Exorcist: The Beginning


2.5/4

Starring: Stellan Skarsgaard, Izabella Scorupco, Remy Sweeney, James D’Arcy

Rated R for Strong Violence and Gore, Disturbing Images and Rituals, and for Language including Some Sexual Dialogue

In my opinion, “The Exorcist” is the most overrated horror movie of all time.  Apart from a few creepy moments, it’s not even worth a fraction of the praise it has been given (I can think of a half dozen better, scarier movies off the top of my head).  Nevertheless, I saw this one prequel, mainly because I was intrigued by the MPAA rating.  Disturbing images and rituals…now there’s something you don’t hear from the MPAA every day.

Actually, it’s interesting how this movie got made.  “Taxi Driver” scribe Paul Schrader was fired after his submitted film wasn’t as gory as the backers wanted.  90% of Schraeder’s work was scrapped, characters were dropped and added, and the whole thing was reworked and a new film, “Exorcist: The Beginning,” was directed by Renny Harlin.  After the justifiably weak reception of this one, Morgan Creek released Schraeder’s version, “Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist.”

Lancaster Merrin (Skarsgaard), the famous priest from the original (despite the fact that Father Karras, played by Jason Miller, had a far larger part) lost his faith after a horrible experience in World War II.  But a new church has been uncovered outside of Nairobi, Kenya, despite the fact that there is no record of one having been there.  Now an archaeologist, Merrin agrees to go to the building site, and that’s when things really start to go wrong.

There are two things a good horror movie absolutely must have: atmosphere and pacing.  No straight horror movie will work without them, period.  “Exorcist: The Beginning” has an adequate amount of the former, but almost none of the latter.  Director Renny Harlin’s resume is littered with action movies like “Cliffhanger,” “Die Hard 2” and “Deep Blue Sea.”  And that’s how Harlin films this “Exorcist” prequel: like an action movie.  There are tons of quick cuts, special effects, running around, and of course gobs of blood and gore.  What Harlin doesn’t realize is that a horror movie, especially one of this ilk, must proceed slowly but deliberately so the audience can get sucked into the story.  The frantic pace at which Harlin takes the film (to the extent where a character finds a nasty surprise of some sort in virtually every scene) doesn’t allow this to happen.

The acting is solid, which is all that’s required for the film’s purposes.  Despite the fact that there is no similarity in personality or appearance between the two Swiss actors, reliable character actor Stellan Skarsgaard acquits himself well as long as one forgets that he’ll grow up to become Max von Sydow (who played Merrin in the original).  Izabella Scorupco sports a nearly flawless American accent, and even though she’s in a horror movie, she doesn’t scream (thank God!).  Remy Sweeney is a good as the token kid, while James D’Arcy has almost nothing to do as the priest who has a few secrets of his own.

The poor choice of a director aside, there are other problems with the film.  First, the CGI is laughably bad.  CGI should be seamless; this makes “Twilight” look good (the hyena attack near the beginning is especially embarrassing).  Plus the film’s feeble attempts to deal with racism are pathetic.  Fortunately the same cannot be said of the scenes dealing with the Holocaust.

I can’t recommend it, although it is watchable.  Again, I am not a fan of the original, so take my words with a grain of salt while I admit that this one is better than the original.

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