The re-release of "The Exorcist" will be joined by "Lost Souls" and "Blair Witch 2: House of Shadows" at the Halloween box office

Evil in the air, evil on the screen

Demons, witches battle at the box office this weekend

October 27, 2000
Web posted at: 11:28 a.m. EDT (1528 GMT)

(CNN) -- Since the 1930s, Americans have enjoyed getting scared out of their boots by movie monsters. For years, Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman and other slavering horrors were growlingly happy to oblige.

Then, in 1973, horror got a new face -- a little girl's. "The Exorcist" debuted to screaming audiences across the country, and many fright aficionados quickly proclaimed it the scariest movie of all time.

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The film -- recently re-released with an additional 11 minutes of frightening footage not used in the original -- was taken from a 1971 novel of the same name written by William Peter Blatty. The tale, said Blatty, was based on the story of a real-life exorcism years earlier; he never intended to scare people so thoroughly.

But scare them it did, and Satan was loosed on the movie world. Linda Blair, who played the child possessed by one of the devil's own in "The Exorcist," says the role was one of the hardest in her career.

But Blair is not alone this film season in her struggle against evil.

Winona Ryder stars in "Lost Souls," another exorcism extravaganza showing in theaters across the country. She gives credit where it's due, too: "The Exorcist," she says, remains one of her all-time scary favorites.

"Exorcist" and "Souls" will be joined at the Halloween box office this weekend by "Blair Witch 2: House of Shadows," the sequel to last year's monstrously successful "The Blair Witch Project."

Kim Director, who plays a psychic in "Blair Witch 2" adds that the reason she loves going to scary movies is simple: They're a scream...

Review: Second 'Blair Witch' casts no spell
October 26, 2000
Review: Even Satan cannot redeem dumb 'Lost Souls'
October 13, 2000
'Exorcist's' Linda Blair revisits an old role
September 22, 2000

Blair Witch
Lost Souls
The Exorcist

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