In appreciation: William Friedkin was a master of suspense chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
CHICAGO — “No technique.” “No style.” Those are exact quotes from William Friedkin talking about William Friedkin, in the context of the filmmaker’s intentional lack of conventional artifice on what became his biggest hit and the most gruesomely influential horror film of the 1970s: “The Exorcist.” The bloody terrors inflicted on Linda Blair’s Regan in that 1973 landmark? They’d be more .
There is no doubt that The Exorcist has had a profound impact on the horror genre. For 44 years it was the highest-grossing R-rated horror film of all time.