Written by Hollowman - November 2nd, 2004
The Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
Starring: Stellan Skarsgård, Israel Aduramo, Francesca Barone, Ralph Brown, Andrew French, Antonie Kamerling, Julian Wadham, Izabella Scorupco
Director: Renny Harlin
Rated: R
Rating: * 1/2 (1 and a half)
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You know, producers in Hollywood need to realize, that once a franchise dies,
it usually stays dead. Reviving it is a near impossibility. This rule is
especially true for old horror films. Let’s see, I think the list of good
horror movies gone bad include ‘Halloween’ (it should have ended with the
second), ‘Friday the 13th’ (same thing and did anyone actually enjoy Jason X
with the intention is meant to serve), and ‘Childs Play’, you know the Chucky
flicks (can’t wait to see ‘Seed of Chucky’ in a week).Unfortunately, as long as audience members keep being fooled by previews and the idea that because the film continues the horrific tale of Michael Myers, they will get a quality film that answers all the unanswered questions, Hollywood will just keep cranking out the crap. And wouldn’t you know it, they’ve done it again with ‘The Exorcist’ series. But wait, this is ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’ a prequel to the original which will make us know on how and why the devil and his demons can possess people. But, like the awful preceding films in most horror franchises, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’ does not fail to disappoint, or gross out, or piss you off.
The film follows the fallout and regaining of faith of Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow’s character in the original Exorcist and now played by Stellen Skarsgard). He is contacted to explore a Christian Byzantine church in that has the appearance of perfect preservation; they believe that it was buried almost as soon as it was done being built. Also, the church is dated to being older than when Christianity had actually reached the Byzantine Empire. Weird! Merrin arrives and begins to sense a world of uncovered evil. The place makes him focus on his past and why he lost his faith.
During the occupation of the Nazi’s in Europe, Merrin was forced to choose who, out a group of Jews in was hiding were to die by a group of soldiers. Of course, they force him to do so by shooting little girl in the head and threatens to do so with a little boy.
Interesting characters are introduced to Merrin as well. There is the weird drunk guy whose face is literally rotting away played by Alan Ford (Brick Top from ‘Snatch’), the tempting nurse (Izabella Scorupco), the sidekick priest (James D’arcy), and the little boy who is the ideal target for a demon to posses.
Merrin’s mission in the film is to find an old religious artifact for a collector and bring it to him before the British occupants get it. But, he ends up finding himself the only one who can save the people of the near by village by doing battle with a demon in the manner of his first exorcism.
Directed by Renny Harlin, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’ doesn’t rely on subtlety. In fact, it’s a far cry from the original Exorcist and its use of creepiness and imagination. This prequel is not horror, but brutal sadism. The blood and gore content are overused and violence seems to be Harlin’s recipe for scaring people. Sure, I’ll be the first to admit, violent behaviors can be quite scary, but when you rely on them for the scare, and not the tension of the story which results in violence, all you end up with is a film student’s Halloween film project. There’s a scene in which we watch a young boy get torn to pieces by hyenas; now how does this add to scary horror? Of course, you would want to capture evil in a very effective way in a film about evil, but the devil and his demons seem to be much more effective in horror when they are shown to be not in a hurry to mutilate the entire world (i.e. Al Pacino in ‘Devil’s Advocate’ or Bela Lugosi in ‘Dracula’).
Blood and guts are very useful and effective for films. They are an aspect of films that can be used to heighten the fun of action flicks (‘The Matrix’) or they can be beautifully made out to be a secondary character with a driving force for the movie (‘Natural Born Killers’). But when you use them to be something to dominate your film with little purpose, it just makes people cringe and forget about the story you’re trying to tell. This is what happens to ‘Exorcist: Beginning’. It’s a two hour film about evil that relies on brutality and gore and things popping out at you in order to be scary. The original was and still is one of the scariest movies ever, because its subtlety and creepiness makes the audience glued to the plot and story, making them believe that being possessed by a demon can actually happen to them. The only thing that can be worse is to know that Michael Myers is linked to the Exorcist and watch 'The Exorcist on Halloween', now that’s some scary stuff.
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