Regan MacNeil is the 12-year-old girl at the center of The Exorcist, and Pazuzu is the ancient demon that possesses her. Together they form one of horror’s most unusual “villains”: the monster is the demon, while Regan is its victim. William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel and William Friedkin’s 1973 film turned their story into a cultural event, and The Exorcist became the first horror film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. This page covers both the girl and the demon, and the many performers it took to bring them to life.
At a glance
| Franchise | The Exorcist |
| First appearance | Novel The Exorcist (1971); film The Exorcist (1973) |
| Creator | William Peter Blatty, who also wrote and produced the 1973 film. Directed by William Friedkin. Possession make-up by Dick Smith. |
| Portrayed by | Regan: Linda Blair (The Exorcist, 1973; Exorcist II: The Heretic, 1977; The Exorcist: Believer, 2023) Geena Davis (adult Regan, The Exorcist TV series, 2016) The demon (1973): Mercedes McCambridge (voice) Ron Faber (vocal effects) Eileen Dietz (demon face and stunt double) Ann Miles (the “spider-walk” stunt) |
| Method | Demonic possession: the demon torments Regan’s body and mind, mocks and attacks those around her, and preys on the faith of the priests who try to drive it out |
Origin story and backstory
The story opens in northern Iraq, where an elderly priest and archaeologist, Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow), unearths a small carving and then stands before an ancient statue of the same winged figure. Back in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is filming a movie and living with her daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), a shy, sweet girl who makes clay animals for her mother. Regan begins playing with a spirit board and talking to someone she calls “Captain Howdy.”
What follows is a slow, horrifying decline. Doctors run test after test and find nothing. Regan’s personality, voice and body change, and a family friend is found dead at the bottom of the steep public stairs beneath her window. Desperate, Chris turns to Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller), a psychiatrist and Jesuit priest who is losing his faith. Convinced at last, he is joined by Merrin for an exorcism that costs both priests their lives but frees Regan.
Who is Pazuzu?
Pazuzu is a real figure from ancient Mesopotamian religion, a Babylonian and Assyrian demon associated with the winds, usually shown with wings, talons and a canine face. Blatty’s novel identifies Regan’s possessor with him, and the statue Merrin faces in the film’s prologue depicts him. Regan remembers nothing afterward, though the film’s final scene, in which she kisses a visiting priest on the cheek, suggests something stayed with her. The sequels disagree about what happened next, as do the TV series and Believer.
Iconic moments
- The prologue (1973): Merrin and the statue face each other in the Iraqi desert, setting up a confrontation the film will pay off in Georgetown.
- The medical tests (1973): The film’s harrowing hospital sequence is an unflinching look at a child being tested for answers medicine can’t give. Friedkin later claimed it was used in radiology training films.
- The voice (1973): Mercedes McCambridge’s rasping performance makes the demon sound like nothing that should come out of a child.
- The spider-walk (1973): Cut from the original release and restored in the 2000 version, Regan’s backward crawl down the stairs was performed by stuntwoman Ann Miles, whose college gymnastics experience meant she didn’t need the harness built for it.
- The exorcism (1973): Merrin steps out of a cab into the fog, silhouetted under a streetlamp outside the house. The shot, inspired by René Magritte’s painting Empire of Light, became the film’s poster image.
- The steps (1973): Karras’ final act sends him down the long Georgetown staircase beside the house, steps that now carry a plaque honoring the film.
Appearances
Novel, films and TV in order
- The Exorcist (novel, 1971)
- The Exorcist (film, 1973)
- Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), with Regan at 16, in therapy in New York and revealed to have psychic healing powers
- The Exorcist III (1990), based on Blatty’s novel Legion; Regan does not appear
- Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005), prequels about Merrin’s earlier encounter with the demon
- The Exorcist (Fox TV series, 2016–2018), with Geena Davis as an adult Regan, now living as Angela Rance, in season one
- The Exorcist: Believer (2023), with Linda Blair in a brief, secretly filmed return opposite Ellen Burstyn
What’s next
Believer was planned as the first of a new trilogy, but after poor reviews the sequel, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was cancelled. Mike Flanagan is writing and directing a new film, The Exorcist: Martyrs, starring Scarlett Johansson, which Universal has dated for March 12, 2027. It is not a direct sequel, and there is no word that Regan will appear.
Trivia and behind-the-scenes facts
- Blatty drew on a real 1949 exorcism performed in St. Louis by Jesuit priest William S. Bowdern on a boy later referred to by the pseudonyms Roland Doe and Robbie Mannheim. Researchers have since questioned whether anything supernatural happened.
- Regan is named after a daughter in Shakespeare’s King Lear.
- Blair was chosen from hundreds of young applicants. She won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Oscar in the same category.
- Friedkin first planned to use Blair’s own voice, electronically treated, for the demon, then cast veteran actress Mercedes McCambridge. She was not credited until Screen Actors Guild arbitration, and her name appears on all but the first 30 prints.
- Eileen Dietz stood in for Blair in several of the most violent scenes. The studio reportedly insisted on using her.
- The demon’s vomit was porridge colored to look like pea soup and pumped through a hidden tube.
- The 10-foot statue of Pazuzu was accidentally shipped to Hong Kong instead of Iraq, delaying filming by two weeks.
- In 2015, the District of Columbia put up a commemorative plaque on the “Exorcist steps,” which had become a tourist attraction. Blatty and Friedkin attended the unveiling.
- Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells became a hit after its use in the film.
- The film was nominated for ten Oscars and won two: Best Adapted Screenplay for Blatty and Best Sound.