Today’s lesson is gonna make your head spin.

Welcome back to Horror 101, a series of articles where we explain horror movie legends and their lore. For beginners, the confused, or just those who need a refresher, these articles are for you.

We know October 2023 will be a big month for horror, and chiefly among the big releases of that month is David Gordon Green’s hotly anticipated The Exorcist: Believer. This is not only the first film in the series in 18 years, but also the beginning of a brand-new trilogy helmed by Gordon Green following his work on Blumhouse’s Halloween franchise. 

So, in preparation for a new installment, we unearth the true nature of another all-time great antagonist, this time the unforgettable Pazuzu from The Exorcist franchise. The Exorcist’s reputation of being the most frightening horror film ever hinges on the strange demonic entity, whose vile actions while possessing a young Regan MacNeil have permanently engrained him into the cultural consciousness. 

ALL ABOUT THE EXORCIST FRANCHISE

David Gordon Green has said The Exorcist: Believer will treat all the previous films in the series as “acceptable mythology,” implying a sort of extended five-movie canon. For this article, however, Exorcist: The Beginning will be ignored for several reasons: It implies contradictory elements about Pazuzu’s origins with the whole Byzantine Army coverup plotline; By treating it as events following Dominion, it effectively reverses Father Merrin’s story throughout that film; and most importantly, Dominion is closer to the original vision of the prequel as intended by director Paul Schrader and writer William Wisher Jr., which lends credence to it as the “true” version of events.

The 2016 television series, likewise, will not be touched upon as it only follows the events of the first film and splits off into a separate timeline. And it did that before it was the cool thing to do too!

So, try not to lose faith (or let any of that projectile pea soup touch you) as we explain horror’s most iconic possession and the abomination that caused it.

WHAT IS PAZUZU? 

Initially presenting itself to Regan under the friendlier pseudonym of “Captain Howdy,” the being known as Pazuzu is an ancient demon associated with the Mesopotamian mythological figure of the same name. A demon of the wind in Assyrian mythology specifically, he was the son of Hanbi, who was identified as the Sumerian god of all evil. 

Throughout history Pazuzu has afflicted many humans, but most notable was his possession of a young girl named Regan MacNeil in Georgetown, Washington. Daughter of actress Chris MacNeil, she killed director Burke Dennings under Pazuzu’s influence, and was subsequently exorcised by Father Lankester Merrin and Father Damien Karras at the cost of both of their lives. Though Father Karras identifies three distinct voices and Pazuzu refers to itself as “us,” Father Merrin confirms that Pazuzu is a single entity speaking as a collective.

Throughout the series there is a correlation that Pazuzu may be Satan himself; Pazuzu names himself as such when speaking with Father Karras. This, however, is never confirmed, and given Pazuzu is a notorious liar who plays mind games with Karras to make him walk away from exorcising Regan, this can only be taken as hearsay. 

WHAT ARE PAZUZU’S ABILITIES?

Pazuzu’s powers are chiefly mental in nature, being able to cause hallucinations, divine information, drastically change temperature, and telekinetically move objects. He could also mimic the voices and likenesses of the dead, which it used to intimidate and deceive its targets. 

And of course, what’s an exorcism without the demon being able to possess victims? Most frighteningly, Pazuzu could warp and change the body of the ones he possessed to perform biologically impossible acts and decay the human form, dislocating limbs, and breaking bones in ways that would kill most. He could also do the opposite and temporarily “heal” victims by removing the disabilities of one of his earliest victims, Cheche, in the movie Dominion.

Animals also seemed to be especially sensitive to Pazuzu’s influence: In Exorcist 2: The Heretic, Pazuzu is able to summon and control swarms of locusts as they were a symbol of his worship. In Dominion he commands a pack of cattle to slaughter a pack of hyenas. 

Stranger even, Pazuzu could manipulate evil souls like that of the Gemini Killer and lend his powers of possession to them. Pazuzu allowed the Gemini Killer to continue murdering from beyond the grave in the body of Father Damien Karras, who he had placed the killer’s soul into at the point of death, extending his lifespan in the process. 

WHAT IS PAZUZU’S WEAKNESS?

Ultimately, the fatal flaw of Pazuzu’s possession was that they were ineffective on people with strong wills and could be suppressed by a person of faith. Or, in the case of Regan MacNeil, around the time of Exorcist 2, a significant force of will and psychic ability.

WAIT. NOPE. HOLD ON. PSYCHIC ABILITY?

I don’t even want to touch on that last part, but I kind of have to.

In Exorcist 2: The Heretic, it’s revealed that Father Merrin, in his death throes, made a speech to Pazuzu. In it, he detailed that people like Regan and the young man Kokumo had “evolved” psychic abilities that counteracted the evil of Pazuzu (and presumably all other demons) and made them resistant to his powers. 

They are dubbed the “good locusts” of humanity, a callback to Kokumo’s conversation with Father Lamont about actual grasshoppers that could resist changing into locusts and break the chain reaction of the swarm turning aggressive. It’s basically one big bug-based metaphor for humanity slowly growing out of its regressive and selfish ways together, breaking cycles of violence and abuse, and surpassing the evils of Satan. 

Yeah, kind of a weird story decision.

Nice sentiment, at least?

WHAT DOES PAZUZU WANT?

Primarily, its goal is the ruination of life and the desecration of all sacred things. It’s a demon, what else did you expect? 

However, Pazuzu’s longest-running feud is against the church itself. This began as a long-running rivalry with Lankester Merrin that we first see chronologically in Dominion. Merrin became the primary target of his anger for foiling Pazuzu’s plans in 1947 by saving the life of young possessed Cheche and the other inhabitants of the Derati Valley he had been terrorizing. 

Merrin rediscovered his faith and connection with God through the trials of Pazuzu. The two were then constantly locked in a spiritual battle up until the point of Merrin’s death in the original 1973 film, in which Merrin died clutching to the faith Pazuzu desperately wanted to take from him.

The significance of why Pazuzu takes joy in befouling and mocking men of the cloth makes the most sense thematically: he is an allegory for losing faith in not only the religious sense, but faith in oneself. 

WHAT HAPPENED TO PAZUZU IN THE END?

Following the events of the first film, Pazuzu eventually moved on to torturing Father Karras through the workings of the Gemini Killer. He was “vanquished” when police Lieutenant Kinderman killed a possessed Karras out of mercy, presumably stopping the Gemini Killer and Pazuzu in one fell swoop. Chronologically, this would be the last time we saw him. 

Ultimately, Pazuzu’s fate is unknown. Though we can assume the demon was trapped or diminished somehow in the process of Father Karras’ true death in The Exorcist III, we can’t truly be sure. 

While David Gordon Green’s new trilogy has yet to confirm, it’d be hard to imagine the series just moving on from Pazuzu. I would hedge my bets that Karras’ demise was simply another chapter in the war of man and devil that Blatty started, and it’s hard to tell if Green will be the one to end the tale.

And that will be it for today’s Horror History 101 lesson. See you in the next class, and stay tuned to Horror Press’s social media feeds for more content concerning horror movies, television, and everything in between!