Pazuzu is a fictional character who is the main antagonist in The Exorcist horror novels and film series, created by William Peter Blatty.

Blatty derived the character from Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, where the mythic Pazuzu was considered the king of the demons of the wind, and the son of the god Hanbi.

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.

In The Exorcist television series, which is presented as a sequel to the original film, Pazuzu continues its pursuit of Regan and possesses her daughter Casey.

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").

[2] Texas State religious studies professor Joseph Laycock believes that Blatty may have drawn his portrayal of Pazuzu from religion scholar Paul Carus's 1900 book The History of the Devil.

It has an illustration of the statue of Pazuzu, the "demon of the southwest wind" in Chaldean tradition, which also has a loop through its head similar to the one Father Merrin finds on the amulet.

Laycock speculates that Blatty may have acknowledged this source by giving his protagonist the similar-sounding name Karras and putting in his backstory that he had once written a paper on the Black Mass.

While the stand-in for the young Regan is uncredited, the possessed Kokumo was played by Joey Green, and all of Pazuzu's dialogue in the film is provided by Karen Knapp.