Exorcist: The Beginning

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Exorcist: The Beginning
Directed by	Renny Harlin
Produced by	Aaron Dem Guy McElwaine David C. Robinson
Written by	Original Screenplay: William Wisher Jr. Caleb Carr Screenplay: Alexi Hawley
Starring	Stellan Skarsgård Izabella Scorupco James D'Arcy Ralph Brown
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	August 20, 2004
Running time	116 min.
Language	English
Budget	$50,000,000
Preceded by	The Exorcist III
Followed by	Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist The Exorcist V
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Exorcist: The Beginning produced by Morgan Creek Productions is a 2004 prequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. This is the second version of the third Exorcist sequel. Exorcist: The Beginning was retooled from the already completed Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (not released until later) which the production company feared would not sell. It was adapted by William Wisher Jr., Caleb Carr and Alexi Hawley, and directed by Renny Harlin. The movie stars Stellan Skarsgård, Izabella Scorupco, James D'Arcy, Ben Cross, Ralph Brown and Alan Ford.

[edit] Plot

The plot revolves around the crisis of faith suffered by Father Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) following the horrific events he witnessed during World War II. Now an archeologist in Cairo, Merrin is approached by a collector of antiquities who asks him to come to a British excavation in the Turkana region of Kenya. This dig is excavating a Christian Byzantine church from the 5th century — long before Christianity had reached that region. Further, the church is in perfect condition, as though it had been buried immediately after the construction was completed. Merrin is asked to participate in the dig and find an ancient relic hidden in the ruins before the British do. Merrin takes the job, but soon discovers that all is not well — something evil lies in the church and is infecting the region. The local tribesman hired to dig refuse to enter the building, and there are stories of an epidemic that wiped out an entire village. However, when Merrin, growing suspicious of these rumors, digs up one of the graves of the supposed victims of this plague, he discovers it is empty. Meanwhile, the evil grows, turning people against each other and resulting in violence, atrocities, and more bloodshed.

Beneath the church lies the ruins of an even older temple — but not a Christian one. Rather, in the ruins under the church, Merrin and his allies find demonic icons, and other signs of evil and Satanism. This land is where he first encounters the demon that calls itself Pazuzu, which he will encounter again in The Exorcist. This demon is said to "brush" several people, including a child named Joseph, who falls ill because of it, and the former head of the dig who is driven insane by visions.

At the end of the movie, the dig's doctor, Sarah (Izabella Scorupco), turns out to be the possessed individual and has the demon exorcised from her in the tunnels below the church but dies. Dr. Merrin and Joseph emerge from the church, (once again buried in sand) and history has repeated itself. 50 (and 1500 years ago) years ago everyone at the site was killed by an evil presence from the church except for one priest. Now, only Father Merrin and the little boy are left as the British soldiers and the local tribes have annihilated each other as well as themselves.

[edit] Production

The making of the movie was itself full of drama. John Frankenheimer was initially set to direct, but stepped down just before his death. He was replaced by Paul Schrader, but the producers were completely unsatisfied with the completed film he presented them, apparently because he had given them "footage without any of the bloody violence the backers had wanted."^[1] The producers fired Schrader and replaced him with Harlin. Harlin went back and re-filmed most of the movie, adding new characters and deleting others. The character of Father Francis, originally played by Gabriel Mann, had to be recast with D'Arcy because Mann had a scheduling conflict. In 2005, the Schrader version was released to theaters as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.

[edit] Trivia

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• Though the film's plot centers around Father Merrin's exorcism of a young boy in Africa many years before the events in The Exorcist, little effort was made to keep the story consistent. Both versions of this story take a strong departure from the scenes depicted in Exorcist II: The Heretic, which showed an exorcism of a boy named Kokumu in flashbacks.
• John Frankenheimer (director of the original Manchurian Candidate) voluntarily stepped down from directing the movie one month before his death.
• Morgan Creek Productions fired Paul Schrader after he had submitted a completed movie, saying that he had given them "footage without any of the bloody violence the backers had wanted". He had already made it clear in interviews that he was making more of a psychological drama than an all-out gore-fest. He was fired and Renny Harlin was hired to re-shoot the movie. Almost 90% of the movie was re-shot and at least two characters have been dropped from Paul Schrader's version of the movie. Following the lackluster reception to the second (Harlin's) version, Schrader's original version was finally released as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005).
• Several changes followed the firing of Paul Schrader, both in crew and cast. Screenwriter Alexi Hawley was called to retool the previous script, and he cut off some characters of Paul Schrader's version, besides adding some new ones, like the one played by actress Izabella Scorupco. Actor Gabriel Mann, who played Father Francis in the original version, was not able to re-shoot his scenes due to schedule problems, so new director Renny Harlin replaced him with James D'Arcy.
• The film is shot in Univisium (2:1) aspect ratio (developed by Vittorio Storaro, who also acted as the cinematographer), although the theatrical release was presented in 2.39:1.
• Although this film is supposed to be a prequel to the original film, actor Stellan Skarsgård was actually several years older than Max von Sydow was when he made the original film. Both actors are also of Swedish origin.
• Linda Blair was unhappy when her voice and image appeared in the ads for the film without her permission.

[edit] Box office

US Gross Domestic Takings: US$ 41,821,986

+ Other International Takings: $36,178,600

= Gross Worldwide Takings: $78,000,586

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Exorcist: The Beginning
• Official website
• Exorcist: The Beginning at the Internet Movie Database
• Boxoffice information
• The Exorcist Fansite
• Evil Against Evil: The Prequels To The Exorcist by Michael Garrett
• Interview with director Harlin on Exorcist: the Beginning
• Exorcist: the Beginning at Rotten Tomatoes