The Demonising of the Demon Pazuzu

Revisiting the demon from The Exorcist

Bronze statuette of Pazuzu (1800–800 BCE), Ancient Near Eastern Collection of the University of Tübingen, Germany. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

I saw The Exorcist when I was in my mid-teens. Despite the by-then outdated special effects of pea soup vomit and rotating heads, it left me terrified. I was convinced the devil had me in mind as his next possession target.

The demon who possessed 12-year-old Regan MacNeil was called Pazuzu. He was based on a god…