Chris MacNeil
Chris MacNeil is divorced single mother and famous film actress currently renting a townhouse in the D.C. suburb of Georgetown while filming a movie in the nation’s capital. Concern about her daughter’s increasingly erratic behavior and propensity for telling strange stories in what she views as a bid for attention drive her to seek medical help. When no adequate diagnosis is forthcoming, she takes the advice of doctors to instead look to religious instruction for help in treating what has now evolved into truly frightening symptoms in her daughter.
Regan MacNeil
Regan is the 12-year-old daughter of Chris who appears at first to be a typical young girl dealing with divorce of her parents and a mother who is away from home much of the time. Her transformation coincides with the finding of a Ouija Board with which she conducts solo interrogations in which she asks the board a question which is then answered by an imaginary friend named Mr. Howdy. Behavior which causes her mother to seek medical advice ranges from urinating in front of people at a party thrown by her mother to stories about her bed moving by itself to shouting profanities at the physicians and nurses examining her. Eventually, her appearance completely changes into a grotesque caricature as her personality is subsumed by a demon named Pazuzu.
Pazuzu
Pazuzu first appears to Regan in non-corporeal form as her imaginary Ouija Board companion, Mr. Howdy. Once the demon has taken possession of her body, it expresses itself in a voice that is completely different from Regan’s. This voice is supplied by an adult actress. In addition to appearing as the grotesquely disfigured Regan, Pazuzu can occasionally be seen in very brief flashes of almost subliminal imagery as a chalky face with black lips, rotting teeth and blood red eye sockets. Pazuzu also exists in the form of a statue which first appears at an archaeological dig and then in silhouette next to the figure of Regan during the exorcism.
Father Karras
Father Karras is a Catholic priest as well as a psychiatrist who lives in a tiny apartment in a rundown section of New York with his mother, whose health suffers because he cannot afford to take care of her. Wracked with guilt and ridden by doubt, he assists in the exorcism of Pazuzu from Regan and eventually sacrifices himself to save her.
Father Merrin
Father Merrin is the much older and more experienced Catholic priest who is first shown taking part in the archaeological dig at which Pazuzu makes its first appearance. The discovery of the relics at the dig inform Merrin that he and Pazuzu are due for a showdown. They have previously crossed paths when Merrin exorcised the demon from the body of a young boy many years before.
