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 has been mandated to perform the rite of solemn exorcism. Since at least the third century, the Latin Church has formally ordained men to the minor order of exorcist. Text previously attributed to a fourth Council of Carthage (398), now identified as a collection called "Statuta Ecclesiæ Antiqua", prescribes in its seventh canon the rite of ordination of such an exorcist: the bishop is to give him the book containing the formulae of exorcism, saying, "Receive, and commit to memory, and possess the power of imposing hands on energumens, whether baptized or catechumens". These exorcists routinely performed ceremonies over adults