The Exorcist (film) Siskel placed it in the top five films released that year. BBC film critic Mark Kermode believes the film to be the best film ever made, saying: "There's a theory that great films give back to you whatever it is you bring to them. It's absolutely true with The Exorcist—it reflects the anxieties of the audience. Some people think it's an outright horror-fest, but I don't. It was written by a devout Catholic who hoped it would make people think positively about the existence of God. William Peter Blatty, who wrote the book, thought that if there are demons then
Exorcist II: The Heretic the Book of Job; it's God testing the good. In this sense, Regan (Linda Blair) is a modern-day saint — like Ingrid Bergman in "Europa '51", and in a way, like Charlie in "Mean Streets". I like the first "Exorcist", because of the Catholic guilt I have, and because it scared the hell out of me; but "The Heretic" surpasses it. Maybe Boorman failed to execute the material, but the movie still deserved better than it got." Author Bob McCabe's book "The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows" contains a chapter on the film in which Linda Blair said the movie