Stephen King said in Danse Macabre (1981): "... two novels of the Humorless, Thudding Tract School of horror writing are Damon, by C. Terry Cline, and The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty – Cline has since improved as a writer, and Blatty has fallen silent... forever, if we are lucky."

However, S.T. Joshi stated in his The Modern Weird Tale : A Critique of Horror Fiction that Stephen King went up to Blatty and said: "You know, in a way, you're my father."

Not sure whether to add this book to my "sai-king-recommends" bookshelf or not... hmmmm... I've decided not to add it, although I think King might say the book was very important to the horror genre, at the very least.

I read this book (secretly) when I was under 18 back in the 70s and had been told I wasn't old enough to read it yet. Yeah, like THAT would stop me! lol

Then I saw the movie when I was 18 and all the uproar about people fainting, puking, having heart attacks, and receiving subliminal messages was going round. I went with 2 girlfriends and we held each other's hands with excruiating tightness through the whole completely terrifying experience. Whew! They don't make em like that anymore!

A few years ago, I read the book again. I have to agree with some other reviewers that it seems mired in the 70s and doesn't translate as well into later times. But it's still a creepy story. I'm sure I would have given it 5 stars back in the day... now maybe only 3... so I'll compromise and give it a 4 cause it's one H*** of a story!