Demon Pazuzu

Lore & Background

Pazuzu first appeared in William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist in 1971. The novel is about a 12-year-old girl, Regan MacNeil, possessed by a demon. The demon is later revealed to be Pazuzu; though never explicitly stated to be the demon, two references were made about his statue, which was uncovered in the prologue by Father Lankester Merrin in northern Iraq. After Regan's mother worries about her daughter being possessed, Merrin and Karras arrive at her house and perform an exorcism on Regan and successfully force the demon out of Regan's head. In their struggle to save Regan from the thrall of Pazuzu, both priests perish. Pazuzu returns in Legion, wanting to take revenge for being thrown out of Regan's head. He does this by driving the Gemini Killer's body into Father Damien Karras's dead one. Although not directly identified as Pazuzu, the Gemini Killer refers to 'others' who would see his work continue. In the end of the novel, the Gemini Killer leaves the body of Father Karras following the death of the killer's father, the driving force behind the Gemini Killer's crimes.

In Their Own Story

The majority of the film deals with Regan's demonic possession by a being she initially refers to as 'Captain Howdy'. During the attempted exorcism of Regan, the statue of Pazuzu that Merrin found at the beginning of the film briefly appears. The demon is ultimately exorcised from Regan's body after Merrin dies of a heart attack, and Father Damien Karras sacrifices himself by luring the demon into his body and then hurling himself through a window and down the now famous flight of stairs leading down to M Street NW, in Georgetown. In Exorcist II: The Heretic, Pazuzu is named as the demon and returns to haunt Regan. There are flashbacks of Merrin battling the demon in Regan and also flashbacks of Merrin's exorcism of Pazuzu from a boy named Kokumo in Africa many years earlier. In the end of the film, Regan and Father Lamont, who has been trying to help her, but has become possessed by Pazuzu, return to Georgetown. After a struggle, he declines Pazuzu's offer of power and Regan banishes Pazuzu, appearing in the form of locusts.

Reader's Guide

The Exorcist III takes place 15 years after the original film. The film was adapted by Blatty from his novel Legion. Lieutenant Kinderman, who was also in the original film, has been on a murder case about mysterious deaths committed by an anonymous person. It is later found out that Pazuzu convinced the Gemini Killer, who died at the same time as Father Karras, to inhabit his body as punishment for saving Regan. However, as result of his suicide, his brain, which demons/spirits need when they possess a body, was severely damaged. The Gemini Killer spent years stimulating his brain so he would be of use, and then began committing murders by possessing the bodies of the other inhabitants of the hospital where Karras had been staying. In the end of the movie after a turbulent exorcism is done, Karras regains control of the body and asks Kinderman to kill him, which he does by shooting him in the head, keeping him from being possessed again. In Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, Pazuzu is shown in his first encounter with Father Merrin in Africa in the duel that 'nearly kills Merrin', referenced in the very first movie. In The Exorcist television series, which is presented as a sequel to the original film, Pazuzu continues its pursuit of Regan and possesses her daughter Casey. After nearly killing Casey, the demon is able to possess Regan again and is almost able to take complete control of her mind. However, with the aid of the priest Father Tomas and her family, Regan fights back against Pazuzu, regaining control of her mind, just as Father Tomas exorcises the demon from her body.

Did You Know?

• In the first film, Linda Blair played Regan, but Mercedes McCambridge provided the majority of Pazuzu's dialogue, most notably in all the scenes with Fathers Karras and Merrin.
• The face of Pazuzu is provided by Eileen Dietz, who also plays Regan during the vomiting, levitation and masturbation scenes.
• The demon mask used in the movie Onibaba (1964) inspired William Friedkin to use a similar design for the makeup in the shots.
• William Peter Blatty's creations of Pazuzu and The Exorcist were based on a heavily reported series of 1949 events in St. Louis, Missouri concerning the possession of a 14-year-old known as 'Robbie Mannheim' (or sometimes 'Roland Doe').
• Texas State religious studies professor Joseph Laycock believes that Blatty may have drawn his portrayal of Pazuzu from religion scholar Paul Carus's 1900 book The History of the Devil.