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Film: Exorcist: The Beginning
Year: 2004
Director: Renny Harlin
Writer: Alexi Hawley
Starring: Stellan Skarsgård, Izabella Scorupco and James D’Arcy
Review:
This is a film that I originally saw in the theater with friends and loved it. I would have been 17 years old, so I will include that. This is one that I’ve come back to a handful of times throughout the years. I own it on DVD. I’ve seen it before with a critical eye, but not since starting Journey with a Cinephile. This was watched for an October movie challenge as well as a Foray through the Fours.
Synopsis: in 1947, having abandoned his faith, Father Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) joins an archaeological excavation in Kenya, where an ancient church has been unearthed and something much older waits to be awoken.
This then starts with showing us a desert where there is an army that has been decimated. We are seeing the bloody aftermath. There is a priest that is walking through it. What makes this worse is that there are crows feasting on the bodies and people who are crucified upside down.
We then shifted to Father Merrin. At this time, he’s no longer a priest. He sits at a bar where he’s joined by Semelier (Ben Cross). He knows Lankester’s past. He’s there as he wants him to join a dig in Kenya of a church. It appears there is an artifact there that they want from inside. They don’t trust that it will not be looted. Semelier gives a leather impression of what they’re looking for. Those that have seen The Exorcist know it is the same statue that is discovered in a different site when the events of that film. It is a statue of Pazuzu.
Lankester goes to meet with the major that is in charge of the area, Granville (Julian Wadham). He was made aware ahead of time and Lankester is cleared to go to the site. He also knows that Lankester is a former priest that has lost his faith. The church has assigned someone from their archives to aid, Father Francis (James D’Arcy). He will attend the site doing missionary work.
They arrive at the town near the site. Their interpreter is Chuma (Andrew French). They go to the man in charge of the dig who is Jefferies (Alan Ford). He is a lewd man with a nasty sore on his face. He’s also drunk. There’s also a doctor, Sarah Lesno (Izabella Scorupco). We also introduce a father who runs a hotel, he’s recently converted to Christianity and he’s proud of it. His name is Emekwi (Eddie Osei). He also has two sons, James (James Bellamy) and Joseph (Remy Sweeney).
Lankester goes to the dig site and soon learns that there is something that is not quite right. The stones don’t show signs of weathering despite the age of the church. It appears to be buried right after being built. It also doesn’t make sense as its construction is long before Christianity was in the area. Lankester goes inside through the roof along with Francis. There are murals of the battle for heaven, but there’s something off. None of the statues seem to be praising God. They are looking down like they are trying to keep something down, with their weapon pointed that way.
Our former priest goes about making sense of what he sees. There was another instance of mass death here. A plague wiped everyone, but this makes Lankester question it. He seeks out Bession (Patrick O’Kane), the man originally in charge of the dig. He’s being held in a sanatorium in Nairobi Things are revealed and the history of violence is repeated. It also seems like Joseph might be attacked spiritually by something as well.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this film has a tall order. You are trying to do a prequel to one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Now for me, the prequels are tough. They tend to not work as well for me now that I’m a more seasoned film watcher, especially ones as heavy as this. You need to end in a certain way and potentially hit certain plot points to work. This one does well enough, but I have my problems now. It doesn’t help that there was studio interference, being two versions, one done by the original director in Paul Schrader and then this one by Renny Harlin.
Let me then start with the positives. I think that Skarsgård does well stepping in as this younger version of Father Merrin. The back-story that they give with this priest losing his faith for what happened during World War II and an encounter with Nazis. None of this is brought up in the original movie so no problems there. This prequel uses callbacks and parallels. This works for me as a mirror to Father Karras in the first film.
I also love incorporating in that this area has a history of bad things happening. This also uses a true historical aspect where Christians would build churches on holy sites, making it their own. This place for good reason though as it seems to be a gate to hell. The parts here that also work as a prequel show us the first time that Lankester battled this demon. This does lead into a negative though.
What I need to do here is tread lightly as I don’t necessarily want to spoil it. What I’ll say is that in the original film, the archdiocese brings up that Father Karras needs a seasoned priest who has done an exorcism before. Father Merrin is mentioned. What they say there is that he performed one and it almost killed him as well as the boy. Unless there was another one that he did, this film makes changes to this. I know that this film is playing with expectations and trying to swerve us with a reveal. You could chalk it up to the fact that maybe the two priests in The Exorcist were remembering wrong, which doesn’t ruin this. Just an issue that I have with a change here.
Let me then move over to discussing the acting. I think it is good here. I’ve already said that Skarsgård was good to be the younger version of the Max von Sydow character. Scorupco is an actor that I knew from GoldenEye. She was good here as this doctor who has a dark past. She’s also attractive which fits into the story. D’Arcy works as this younger priest who doesn’t have the life experiences that Lankester does. Sweeney is good here to help set up the story and raise tension. I also thought that Wadham, French, Cross, Ford, David Bradley, Osei, Bellamy and O’Kane helped to round this out for what was needed.
All that is left then is filmmaking. What works here is the setting. We’re at this isolated dig site so if anything happens, it takes longer for help to get there. The weather does impact what is happening when a sandstorm rolls in. The cinematography here is good. They frame shots well and set up jump scares. I’m not always the biggest fan there, but I think what they do works for a movie like this. The practical effects we got were good. The CGI doesn’t necessarily hold up. It is an era where they were leaning more into it, but it didn’t hold up. Other than that, it does seem like a misstep to not use the iconic theme. What we did get was fine. The sound design was creepy as well.
In conclusion, I’ll just say once more that this prequel has big shoes to fill. I don’t think that it necessarily works as well as they would like. It’s not one that I love as much as when I first saw it. It does good things though. There are good parallels and callbacks to the original film. For the most part, the story we’re telling does fit into what it needs. There are still nitpicks that I have. I thought that we had a solid cast. I’m just a fan of Skarsgård so there is that. This is made well enough, with the cinematography, framing, sound design and setting leading the way. I don’t think this is great, but I still enjoy my time here. Would recommend it if you love the original as this sets up an important character there without going over the top.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10