Lankester Merrin

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Father Lankester Merrin (Novel: c.1892-1971;Film: c.1896-1975) is a fictional character in the novel, The Exorcist (1971), and its film adaptation, The Exorcist (1973).

Novel

Merrin, an elderly priest on an archeological dig in Iraq, finds a statue of the demon Pazuzu, with whom he had previously wrestled many years ago while on an exorcism in Africa. Other than in the prologue, Merrin is not show again until later on in the novel, towards the end, where he joins the protagonist, Father Damien Karras, in exorcising a girl in Maryland, Virginia - Regan McNeill, who has been possessed by Pazuzu. Merrin, who has a failing heart condition, dies during the ritual, and it is Karras who wrestles the demon out of Regan and in turn throws himself off a window, putting an end to the terror.

In Film

Merrin's depiction in the 1973 film The Exorcist remains largely the same as in the novel. The character of Merrin, however, is later on expanded in the sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), where he appears in flashback form. He is portrayed twice by Max von Sydow.

The character was again featured - this time played by Stellan Skarsgård - in the prequels Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist. Both films explored Merrin's time in Africa and his famed first encounter with the demon Pazuzu, albeit recounting it differently and presenting several continuity errors as originally described in the earlier films.

External links

• Lankester Merrin at the Internet Movie Database

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