The Ninth Configuration

The Ninth Configuration (1980)

How do you fight a war called madness?

Army psychiatrist Colonel Kane is posted to a secluded gothic castle housing a military asylum. With a reserved calm, he indulges the inmates' delusions, allowing them free rein to express their fantasies.

Date of release
1980-02-29
TMDB
6.4 / 10 (181)
Runtime
1h 58m
Genres
Drama, Comedy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Director
William Peter Blatty

Casting

Interesting facts

The Ninth Configuration is a 1980 American surrealist psychological drama film written, produced, and directed by William Peter Blatty, in his directorial debut. It is the second installment in Blatty's "Trilogy of Faith" after The Exorcist (1973), and followed by The Exorcist III (1990). The film is based on Blatty's 1978 novel The Ninth Configuration, which was itself a reworking of his 1966 novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane!.

Background

William Peter Blatty's novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane! was first published in 1966. Blatty said: "I considered it a comic novel, but a great deal of philosophy and theology crept into it. But the farcical elements outweighed the serious elements." Blatty adapted the novel into a screenplay, and intended for it to be filmed by William Friedkin. Blatty said that the script "was what you might call bizarre material.

In his introduction to the 1978 novel, Blatty wrote:

When I was young and worked very hastily and from need, I wrote a novel called Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane! Its basic concept was surely the best I have ever created, but what was published was surely no more than the notes for a novel – some sketches, unformed, unfinished, lacking even a plot. But the idea mattered to me, so once again I have written a novel based on it. This time I know it is the best that I can do.

However, Blatty subsequently stated he preferred the first version of the book to the second: "... the first one is infinitely funnier and wilder, and stranger and more of a one of a kind; the second one has the same plot, but the prose is more finely crafted, I think. In the first one I allowed the comedy to carry me, so I think I prefer that one ... I loved the characters and it was a pleasure to write."

Blatty then developed The Ninth Configuration into a screenplay for Columbia Pictures (Blatty did not want to work with Warner Bros. Pictures as he had sued that studio over his proper share of profits from The Exorcist). Columbia then placed the screenplay in turnaround; Blatty took the script to Universal Pictures.

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