The Devil Inside: Fifty Terrifying Years of the Exorcist
“At a time when critics are expected to be publicists, and anything famous is ‘classic’ or ‘iconic,’ Carlos Acevedo has managed to hold the line. The Devil Inside is a sharp, hard—nosed aesthetic and cultural investigation into what everybody was throwing up about fifty years ago. It succeeds as criticism, history, and social analysis.”

—Charles Taylor, film critic at Esquire, and author of Opening Wednesday at a Theater or Drive—In Near You: The Shadow Cinema of the American ’70s

In 1973, The Exorcist left moviegoers gripping their rosary beads, vomiting in their popcorn buckets, and fainting in the sticky aisles. Cynically marketed as a cursed production based on a “true story,” The Exorcist quickly became one of the most controversial films ever released. With its groundbreaking special effects, relentless pace, and terrifying finale, the film revolutionized the horror genre and paved the way for future blockbusters.

In The Devil Inside, Carlos Acevedo goes beyond the myths to examine the national uproar The Exorcist caused, as well as the dark, real—world effects it had on a jittery audience. Until now, books about The Exorcist have largely perpetuated its legends while overlooking its cultural background. The Devil Inside places the film in its cinematic and social context—as a product of the New Hollywood, when maverick directors hijacked the film industry, and as part of the supernatural trends of the times, when the occult permeated music, books, and movies.

From the original possession case that inspired the novel to the troubled production to the conflicts on the set to the uptick in demands for actual exorcisms, The Devil Inside sheds new light on a shocking phenomenon that has remained a pop—culture touchstone for fifty years. 

 

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The Devil Inside: Fifty Terrifying Years of the Exorcist
“At a time when critics are expected to be publicists, and anything famous is ‘classic’ or ‘iconic,’ Carlos Acevedo has managed to hold the line. The Devil Inside is a sharp, hard—nosed aesthetic and cultural investigation into what everybody was throwing up about fifty years ago. It succeeds as criticism, history, and social analysis.”

—Charles Taylor, film critic at Esquire, and author of Opening Wednesday at a Theater or Drive—In Near You: The Shadow Cinema of the American ’70s

In 1973, The Exorcist left moviegoers gripping their rosary beads, vomiting in their popcorn buckets, and fainting in the sticky aisles. Cynically marketed as a cursed production based on a “true story,” The Exorcist quickly became one of the most controversial films ever released. With its groundbreaking special effects, relentless pace, and terrifying finale, the film revolutionized the horror genre and paved the way for future blockbusters.

In The Devil Inside, Carlos Acevedo goes beyond the myths to examine the national uproar The Exorcist caused, as well as the dark, real—world effects it had on a jittery audience. Until now, books about The Exorcist have largely perpetuated its legends while overlooking its cultural background. The Devil Inside places the film in its cinematic and social context—as a product of the New Hollywood, when maverick directors hijacked the film industry, and as part of the supernatural trends of the times, when the occult permeated music, books, and movies.

From the original possession case that inspired the novel to the troubled production to the conflicts on the set to the uptick in demands for actual exorcisms, The Devil Inside sheds new light on a shocking phenomenon that has remained a pop—culture touchstone for fifty years. 

 

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The Devil Inside: Fifty Terrifying Years of the Exorcist

The Devil Inside: Fifty Terrifying Years of the Exorcist

by Carlos Acevedo
The Devil Inside: Fifty Terrifying Years of the Exorcist
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The Devil Inside: Fifty Terrifying Years of the Exorcist

The Devil Inside: Fifty Terrifying Years of the Exorcist

by Carlos Acevedo

Overview

“At a time when critics are expected to be publicists, and anything famous is ‘classic’ or ‘iconic,’ Carlos Acevedo has managed to hold the line. The Devil Inside is a sharp, hard—nosed aesthetic and cultural investigation into what everybody was throwing up about fifty years ago. It succeeds as criticism, history, and social analysis.”

—Charles Taylor, film critic at Esquire, and author of Opening Wednesday at a Theater or Drive—In Near You: The Shadow Cinema of the American ’70s

In 1973, The Exorcist left moviegoers gripping their rosary beads, vomiting in their popcorn buckets, and fainting in the sticky aisles. Cynically marketed as a cursed production based on a “true story,” The Exorcist quickly became one of the most controversial films ever released. With its groundbreaking special effects, relentless pace, and terrifying finale, the film revolutionized the horror genre and paved the way for future blockbusters.

