William Peter Blatty, the man behind what is considered to be the most frightening movie in all cinematic history, has passed away on January 12^th, just days after his 89^th birthday.

Blatty wrote the novel, “The Exorcist,” in 1971, and went on to also write the screenplay for the infamous film adaptation that most are familiar with. For his screenplay, Blatty won a well-earned Academy Award.

The son of Lebanese parents who emigrated to America, Blatty was well-acquainted with religion from an early age. His mother, the deeply Catholic niece of a Bishop, raised him alone after his father, Peter Blatty, left the family.

Blatty attended a Jesuit school, and later, George Washington University, where he earned a master’s degree in English Literature, but went on to take on a series of odd jobs, even enlisting in the U.S. Air Force and working within its Psychological Warfare Division for a time.

But when a friend reminded him of an old, lost dream—the dream of publishing and entertaining—Blatty finally found his calling.

After penning a series of well-reviewed comic novels, Blatty rented a remote chalet within the darkened forests bordering Lake Tahoe. It was here that he would write the novel that brought him to fame.

The Exorcist, a story about a young girl who is possessed by a demonic entity, tapped into something primal and fearful within readers, and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 57 weeks, and at the top spot for 17 of those weeks.

Later, his novel was adapted by director William Fredkin and himself into “The Exorcist”—the most famous horror movie of all time, which went on to win not only an Academy Award, but Golden Globes for best picture and best writing. The success of his work brought wealth, fame, and security to a man who grew up poor and “comfortably destitute”.

Blatty’s experience with the supernatural wasn’t confined to his writing. A man of faith, Blatty’s upbringing by a Catholic mother, and by the surrogate Jesuit fathers which passed through his life, left him with all the tools he needed to be a deeply effective Catholic writer.

In the acknowledgements for “The Exorcist,” Blatty thanks English Professor Bernard Wagner for “teaching me to write,” and the Jesuits for “teaching me to think”.

The seeds of his interest in supernatural evil were sown one day as a Georgetown professor mentioned a case of demonic possession that had occurred nearby. “I remember thinking, ‘Boy, if somebody would dig into this and authenticate it and show that it’s the real thing, what a gift to the faith,” said Blatty, in an interview with Washingtonian. “It stayed in my mind, and I thought maybe someday I’d try to write a nonfiction account.”

But while his novel did end up in the realm of fiction, Blatty never intended “The Exorcist” to be mere entertainment.

“It’s an argument for God,” he said, of the novel and subsequent film. “I intended it to be an apostolic work, to help people in the in faith. Because I thoroughly believed in the authenticity and validity of that particular event.”

Rare are men like Blatty—figures of faith that dare to venture into the darkness in order to help us better appreciate the light. But we’re not bereft of this with Blatty’s passing; contemporary directors like Scott Derrickson have taken up the torch and continue to bring audiences face-to-face with evil through the lens of faith.

William Peter Blatty, though, left a mark on our culture that will never fully fade away—a mark that connects the literary world with the realm of faith, and one that connects audiences to the possibilities and mysteries of the spiritual world.