Hmm, it doesn't look like my Exorcist review made it into the paper this weekend. Maybe they're running it Monday but, come on, it will be out of theaters by then. So here it is:

EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING
[F]

Director:} Renny Harlin
{Stars:} Stellan Skarsgard, Izabella Scorupco
{Length:} 114 min.
{Rated:} R (strong violence and gore, disturbing images and rituals, and for language including some sexual dialogue)

As those who have followed the tortured history of this prequel to the 1973 hallmark of horror The Exorcist already know, the project has been plagued by demonic forces since the beginning. The first version of the film was shot by director Paul Schrader (Cat People, Affliction), who apparently didn’t deliver enough gore to satisfy the studio suits. The much more audience-friendly filmmaker Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger) was brought in for re-shoots, and eventually turned in an entirely different movie.

By now, Warner Bros. executives may be wishing they’d stuck with Schrader’s version. The Exorcist: The Beginning was not screened for critics in time for opening day reviews, a sign that the studio is hoping for one big weekend before the word gets around: this is the prequel from hell.

A revisionist account of Father Merrin’s first encounter with demonic possession, The Beginning centers on an archeological dig in post-World War II Egypt. Merrin (Stellan Skarsgard in the role originally played by Max von Sydow), who has lost his faith for reasons that are unveiled gradually throughout the movie, is summoned to Cairo, where an ancient Roman Catholic church has been unearthed.

There is no record of such a church this far from the Vatican, and a trip inside the well-preserved but creepy structure does little to set Merrin’s mind at ease. Tension between imperialist British soldiers and the local villagers is high, and packs of wild hyenas prowl nightly. If that weren’t bad enough, it appears that a demonic entity has taken over the body of a local boy.

An orgy of repulsive special effects ensues. Faces covered in oozing pustules, babies swarming with maggots, small children ripped apart by ferocious animals _ these are but a few of the treats that await lucky viewers. There’s nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned splatterfest, but Harlin’s attempts at replicating the solemn tone of the original Exorcist clash with his popcorn-picture instincts. Worst of all is the questionable use of flashbacks to Nazi war atrocities; the implied link between those real-life horrors and this low-rent creepshow is perhaps the movie’s most offensive element.


Bad movies aren’t what they used to be. John Boorman’s Exorcist II: The Heretic and William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III: Legion were both train wrecks in their own way, but they each had fascinating quirks and inventive moments of terror. Harlin settles for trying to resurrect the first movie’s possession effects, but the results are more reminiscent of Beetlejuice. This demon has been unleashed one time too many.