In The Devil Inside, Carlos Acevedo goes beyond the myths to examine the national uproar The Exorcist caused, as well as the dark, real—world effects it had on a jittery audience. Until now, books about The Exorcist have largely perpetuated its legends while overlooking its cultural background. The Devil Inside places the film in its cinematic and social context—as a product of the New Hollywood, when maverick directors hijacked the film industry, and as part of the supernatural trends of the times, when the occult permeated music, books, and movies.

From the original possession case that inspired the novel to the troubled production to the conflicts on the set to the uptick in demands for actual exorcisms, The Devil Inside sheds new light on a shocking phenomenon that has remained a pop—culture touchstone for fifty years. 

 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781949590654
Publisher: Hamilcar Publications
Publication date: 10/31/2023
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Carlos Acevedo is the author of Sporting Blood: Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing, The Duke: The Life and Lies of Tommy Morrison, and the forthcoming American Hellfire: Cults, Killings, Possessions, and Hoaxes of the Satanic Age, all from Hamilcar Publications. He lives in Brooklyn.

Read an Excerpt

There was another unexpected development that benefited The Exorcist: By the late 1960s, the cultural zeitgeist produced not just rawer depictions of sex and violence in film and literature, but it also generated an occult mania centered on Satanism. Of all the sociological trends associated with the Sixties—ESP, happenings, tie—dyed shirts and paisley, free love, sitars, communes, LSD, psychedelic rock music, hippies, Gestalt therapy, Transcendental Meditation, Hari Krishnas, astrology—none is as puzzling as the ascent of Satan, first as an antihero to the counterculture, then as a national bogeyman to the Silent Majority in the 1970s. As the country began its youthquake post—JFK, it fostered a rebellious pushback against not just establishment ideals but against traditional notions of reality. The Esalen Institute, the New Age movement, and what has been called the Occult Revival combined to challenge the facts as set forth by the “corporate state.” This movement, more diverse and widespread today than ever, could be summed up by the title of a Paul Feyerabend memoir: Farewell to Reason.

Part of the occult revival, with its emphasis on paganism and mysticism, included the resurrection of Satan as a figure of reverence. In 1966, a circus veteran with the stage name of Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco, securing overkill publicity and a lucrative new livelihood. LaVey, bald head, goatee, dark turtlenecks and theatrical cape, was nothing more than a charlatan who read the cultural weather with the proficiency of a trained meteorologist. His Church of Satan, located on California Street and painted black for ominous effect, held hokey rituals and even the occasional “baptism,” and while LaVey may have been an opportunist whose ostensible philosophy combined pinches of Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, and Ayn Rand into a hedonist mixture, his effect on those predisposed to twistedness was incalculable.

When Ira Levin published Rosemary’s Baby in 1967, the diabolical floodgates burst open. Aleister Crowley peeped out from the cover of Sgt. Pepper, Kenneth Anger had the word “Lucifer” tattooed on his chest, the Rolling Stones rocked out to “Sympathy for the Devil,” and Arthur Brown, wearing a cult—like robe, demonic face paint, and a burning helmet, had an unlikely number 2 Billboard smash with “Fire,” a song whose roaring opening recitation suited the times: “I am the god of hellfire and I bring you—”.

Finally, Roman Polanski set the stage for the country—and for Blatty—with his disturbing adaptation of Rosemary (with LaVey falsely claiming to have been technical advisor), crystallizing the paranoiac notion that satanists had infiltrated America at every level. This outlandish plot point would spur conspiracy theorists for more than fifty years, gradually during the early 1970s, and then, with alarming, almost supernova—like power in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, there is hardly a conspiracy theory that does not involve a satanic network stretching all the way to top government officials and the societal elite.

At no other time would Blatty have been able to turn a story of demonic possession into a blockbuster novel and a record—breaking film. He had arrived just as the Age of Aquarius was morphing slowly, inexplicably into the Age of Diabolus.

Table of Contents

Part I — Prelude

The Real Exorcism

William Peter Blatty

The Novel 

The Rise of the Occult 

 

Part II — Overture

Novel into Film

William Friedkin

Horror Films & The New Hollywood

Making of The Exorcist

Phenomenon

Critical and Audience Response

 

Part III — Coda

Analysis of The Exorcist

Aftermath

Sequels and Re—releases

Cultural Touchstone 

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