Exocist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The
Beginning eschews having a number in the
title, which is probably just as well.
Exorcist
films have had history of taking tortured paths to the screen, and in one case
never made it there at all.
Exorcist I - The Exorcist (1973), the classic movie about a young girl possessed by a demon called Pazuzu.
Exorcist II - Exorcist II: Heretic (1977) as seen at its premiere. The reaction was so bad director John Boorman re-edited the movie before it opened theatrically.
Exorcist III - The version Exorcist II: Heretic (1977) that played in theaters.
Exorcist IV - The Exorcist III (1990) stars George C. Scott as the cop from the first film looking for a body-jumping demon.
Exorcist V - The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen Before (1973) opens in theaters and is released on DVD in 2001. It includes some extra scenes and more "subliminal" images.
Exorcist VI - The Exorcist: Dominion was shot in 2002 by director/writer Paul Schrader and all but finished before it was shelved. Allegedly production company Morgan Creek was upset that there wasn't any gore. Frankly I suspect the problem went a little deeper than that, because gore can always be added in the editing room.
Exorcist VII - And finally Exorcist: The Beginning, the reshot version of Schrader's film with the same main star but a modified script that opened this weekend.
Exorcist: The Beginning is a very, very bad movie. It's so bad I don't think anyone should have to see it, so I'm going to include some major spoilers.
"Everybody remember that we parked in the Pazuzu lot."
Lankaster Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) is a former priest who lost his faith in WWII, now working as an archeologist in Africa. Merrin is contacted by a man who wants him to go to an ancient church that's been found in Kenya and retrieve an idol. Who this man is and why he wants the idol is never explained, which is really not the kind of way you want to start off a movie like this.
Merrin arrives at the dig site, where the church has been dated to around the year 500, when no church should have been built in this area. Clearly something creepy is going on. People on the dig are struck down by fits, the dig leader (Alan Ford) has weeping sores on his face, and the previous archeologist in charge went crazy and is in an asylum. Merrin enters the church and finds that the church's crucifix has been desecrated.
Most of the film progresses like a Lucio Fulci film from the early 1980's. A bunch of weird, gory things happen with no particular rhyme or reason. Characters have conversations that don't seem to have anything to do with anything, and it never occurs to anybody to get the hell out of Dodge. The locals are so upset they are ready to stage a uprising against the British colonials. Most of the creepy things happening center around a young boy named Joseph. Is he possessed by the Sumerian (in Africa?) demon Pazuzu?
"Forget exorcism! Ever played Resident Evil?"
As it turns out, no. The camp's pretty doctor (Izabella Scorupco) is the one who is possessed, and in the film's climax she turns into a ringer for the possessed Linda Blair. She and Merrin chase each other around some tunnels under the church in action that rather alarmingly resembles the Evil Dead films. There's even a scene that unintentionally (at least, I hope it was unintentionally) quotes Army of Darkness (1993). It's scary because it isn't supposed to be funny.
The point of this movie is to follow Merrin as he regains his faith. I found this a little hard to take. Merrin lost his faith because a Nazi officer forced him, as a priest, to choose ten people who would die. Okay, that's bad. But with all the other things that were going on during the war, is that really something to lose your faith over? How strong was his faith in the first place? And at the end of the film he goes from "mister" to "Father" with absolutely no transition. I feel sorry for Stellan Skarsgård, who gives a good performance in the face of an awful script that asks the actors to do little but react to finding blood on their fingers. Seriously, that happens about 10 times in this movie.
Allegedly the Paul Schrader movie may see the light of day on DVD. The comparison between these two movies will probably be very enlightening. It will be like a primer on how two completely different movies can be made from similar scripts.
Exorcist I - The Exorcist (1973), the classic movie about a young girl possessed by a demon called Pazuzu.
Exorcist II - Exorcist II: Heretic (1977) as seen at its premiere. The reaction was so bad director John Boorman re-edited the movie before it opened theatrically.
Exorcist III - The version Exorcist II: Heretic (1977) that played in theaters.
Exorcist IV - The Exorcist III (1990) stars George C. Scott as the cop from the first film looking for a body-jumping demon.
Exorcist V - The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen Before (1973) opens in theaters and is released on DVD in 2001. It includes some extra scenes and more "subliminal" images.
Exorcist VI - The Exorcist: Dominion was shot in 2002 by director/writer Paul Schrader and all but finished before it was shelved. Allegedly production company Morgan Creek was upset that there wasn't any gore. Frankly I suspect the problem went a little deeper than that, because gore can always be added in the editing room.
Exorcist VII - And finally Exorcist: The Beginning, the reshot version of Schrader's film with the same main star but a modified script that opened this weekend.
Exorcist: The Beginning is a very, very bad movie. It's so bad I don't think anyone should have to see it, so I'm going to include some major spoilers.
"Everybody remember that we parked in the Pazuzu lot."
Lankaster Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) is a former priest who lost his faith in WWII, now working as an archeologist in Africa. Merrin is contacted by a man who wants him to go to an ancient church that's been found in Kenya and retrieve an idol. Who this man is and why he wants the idol is never explained, which is really not the kind of way you want to start off a movie like this.
Merrin arrives at the dig site, where the church has been dated to around the year 500, when no church should have been built in this area. Clearly something creepy is going on. People on the dig are struck down by fits, the dig leader (Alan Ford) has weeping sores on his face, and the previous archeologist in charge went crazy and is in an asylum. Merrin enters the church and finds that the church's crucifix has been desecrated.
Most of the film progresses like a Lucio Fulci film from the early 1980's. A bunch of weird, gory things happen with no particular rhyme or reason. Characters have conversations that don't seem to have anything to do with anything, and it never occurs to anybody to get the hell out of Dodge. The locals are so upset they are ready to stage a uprising against the British colonials. Most of the creepy things happening center around a young boy named Joseph. Is he possessed by the Sumerian (in Africa?) demon Pazuzu?
"Forget exorcism! Ever played Resident Evil?"
As it turns out, no. The camp's pretty doctor (Izabella Scorupco) is the one who is possessed, and in the film's climax she turns into a ringer for the possessed Linda Blair. She and Merrin chase each other around some tunnels under the church in action that rather alarmingly resembles the Evil Dead films. There's even a scene that unintentionally (at least, I hope it was unintentionally) quotes Army of Darkness (1993). It's scary because it isn't supposed to be funny.
The point of this movie is to follow Merrin as he regains his faith. I found this a little hard to take. Merrin lost his faith because a Nazi officer forced him, as a priest, to choose ten people who would die. Okay, that's bad. But with all the other things that were going on during the war, is that really something to lose your faith over? How strong was his faith in the first place? And at the end of the film he goes from "mister" to "Father" with absolutely no transition. I feel sorry for Stellan Skarsgård, who gives a good performance in the face of an awful script that asks the actors to do little but react to finding blood on their fingers. Seriously, that happens about 10 times in this movie.
Allegedly the Paul Schrader movie may see the light of day on DVD. The comparison between these two movies will probably be very enlightening. It will be like a primer on how two completely different movies can be made from similar scripts.
Posted: Sun - August 22, 2004 at
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Prawn Bites - Ask him about kung fu movies.
Tachyon-City - Nathan of Cold Fusion Video Reveiw's blog.
Yes, I Know - Freex of The Bad Movie Report's blog.
Background Radiati0n - The inane ramblings of a Brit living in the USA.
Make Friends the Joe Bannerman Way - "Maria Ford Forever", indeed.
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