Lankester Merrin

Father Lankester Merrin is a fictional Irish Catholic priest in the 1971 novel The Exorcist and one of the main protagonists in its 1973 film adaptation. He figures prominently in several of its prequel and sequel films. In addition to his role as a priest, Merrin is an accomplished archaeologist.

Lankester Merrin
The Exorcist character
Max von Sydow as Father Lankester Merrin in the 1973 film The Exorcist.
First appearanceThe Exorcist
Created byWilliam Peter Blatty
Portrayed byMax von Sydow (films The Exorcist and Exorcist II: The Heretic)
Stellan Skarsgård (films Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist)
Ian McDiarmid (BBC Radio adaptation)
Richard Chamberlain (stage)
Peter Bowles (stage)
Paul Nicholas (stage)
In-universe information
TitleFather
NationalityIrish
OriginWashington, D.C., United States

In the novel

Merrin, an elderly priest and paleontologist on an archeological dig in Iraq, finds images of the demon Pazuzu and subsequently experiences other unusual phenomena. He had previously faced the demon many years before during an exorcism in Africa. The find sparks a premonition that he will battle the demon again in a distant land. Merrin does not appear again until much later in the novel, when he joins the protagonist, Father Damien Karras, in Washington, D.C., to exorcise the demon from the body of a young girl (Regan MacNeil). Merrin, who has a heart disease for which he takes nitroglycerin, dies during the ritual, leaving the inexperienced Karras to complete the exorcism himself. Merrin is loosely based on the British archaeologist Gerald Lankester Harding,[1] though in the film he is played by Max von Sydow with a noticeably Irish accent. This was later parodied by James Woods in the film Scary Movie 2.

In the films
Stellan Skarsgård as Lankester Merrin in Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Merrin's depiction in the 1973 film The Exorcist is faithful to the novel. The character of Merrin reappears in the sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), in extended flashbacks detailing an exorcism he performed in Africa following the Second World War. He is portrayed in both films by Max von Sydow. The studio wanted Marlon Brando for the role of Father Merrin,[2] but director William Friedkin immediately vetoed this by stating it would become a "Brando movie".

The character was featured again in both prequel films, Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist. Both films revisit Merrin's experiences in Africa immediately prior to his first exorcism, but each presents a different version of the events and neither agrees with the events as presented in Exorcist II. He is played in both films by Stellan Skarsgård.

Other adaptations

In the 2014 BBC Radio dramatisation, Merrin is voiced by Ian McDiarmid.

See also

References
  1. "A website dedicated to William Peter Blatty, The Ninth Configuration & Legion". TheNinthConfiguration.com. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  2. Coffin, Patrick (1 December 2013). "The Unbearable Frightness of Being". Retrieved 16 June 2015.


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