The Exorcist

Horror must be the genre that gets outdated the quickest.
And this story is more than 50 years old.
This didn't scare me in the least. I don't know if it's empathy or imagination that I'm lacking. I fail to understand the scope of horror novels. I haven't read many of them, so it might be too early to judge.

A popular actress' daughter starts showing signs of demonic possession; doctors and priests take turns trying to find a cure. A murder or two to complicate it further.

1.There is a buildup to the revelation of the supernatural, which any reader would catch up on; like the beginning of a familiar song. The noises in the attic, the chill in the nape of the neck, a cold draught air. Same old same old.

2.There is the confusion ensuing, as to what box to check, science or paranormal.
This was funny, whether it was intended to be or not I'm not sure.

The girl rises above the bed, almost a foot, jerks in the air, spins like a top, arches with toes touching her forehead and falls back. And one doctor asks the other after around a 2 page description of similar stuff.

“I tHInk sHe cOnvULseD, don't you?”
“Yes, I think so”

Then comes the priest who can't make up his mind; with demons of his own.

3.Followed by acceptance and resolution.
Assisted by the deus ex machina priest who comes to meet his long lost friend.

I only have a distant memory of watching the movie years back and had forgotten the plot points. So it was pretty new to me. I might read this again, not for the element of horror, but the writing style.

There is a specific mood to the story that changes along the course of it.
The initial surprise/horror gives way to an emptiness and weariness in every character in the story, without forgoing the uniqueness of each of them. It doesn't feel like the author just conjured up ‘a priest', ‘a police officer' or ‘a manservant', for the sake of it. All of them though not contributing much to the course of the plot, have distinct personalities that are somehow peculiar and likable.

Ah! The flitting thoughts. From the weariness and despair that has consumed our characters, there are moments of escape; often by some idyllic scene as a simile.
“The psychiatrist seemed to be choosing his words as carefully as flat, round stones to skim over a pond”
It's like the other-worldly feeling at the top of the swing, right before you fall back to reality.

“......he ran back through Regan's symptoms, touching each like a schoolboy making sure that he taps every slat as he walks along a white picket fence”

And at times poetic

“He sat on the cot and drank in darkness. Wet came the tears. They would not cease. This was like childhood, this grief.”

I wish the origin of the villain was better elaborated. And it would be nice if the plot wasn't obvious from a mile away too.

Nevertheless, it's a timeless classic. You won't be disappointed unless you expect to be scared. So much for “the greatest horror story of all time”. Or was that the movie?