"The Exorcist" movie series is not so much a franchise as a perpetual going-out-of-business sale. There are now four official "Exorcist" films and many more imitations. "The Exorcist" (1973), written by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, was truly one of the scariest movies ever made, for it portrayed a confrontation by humans with true evil rather than the monsters, mummies, ghosts and living dead that populate most horror films.

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