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In this corner: the Book. A collection of words that represent ideas when filtered through the lexical systems in a human brain. From clay tablets to bound collections of wood pulp to units of stored data, the book has been around in one format or another for some 3,800 years.

And in this corner: the Movie. A 112-year-old kid born in France to a guy named Lumiere and raised primarily in Hollywood by his uncle Charlie "the Tramp" Chaplin. This young upstart has quickly made a huge impact on society, rapidly becoming the most financially lucrative form of storytelling in the modern world.

Both square off in the ring again as Box Office Prophets presents another round of Book vs. Movie.

The Rite

An American journalist living in Rome, Matt Baglio became fascinated when he found out that an American priest had been sent there by his bishop to study exorcism. Father Gary Thomas of California was nice enough to allow Baglio to join him in the journey. Baglio had come to witness some 20 exorcisms that Father Thomas had participated in. With that and a little bit of background, Baglio was able to craft a tight little 250-page book about modern exorcism and the journey of Father Thomas.

While Baglio was still researching the book, film producers Tripp Vinson and Beau Flynn heard about the project. The producing team behind The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Flynn and Vinson bought the film rights to the emerging novel, promptly contacting screenwriter Michael Petroni to work on a script. Petroni was in contact with Baglio as he worked on the script. The two men were working on book and film script more or less at the same time. Starring Anthony Hopkins, the film was released by Warner Bros. this past week, The film grossed $14.7 million opening weekend on a reported $37 million production budget. With a wide-ranging appeal to Catholics and various other Christians worldwide, the film could turn a relatively healthy profit. How does the film compare with the book it's based on - a book that is likely to reach a far smaller audience?

The Book

Matt Baglio’s The Rite has been praised as a fair and skeptical look into the subject of modern exorcism. Skeptical though it may be, it doesn’t compare with some of the very best work of its kind. The very best work in the realm of unexplained phenomena falls into one of two categories: either journalistic or critically insightful. Jerome Clark’s work in the field of Ufology is particularly strong journalistic stuff. There’s nothing quite like reading detailed accounts of UFO sightings and abductions written in stultifyingly dull journalistic prose that leaves nothing to the imagination. The fascinating thing about Clark’s work is that the terminally dry and composed nature of the narrative lets the facts speak for themselves. The fascinating nature of the subject matter bleeds through the corners of cold, hard fact. It’s really exhilarating work because it is written in such a boring literary voice. Critically insightful prose is considerably trickier to bring across. One of the best examples of this in recent years has been Jon Ronson’s The Men Who Stare At Goats. Ronson’s delicate balance of humor, straightforward journalism and insightful perspective rendered a remarkably provocative book.

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