thought I'd heard it all, but author Nat Segaloff still managed to toss me a few curve-balls, especially regarding the sequels, prequels, and the unfairly neglected TV series, which I highly recommend you track down, in case you haven't already. I only wish that Segaloff had spent more time on the sequels, prequels, and TV show, but he still manages to deliver a ton of information that was new to me. This is a must-read for fans of the franchise.

Review from ARC: I haven't read other books about The Exorcist, but this strikes me as a warts-and-all history of the book, the movies, the TV series, and all involved in the telling of this story. It's an important story to tell as many of the main characters are either not with us anymore (Blatty, von Sydow) or won't be with us for much longer (Friedkin, Burstyn). Most interesting for me were Friedkin and Batty's early years, and the impact these had on their telling of the original story but even the lesser sequels have interesting histories that will appeal to fans of any part of this franchise. Fifty years on a good story is still a good story!