Maverick director Simon Rumley recalls the first time he saw the 1973 horror masterpiece The Exorcist It’s pointless for us to over-rhapsodize about William Friedkin‘s landmark 1973 horror film The Exorcist. The first filmed adaptation of William Peter Blatty‘s harrowing novel shocked the world upon release and then later, upon network television screenings in the latter part of the decade, where kids too young to see it, saw it, wrecking the cozy confines of their family homes. Over four decades later, The Exorcist continues to fascinate, inspire and terrify.