Exorcist: The Beginning
Directed by: Renny Harlin

Premise: Prequel to 1973’s The Exorcist. Father Merrin (Stellen Skarsgard), the exorcist from the original picture, leads an archeological expedition into a cursed church.

What Works: Skarsgard does a very good job; the story has given Merrin an interesting character arc to go through. We can see a lot of the character that Max Von Sydow played in the original and in his character there is a sense of continuity between this film and the original.

What Doesn’t: This just is not a very scary film, which is surprising from Harlin, who has done successful horror films in the past such as Deep Blue Sea and Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4. It does have plenty of gore (and was originally given an NC-17) but it never slows down enough to be scary. This film attempts to tell a bigger story but by going for the larger canvas, it is unable to replicate the intimate terror of the original picture.

Bottom Line: The link between this film and the original is really on contrivance. Fans of Skarsgard and Harlin may want to have a look but fans of the original Exorcist will likely be disappointed.  

Note: This is the second version of this picture. Paul Schrader was originally hired and completed a version of the film but Morgan Creek Productions disliked it and had Harlin remake ninety percent of the picture. Schrader’s version, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, has since been released on DVD.