Regan MacNeil

Regan MacNeil is fictional character from William Peter Blatty's horror-tale The Exorcist.

Plot

Regan MacNeil is 12-year-old girl, and the daughter of actress Chris MacNeil. Regan is caught between her mother's gruelling working schedule and the fact that her parents are in the process of splitting up (her father is in Europe and is not seen in the movie).

One day, Regan finds a Ouija board game in the basement, and tells her mother she has made contact with something she identifies as "Captain Howdy". Soon, however, Regan begins to act mysteriously (urinating in front of a gathering of dinner guests) and often violenty (physically striking anyone within reach, mutilating her genitalia with a crucifix, using strong profanity that surprises her mother and the doctors examining her. Unbeknownst to everyone, Regan had been possessed by the demon known as Pazuzu. Chris becomes desperate when the director of the movie she is starring in is found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs. The police conjectured that the director must have been flung (with a considerable amount of force) from Regan's window, but this raises more questions than answers, since to prevent her from harming herself, Regan had been restrained to her bed.

Medical tests and examinations could find nothing wrong with her body or her mind, despite Regan bearing absolutely no resemblance to her normal self. With no help left to offer, a team of doctors (reluctantly) recommend an exorcism.

Out of desperation, Chris consults a Jesuit priest, Father Damien Karras, and begs him to exorcise (or at least examine) her daughter. Karras, going through a crisis of faith himself, expresses his belief that Regan would be better off undergoing further observation, but Chris is able to persuade Karras to come and look at Regan. Upon doing so, Karras notes that Regan's physical condition has deteriorated - her face becomes scarred, her voice becomes raspy and gravelly, she appears emaciated - but he refuses to acknowledge that a possession has taken place, saying he has seen this kind of thing many times before and therapy and observation is still the way to go.

As Karras continues to have contact with Regan, he becomes more convinced that an exorcism might be necessary after all, especially when a recording of Regan's seemingly non-sensical babbling turns out to be English, only backwards. Also, Karras sees the words "help me" scratched on Regan's stomach, from the inside. Unnerved, he contacts his diocese, who recommend Father Joseph Merrin (Max Von Sydow) - the exorcist of the title and Regan's last hope.

The process of exorcising Pazuzu from Regan takes its toll on both men - Merrin suffers an apparent heart attack and dies. Karras, his sanity destroyed after finding Merrin's corpse, willingly subjects himself to possession from Pazuzu, and then commits suicide by throwing himself out of Regan's window (the same way Chris' director died).

Following the climax, Chris and Regan decide to move. Regan, her face still scarred, has no recollection of what has happened to her, but hugs a Jesuit priest who comes to see the family off, as a way of thanking him (and his church) for saving her life and her soul.

(If someone could follow this up with information from The Exorcist II: The Heretic, I'd appreciate it because I haven't seen it. Thanks - A3583).

Movies

Regan Teresa MacNeil was portayed by Linda Blair in the 1973 film The Exorcist.