CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
- This topic has 11 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I guess that’s what the Ouija board/Pazuzu come up with. It’s close to “Howard”, her father’s name, so it was a way for the demon to get close to her.
Yeah, I guess.It’s just the way that Chris says , “captain Howdy?”
Regan replies “yeah,you know………..I make the questions……he gives the answers…..”
Chris looks like she’s just realised something and says…………..”ahhh captain howdy”
Always wondered what she was thinking.I have always wondered that, also. I thought it may have been a character from an old TV show or an old film or something — but haven’t had any luck finding any results.
Mmm I always interpreted that as ‘howdy’ being a way of saying yes or hello. Maybe Americanised because of the Indians saying ‘how’ being a question. So Chris looks like she understands…’Oh Captain HOWdy’? There is emphasis on the how. Maybe!!! I never thought of the Howard connection cos I never knew that was her fathers name! I must have missed that somewhere. Next time I watch the film I am sure it will be glaringly obvious and I will feel like ‘how did I not notice before!!!’
I just thought that Chris was pretending to understand what Regan was talking about, because since that’s suppose to be an imaginary friend, this whole game is about pretending. Sort of like when a kid says to his mom: “I have a new friend. Look what he’s doing!”
And the mom, not seeing anybody, just plays along: “Yes, I see him, he’s very nice”.Jenny, Howard is not mentioned in the film – only in the book. This is the most commonly-made connection for Pazuzu choosing to use Captain Howdy as his alias as it sounds very close to Howard, helping Regan feel comfortable with the name.
Ty Cap!! I have read the book but that was years ago so easy connection to miss! Actually must get hold of a copy sometime for a reread. I assumed that maybe Chris mentioned his name when she on the phone trying to get hold of him or something!
It’s definitely more obvious in the novel, which I also need to read again.
“Honey, who’s Captain Howdy?”“Oh, ya know. I make questions and he does the answers.”
“Oh?”
“Oh, he’s nice.”
Chris tried not to frown as she felt a dim and sudden concern. The child had loved her father deeply, yet never had reacted visibly to her parents’ divorce. And Chris didn’t like it. Maybe she cried in her room; she didn’t know. But Chris was fearful she was repressing and that her emotions might one day erupt in some harmful form. A fantasy playmate. It didn’t sound healthy. Why “Howdy”? For Howard? Her father? Pretty close.
“So how come you couldn’t even come up with a name for a dum-dum bird, and then you hit me with something like ‘Captain Howdy’? Why do you call him ‘Captain Howdy’?”
” ‘Cause that’s his name, of course,” Regan snickered.
“Says who?”
“Well, him.”
As for it being Pazuzu and not just something she made up herself, that all comes down to if Regan was really possessed or not, which can be questioned in the novel but not so much in the film.
She’d been sitting in the kitchen, Chris told the doctors, when Regan ran screaming down the stairs and to her mother, cowering defensively behind her chair as she clutched Chris’s arms and explained in a terrified voice that Captain Howdy was chasing her; had been pinching her; punching her; shoving her; mouthing obscenities; threatening to kill her.
It could very well be something she totally made up. Children create imaginary friends all the time and give them names that have no significance to anything else. I don’t think there’s a definite answer to it but we are lead to believe that is a variation on Regan’s father’s name Howard(as stated above).
Something to consider…
When demons encounter children, they obviously have to appeal to that child (think of Jodie the pig in The Amityville Horror). It had to appeal to the little girl.
In the 1949 case the demons appeared to Robbie as his recently deceased Aunt Harriet.
Friedkin himself says in the audio commentary that Howdy appears as sort of a “clown-like” figure to Reagan.
In many of the documented cases of possession the victim, before being full blown possessed, is often visited by a mysterious new person that they cannot seem to resist.
They have to decieve to be accepted into the child’s world in order to fully possess them. Much like their master Lucifer who is an angel of “light” not darkness.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.