William Peter Blatty, creator of The Exorcist, RIP

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/13/william-peter-blatty-creator.html

Typical horror trope; wait until the audience think that all the death is over and done with in 2016, and then, boom!

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One of my favorite movies he made was The Ninth Configuration. A great story (based on his novel) and some amazing performances.

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His appearance on Carson made me greatly dislike him. He comes across as a sore crybaby when he protests the negative reviews and personally attacks Pauline Kael. He comes across as a PT Barnum-level showman with the “5-10 people feint every show” and “we have smelling salts” BS.

Still love the film, but this was a bad clip for him.

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“Creator”? Can’t we just say “author”?

Without Blatty, who’s going to start a movement to get the Vatican to discipline Georgetown for letting gay people speak on campus?

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He didn’t just write the novel, he wrote the academy-award-winning screenplay.

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Who here has run up and down that staircase in Georgetown? It’s like an unofficial tourist attraction there.

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On a side note, Fernando Lamas who comments from the couch is the subject of Billy Crystal’s brilliant sendup:

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i have no idea how old you are, but i distinctly recall news reports of people fainting and vomiting at viewings, and the longer the movie played, the more reports came in about it. so he wasn’t making stuff up about that. as for pauline kael, i’m glad he jabbed back at her – i was never a fan of her. and he had the last laugh, anyway.

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I think the criticism to the reviewer was fair. If she wanted to shit on the movie then he’s free to shit on her. Is it petty? Yes, but not unwarranted. And The Exorcist proved to be an iconic movie so bad reviews be damned… and there’s plenty of movies that do great at the box office that do terrible with critics so there’s definitely a disconnect with what critics are saying and what the average movie goer wants.

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also my favorite. Stacy Keach was fantastic. i also prefer Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kane to The Exorcist as novels.

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reminds me of some old lady in a hat movie reviewer on a San Francisco television station crapping on Fellowship of the Ring because “there was no resolution”.

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Shockingly erudite.

But aren’t both acts of authorship? If anything, people called “creators” of movies are often just producers or something.

https://adland.tv/ad-books/dave-trotts-mischievous-seeding-creative-mischief

"When I worked at BMP, the Head of Television commuted in from
Brighton every day.
He started reading The Exorcist on the train.
He said he thought it was the most evil book he’d ever read.
In fact, he said it was so evil he couldn’t finish it.
So, at the weekend, he went to the end of Brighton pier and threw
it as far as he could.
So I went to the bookshop.
I bought another copy.
Then I ran it under the tap.
And left it in his desk drawer.
For him to find.

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Found it by accident. I was new to the D.C. area, wandered by that spot and realized “I know these stairs…”

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I loved that movie, didn’t see it until '94, and apparently the one I saw had an alternate ending.

“Author of The Exorcist” would imply he wrote the book but wasn’t instrumental in creating the film adaptation. At any rate I don’t believe professional screenwriters are generally referred to as “authors.”

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