Pazuzu (The Exorcist)

"Your mother sucks cocks in hell, Karras, you faithless slime!"

- Pazuzu

Pazuzu was a powerful demon who was the main antagonist in The Exorcist franchise, and was based loosely on a mythological figure native to Babylonian culture where he was considered the king of wind demons and son of the Babylonian god Hanbi.

In the original book and movie, Pazuzu was the demon that possessed Regan. This was its most famous outting, but it had also appeared in all five Exorcist films and was listed as the 2nd greatest villain of all time by Wizard Magazine.

In the 1973 film, she of course appeared as the primary antagonist and was voiced by late actress Mercedes McCambridge.

Pazuzu was the main antagonist of the novel, the movie adaptation, and it's sequel The Heretic, the secondary antagonist of Legion and again the main antagonist of the two prequels: The Beginning and Dominion.

Novel
Pazuzu first appeared in The Exorcist novel, published in 1971, the plot of which was pretty much identical to the film.

The Exorcist (1973 Film)
In 1973, The Exorcist was released as a film, and Pazuzu would be the main villain just as it was in the novel who managed to possess Regan after she played with a Ouija board (appearing to her in form of the now infamous demon called "Captain Howdy") turned her into a hideous vessel for it to mercilessly taunt and abuse those around itself while also displaying major supernatural powers that increased as the film progressed, presumably grew in strength as the demon took more and more control over Regan's hapless form - which twisted her into a demonic parody of her former self which included behaviors like vigorous masterbation with a crucifix, demanding people to have sex with her, and yelling sexual insults at people. Regan's mother became desperate and sought two priests to exorcise the demon from her daughter after several failed attempts to solve the problem by more scientific methods (with Regan violently attacking doctors and therapists). That proved trickier than expected as even the priests were reluctant to perform an exorcism due to the belief that such things were confined to the Dark Ages.

However, Father Karras and Father Merrin eventually arrived to perform the exorcism regardless. The battle with Pazuzu was a terrifying rollercoaster for the two priests, who struggled to contain the vast powers of the creature. Sadly, the battle proved too much for Father Merrin, who died of a heart attack during the exorcism. Father Karras became enraged when Pazuzu mockingly laughs at his futile attempts to revive Father Merrin while demanding him to fuck her and was possessed by the demon after forcing it out of Regan through physical force upon which the priest leapt out of the window to his death. Presumably without a human host, Pazuzu was dispersed when Merrin died, but it returned in the future sequels of the film.

Legion
Pazuzu was also instrumental in the sequel to the Exorcist titled Legion in which it took revenge for being exorcised from Regan's body in the first novel by using The Gemini Killer's soul to possess Father Damien Karras's dead body and caused chaos before being defeated once more. This story was also adapted into a film.

Other Movies
Pazuzu also appeared in Scary Movie 2 and Repossessed - both of these appearances had Pazuzu's personality changed into that of a comedic villain compared to its hideously perverted true nature in the films and novels.

Trivia

 * Pazuzu was named and based after the Babylonian god of the underworld and king of demons.
 * Hugh Kane from Scary Movie 2 is a parody of Pazuzu from the film The Exorcist.
 * In Codename: Kids Next Door episode Operation: H.O.T.S.T.U.F.F., Numbuh 3 (although not a villain) served as the main antagonist of the episode and most likely parodied Pazuzu and her actions when he possessed Regan McNeil, only with fire-like powers similar to that of Father's and Grandfather's. It was also noted that the latter was as strong as she was and even more powerful than the said K.N.D. villains.
 * In the comic book Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror 2 in the story The Exorsister! Madonna's Spirit is a parody of Pazuzu from the film The Exorcist which is the comic story based on.
 * Pazuzu has been used in other Internet phenomena such as being in the Scary Maze Game as a jumpscare.
 * Pazuzu's goal, how she deformed his host's appearance, and eventually revealed her true form in climax was similar with Titular Demon of Diablo franchise. Unlike Diablo, however, Pazuzu loved to instill psychological torture instead of instill fear to her enemies, and couldn't summon hellfire nor a demonic army.
 * In Celebrity Deathmatch, Captain Doody serves as a minor antagonist when he parodied Pazuzu, Doody possesses Nick Jr. by using him as a host while parodying Pazuzu who possessed Regan McNeil. The Undertaker manages to exorcise Captain Doody from Nick Jr's body by using his signature taunt the Tombstone Piledriver and Captain Doody does possesses an helpless popcorn guy named Phil.