She wanted National Velvet and she got the exorcist. Good evening. Welcome to your wrong about. I'm Sarah Marshall and on this

winter's night we are talking about the exorcist.

We have already done an episode about exorcisms, which I encourage you to listen to,

specifically it's about how they're easier to get than you might think.

But this week our episode is about the whole over-the-top cultural

phenomenon that was the exorcist, first the novel by William Peter Blattie, and then the movie by William Friedkin, which it is pretty safe to say, changed us in more ways than we perhaps wanted to admit.

My amazing guest for this episode is Marlena Williams, who is the author of the new essay collection Night Mother, a personal and cultural history of The Exorcist.

You may or may not know, The Exorcist came out December 26 1973.

Incredible timing in my opinion.

So we are now celebrating its half sanctuary anniversary.

And this is a movie that as you might imagine is also very important to me in my life in my ongoing

obsession with the satanic panic aka the reason I began doing this show at all in many ways. The Exorcist is famously a horror movie. We'll be talking about its content and its themes in some detail. So that may or may not be the right speed for you today.

But I also want to make sure you know that you don't have to be into horror movies,

you don't have to ever want to see this movie to be interested in its themes. I think often having that friend who tells you about the

media you don't want to consume so that you can learn about what people are thinking about is fun and useful and I would love to be that friend for you.

And if you still want some more conventional Christmas fair, we have got a

You're wrong about audio book original of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol over on Patreon and Apple Plus subscriptions.

I read it myself and I had a really great time.

So if you still want to roast some chestnuts and listen to

something about Tiny Tim, we've got you covered there too. So thank you so much for

being here. Happy New Year in advance. Happy travels, happy long walks.

Thank you for spending the year with us.

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