I've loved the original Exorcist movie since before I was old enough to watch it (but absolutely did, ruining my life forever), but I'm only now reading the book because I'm really excited about the new movie coming out next month. (Will it be good? I don't know, but as Stephen King observes in Danse Macabre, horror fans will go see anything, knowing that it might be bad, but hoping for something great.)

Parts of the book dragged a bit and felt kind of weird from a 2023 perspective, sometimes to comical effect: Father Karras spending what feels like dozens of pages agonizing over whether Regan is "just" exhibiting telekinesis and telepathy (definitely real things, because idk, Freud?), only to have Sharon show him the "help me" emerging on Regan's belly, after which he immediately goes to seek permission for an exorcism.

But everything that I love about the movie is right here in the source material, and everything that I think makes the story really scary, too. Namely, the overwhelming guilt and uncertainty that Chris and Father Karras are wrestling with. Sure, a tween spewing obscenities and pea soup is creepy, but what really fucks me up is the prospect of feeling like you've failed a loved one, that you could have done more, but didn't. "Why you do this to me, Dimmy?"

Good stuff. Will read Legion too, sometime soon.