Pazuzu: Everything You Should Know

It's been awhile, I know. I've been busy switching out my regular depression to seasonal depression. It's very different! I lament on being a child of divorce and stress about giving my annoying kids the loving happy holidays I was deprived of. My therapist says it's understandable, I think it's kind of dumb. I also haven't been watching a lot of new horror movies lately. Even though it's not what is popular on this blog. I'm sure y'all don't want to hear me RAGE about Bohemian Rhapsody (my biggest gripe is that the actual director didn't get the credit, surprisingly). So, I thought we would revisit The Exorcist and clear up some of the misconceptions about the movie's antagonist.

Pazuzu is powerful demon that has historical roots in Mesopotamian culture.He is the king of the Demons of the wind. I kind of think there should be a band with that name, it's sounds like something I would have listened to when I was an angsty teenager. Pazuzu was understood to be responsible for famines and locusts. Parts of Mesopotamia is located in modern day Iraq, so that's why the Pazuzu amulet was found in Iraq at the beginning of the movie. Oddly enough, he is also able to "scare" other demons away, and would theoretically protect humans from the other demons. I guess that explains why someone thought to put this thing on an amulet....can't relate. It's ugly AF. I would personally never wear anything like that.
His brother is in the Epic of Gilgamesh, if you needed a reminder of how old this thing is.


Statues of Pazuzu tend to look like a mash up of a bunch of animals.Generally, he has the body of a man, the wings and talons of an eagle, a scorpion's tail and a lion's head. His hands are frequently depicted in an "As Above, So Below" style. Sometimes, he has horns.

In the context of The Exorcist movies, Pazuzu likes to pretend to be Lucifer on occasion, but Father Merrin could tell when Pazuzu was out there PLAYIN'. Their beef goes really deep. Now, this is where things can kind of get confusing. There are two completely different films that are prequel's to The Exorcist. And Father Merrin is played by Stellan Skarsgard in both of 'em! AND neither of them make sense if you factor in what happened in the sequel to The Exorcist. I like to rationalize this as "long term demon exposure, even if you yourself aren't possessed will mess you up (i.e. Annie in Hereditary). I think Father Merrin himself is unsure what happened and whatever really happened is somewhere in between "The Exorcist:The Beginning & Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist. 
 BTW: both Movies are "bad", but I feel Dominion is "better".  I personally consider them non canonical. My fave is kind of coming across as "over" horror, but I think Bill Skarsgard is capable of being a believable Father Merrin in a proper prequel. And, it would be a cool shout out to the original prequels. I think having Bill as a hero in a horror film would bring balance to it all! I think that it would be cool to see Alexander or Gustaf play him as well. Actually, Gustaf looks the most like their dad...But I like Bill better obviously.
I still feel cheated by Deadpool 2. I wanted to see Zeitgeist as a hero, because like Bill, I am tired (TIIIIDE) of seeing him in horror movies. I do feel his best work is in horror. In my eyes. a good prequel to The Exorcist would have a fair amount of drama in it. Not just a straight up horror movie. Because I feel like the acting in a horror film does not have to be good in order to be an enjoyable horror film (ie The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise). But, for a great crossover horror film, the acting does have to be good (ie The Silence of the Lambs, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist) .
Anyway, it would be a great way for Bill to play a heroic role, but still stay within his horror roots. I know he can do this, because Castle Rock was that girl for me this fall. That show had amazing crossover appeal because my friends that don't even like horror was like "Wow, Nikkie your mans...we get it...we are stans now."

Ok, sorry for the long tangent. I haven't talked about Bill in a long time lol.

So, Pazuzu is able to read minds. As seen in the infamous "Your mother cucks socks in Hell" scene. He is also able to make things float. For the record, I don't know if Pazuzu is a her or a she...but most things I have read points to Pazuzu being a he, even though Regan is a girl. When Pazuzu spoke it was coming out of Regan, and was voiced by a woman (Mercedes McCambridge). Pazuzu is also multilingual. And to be fair, if I was as old as him, I would learn a lot of languages too.  Obviously, his biggest power is possession. But, I'm sure everyone knows this at this point. Demons supposedly tend to possess people with a "spiritual weakness". This is where the "mental illness is actually demons"' thing came up. Regan's spiritual weakness was playing with an ouija board, which I guess shows she was unsure of the afterlife. Christians accept that when you die, you go to heaven and so ouija boards are bad....? Honestly, even though I am a Christian I don't feel the bible is clear enough about what happens between the time you die and when we all go to heaven in the rapture. I don't get it, tbh. I know that Christians that believe in Christ have everlasting life, but does that mean we are ghosts until it's time to go to heaven, do we immediately go to heaven? Did Christ rip Lazurus, his BFF outta Heaven? What is purgatory? I don't fully understand this. 

Once Pazuzu is banished from Regan, he wants revenge. So in another book called Legion, there's like...a whole thing. I haven't read the book yet! I want to avoid spoilers.
 I do know there is a killer who goes by The Gemini Killer, and The Exorcist Three is based on this novel. I'm not sure how different it is from the book yet. I kind of thought Exorcist Three was a dud. I did like the twist a lot though. IRL, The Zodiac Killer thought The Exorcist movie was a "satirical comedy". So I thought that was a pretty cool thing to spoof.  The cameos in the movie are absoulutlry wild....Larry King...Fabio...Patrick Ewing....Samuel L. Jackson.