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"). Blatty, who was a student at Georgetown University, read about the story in Washington, D.C. newspapers and created The Exorcist twenty years later. [2] It is revealed later on in the game that the Sumerians molded his appearance off a race of extraterrestrial creatures that take the form of giant humanoid bats. 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 was severely damaged, which demons/spirits need when they possess a body. 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.

Pazuzu first appeared in William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist in 1971. [1] 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 body. In their struggle to free Regan from the thrall of Pazuzu, both priests perish.

Pazuzu is the protector of the vulnerable and the innocent

Just let me say that I have a connection here in New Orleans, that has ori ginal Pazuzu pieces in his collection – 22 of them to be accurate. He is a medical professional, a protector of human life, and finds great comfort and protection by having Pazuzu in his home, in the hospital where he works, and on his personal adornments. Wiggermann, Frans (2007-01-01). "The Four Winds and the Origins of Pazuzu". Academia.edu . Retrieved 2022-03-26. Pazuzu is often depicted as a combination of animal and human parts with his right hand pointing upwards and his left hand downwards. He has the body of a man, the head of a lion or dog, eagle-like taloned feet, two pairs of wings, a scorpion's tail, and a serpentine penis. The exception seems to be Pazuzu, who is described in ancient texts as "the son of Hanbu and king of the wind demons." He stands on two legs and has human arms ending in claws, with two pairs of wings, a scorpion's tail, a snake-headed, erect penis, and a horned, bearded head with bulging eyes and snarling canine mouth. Amulets with images of his full body or, more often, just his head, were common in the early first millennium B.C. Although not everyone will recognize the name "Pazuzu," his monstrous form appears in many unexpected places. A giant version by the contemporary artist Roberto Cuoghi comes to mind.

Notably, this was the first known Mesopotamian iconography to merge multiple animal components; prior to Pazuzu, iconography typically only featured a single animal body part on a human body. A statue of Pazuzu appears in the Once Upon a Time episode "There's No Place Like Home", as one of the unpredictable artifacts in Rumplestilskin's vault. While I was researching for information on the demon Pazuzu, I was quite surprised at how little information there actually is on this demon, since he is the star demon of the Exorcist movies. Pazuzu was portrayed as the demon responsible for human possession and devastating mayhem in all of the Exorcist franchises movies. While there are those who think that the legends might be paranormal or supernatural in nature, some members of Hodgson’s expedition knew that these were aliens. It’s why they’ve been planning on digging deeper to find their lair. One journal even cites how alien technology can help the human race.Documents and objects that give protection from Lamashtu’s evil doings were widespread in the 1st millennium in Mesopotamia, a period in which this type of belief seems to have flourished.

As an apotropaic entity, he was considered as both a destructive and dangerous wind, but also as a repellant to other demons, one who would safeguard the home from their influence. In particular he was protective of pregnant women and mothers, whom he could defend from the machinations of the demoness Lamashtu, his rival. He is invoked in ritual and representations of him are used as defense charms. Pazuzu takes the appearance of a humanoid demon. He has the head of a lion or a dog with two pairs of wings. He has long claws and a pair of eagle talons on his feet. He also has a scorpion tail and his penis takes the form of a serpent. Most ancient Near Eastern demons have fallen into obscurity—mighty creatures like Humbaba, for instance, no longer provoke the fearful response they did in Mesopotamia during the early first millennium B.C. In fact, visitors to our galleries of ancient Near Eastern art tend to find Humbaba friendly and unassuming, a far cry from the terrifying adversary in the Epic of Gilgamesh who guards the Cedar Forest. Wilfred Lambert (1968) identified a fibula with a Pazuzu head at Tel Megiddo, and also a Sumerian-Akkadian invocation.In the first film, Linda Blair played Regan. Mercedes McCambridge provided the majority of Pazuzu's dialogue, most notably in all the scenes with Fathers Karras and Merrin. Prior to that, Pazuzu's voice is provided by Linda Blair herself in some scenes, and Ron Faber in others. Premier Christianity details what happens during an exorcism, or "deliverance" in the Anglican Church, playing down the hokier elements that we are familiar with from movies like "The Exorcist" and its sequels. Apparently, the church takes great pains to discourage inexperienced exorcists from trying out the ritual, citing the unfortunate case of Annelise Michel as an example of what can go seriously awry in the wrong hands. Pazuzu first appears in ancient Babylonian texts as the King of the Winds, with the purpose of protecting mankind from hardships, other demons, and the more vulnerable, such as pregnant women and children. Amulets and other iconography of Pazuzu have been found in locations ranging from the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Iran to the Greek island of Sámos, while written sources describing Pazuzu began to appear around 670 B.C.E.

In the novel, the possessed Regan has diarrhea and frequently relieves herself. Because of this she has to wear diapers. It is also frequently mentioned in the book that her bedroom has an almost unbearable stench. This last phase of development accords well with the new theology of a demonically populated underworld in the first millenium BCE. The change happens, moreover, at the same time as the advent of the practice of erecting in palaces and temples monumental statues and reliefs of magically protective beings, and of burying small clay images of them in the foundations. (63) The seven spirits in the second register, each with a different animal’s head, probably have a beneficial function: they seem to be symbolically guarding the door of the patient’s bedchamber. Based on the archaeological record, depictions of Pazuzu seemingly sprung up, fully realized, out of nowhere. Pazuzu’s appearance did not change over time; it was as if the world simply came to an understanding about who he was and what he looked like. To answer this question, we must examine the relationship between supernatural creatures and humans in the ancient Near East. Although they are often classified as either evil or protective in modern scholarship, supernatural beings in ancient references seem to be presented as largely amoral. Their harmful or beneficial effects could be manipulated: they could be appeased with offerings and incantations, and even directed against each other by a skilled practitioner of magic. Pazuzu, as a powerful demon, was frequently set up as a shield against another supernatural terror: Lamashtu, a female demon with broad and far-ranging destructive powers, especially feared by pregnant women and those with newborns, who were her favored (but not only) victims.Workmen clearing a trench behind the Taq-i Kisra, Ctesiphon, Iraq. Joint Expedition of the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1931–32 Noegel, Scott (2018-04-30). " "On the Wings of the Winds: Towards an Understanding of Winged Mischwesen in the Ancient Near East," KASKAL 14 (2017), pp. 15-54". Academia.edu . Retrieved 2022-03-26.