Exorcist: The Beginning starts in Cairo during 1949 as Father Lankester Merrin (Stellan Skarsgard) is approached by a man named Semelier (Ben Cross) who ask's Merrin to join a dig in Kenya in which a buried Church has been found that dates to 100's of years before Christianity ever reached the continent. Interested Merrin agrees, under the supervision of the British Army the Church is totally excavated, the native tribe the Turkana are afraid of the Church & warn of great evil. Once inside Merrin discovers that it was once used for evil sacrifice & that terrifying demonic forces have been unleashed, demonic forces that Merrin has to use his faith to conquer...
Originally set to be directed by John Frankenheimer who stepped down just before he died & then Paul Shrader was hired & finished the film, however Morgan Creek the production company fired him after not liking his version at all & hired Renny Harlin to turn in a much more audience friendly supernatural horror thriller with copious amounts of blood & gore which Shrader's version apparently lacked. About 10% of Shrader's original cut made it into this & I have never seen Shrader's version which has been released separately as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) so I don't know how that turned out but I have to say I enjoyed Exorcist: The Beginning much, much more than I expected & I'd even go as far as to say it's a damned fine horror film in it's own right. The script by Alexi Hawley is actually a fairly engrossing & deep supernatural horror thriller that delivers some good shock's, gore & chill's. The story is surprisingly intelligent, don't get me wrong as you don't need a degree in rocket science to follow or understand it but as far as Hollywood horror films go there's a good story which works on several levels with good character's, good dialogue & a tight taught plot. It's obviously more expansive than the original & goes into the origins of the demonic force, it works very well on it's own & when viewed as part of the Exorcist series which lets face it is hit & miss anyway. A really good film, better than I expected & the executives at Morgan Creek made the right call giving both Shrader's & his boring version the boot.
Director Harlin does a good job & the film looks very slick & has plenty of atmosphere. The film looks great with nice locations, great sets with the old Church in particular looking good & the CGI computer effects are also very good. There's some really good gore here as well, from bones sticking out of people's skin, horribly mutilated bodies strung up with birds pecking it's eye out, people shooting themselves through the head, a gory battle sequence, slashed throats, a still-born baby covered in maggots & more. There's a nice creepy feel to the film as well, there is a definite supernatural feel to it & a cool ending as Merrin comes up against the demon who has possessed someone.
According to the IMDb Harlin's version cost around $50,000,000 & it certainly looks impressive, it's well made with good scope & scale. Shot on location in Morocco & in Italy. There's a good cast here & the acting is good from all involved so I have no complaints on that front. Alan Ford perhaps better known as Brick Top from the brilliant Snatch (2000) puts in a good shift.
Exorcist: The Beginning is a much better film than I expected & for me it has become one of the better big budget Hollywood horror flicks of the past few years as far as I'm concerned. I really liked it which pleasantly surprised me considering it's production problems. This is a prequel to The Exorcist (1973) which was followed by the dire Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) & the distinctly average The Exorcist III (1990).
Originally set to be directed by John Frankenheimer who stepped down just before he died & then Paul Shrader was hired & finished the film, however Morgan Creek the production company fired him after not liking his version at all & hired Renny Harlin to turn in a much more audience friendly supernatural horror thriller with copious amounts of blood & gore which Shrader's version apparently lacked. About 10% of Shrader's original cut made it into this & I have never seen Shrader's version which has been released separately as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) so I don't know how that turned out but I have to say I enjoyed Exorcist: The Beginning much, much more than I expected & I'd even go as far as to say it's a damned fine horror film in it's own right. The script by Alexi Hawley is actually a fairly engrossing & deep supernatural horror thriller that delivers some good shock's, gore & chill's. The story is surprisingly intelligent, don't get me wrong as you don't need a degree in rocket science to follow or understand it but as far as Hollywood horror films go there's a good story which works on several levels with good character's, good dialogue & a tight taught plot. It's obviously more expansive than the original & goes into the origins of the demonic force, it works very well on it's own & when viewed as part of the Exorcist series which lets face it is hit & miss anyway. A really good film, better than I expected & the executives at Morgan Creek made the right call giving both Shrader's & his boring version the boot.
Director Harlin does a good job & the film looks very slick & has plenty of atmosphere. The film looks great with nice locations, great sets with the old Church in particular looking good & the CGI computer effects are also very good. There's some really good gore here as well, from bones sticking out of people's skin, horribly mutilated bodies strung up with birds pecking it's eye out, people shooting themselves through the head, a gory battle sequence, slashed throats, a still-born baby covered in maggots & more. There's a nice creepy feel to the film as well, there is a definite supernatural feel to it & a cool ending as Merrin comes up against the demon who has possessed someone.
According to the IMDb Harlin's version cost around $50,000,000 & it certainly looks impressive, it's well made with good scope & scale. Shot on location in Morocco & in Italy. There's a good cast here & the acting is good from all involved so I have no complaints on that front. Alan Ford perhaps better known as Brick Top from the brilliant Snatch (2000) puts in a good shift.
Exorcist: The Beginning is a much better film than I expected & for me it has become one of the better big budget Hollywood horror flicks of the past few years as far as I'm concerned. I really liked it which pleasantly surprised me considering it's production problems. This is a prequel to The Exorcist (1973) which was followed by the dire Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) & the distinctly average The Exorcist III (1990).