Blatter was author of ‘scariest movie of all time’

NEW YORK: Novelist and film-maker William Peter Blatty, a former Jesuit school valedictorian who conjured a tale of demonic possession and gave millions the fright of their lives with the best-selling novel and Oscar-winning movie The Exorcist, has died. He was 89.

The cause of death was multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer.

Inspired by an incident in a Washington suburb that Blatty had read about while in college, The Exorcist was published in 1971, followed two years later by the film.

Blatty’s story of a 12-year-old-girl inhabited by a satanic force spent more than a year on The New York Times fiction best-seller list and eventually sold more than 10 million copies. It reached a far wider audience through the movie version, directed by William Friedkin, produced and written by Blatty and starring Linda Blair as the young, bedeviled Regan.

“RIP William Peter Blatty, who wrote the great horror novel of our time,” Stephen King tweeted yesterday. “So long, Old Bill.”

Even those who thought they had seen everything had never seen any- thing like the R-rated The Exorcist and its assault of vomit, blood, rotting teeth, ghastly eyes and whirlwind head-spinning – courtesy of make-up and special effects maestro Dick Smith.

Named the scariest movie of all time by Entertainment Weekly, it topped $400 million worldwide at the box office, among the highest at the time for an R-rated picture. Oscar voters also offered rare respect for a horror film: it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and received two, for best sound and screenplay. – AP

William Peter Blatty.