EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING
US, 2003, 114 minutes, Colour.
Stellon Skarsgaard, Izabella Scorupco, James d' Arcy, Julian Wadham, Ben Cross, David Bradley.
Directed by Renny Harlin.
What! Another Exorcist. We have had three already. The original was the real thing and combined the moral issues of diabolical possession in contemporary non-religious society with horror conventions. The second was more like this one, taking audiences off into exotic archeological digs and even more exotic mythologies to background the devil’s presence. The third (directed by author, William Peter Blattey himself) was more of a thriller postscript which revealed that poor Fr Karras had survived the satanic attacks and was confined in an institution to undergo more attacks.
Now we have ‘The Beginning’ a back story about Fr Merrin that Max Von Sydow would never have dreamed of when he was preparing to be Fr Merrin thirty years ago or more.
Exorcist fans have been on tenterhooks for the last two years. John Frankenheimer died before he could direct the film. Of all people, Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Mishima, Auto Focus) was hired and off everyone went to Morocco. Producer James Robinson apparently was not pleased. Schrader’s version was too intellectual or some such excuse. It is suggested that it was not gory enough. Back everyone went to Morocco where action director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, Long Kiss Goodnight) re-shot, it is said, 90% of the film. (Schrader’s version is promised on DVD, an interesting precedent: not just a director’s cut, not just an alternate ending, but an alternate film.)
And the result. Not bad as this kind of thing goes. Most of it is more like Exorcist 2. After a mysterious prologue with evil priests, the dead strewed on a battlefield with thousands crucified upside down 1500 years ago, we are in 1949, in Cairo, Nairobi and the a desert mountain dig where a mysterious church is being excavated. Of course, it is a diabolical centre. And the devil causes havoc amongst the tribespeople (especially with pompous, ultra-loyal-to-his-majesty British troops), takes possession of various people – but there is an effectively surprising switch at the end when the real exorcisms start.
The greatest shock is that Fr Merrin has lost his faith and is haunted because of his being forced to comply with occupying troops in their brutal murder of war hostages. Another Swede, Stellan Skarsgaard, is this middle-aged Mr Merrin. Serious and intense, he gives some credibility to the proceedings.
For a while, it is all religious hokum (and a need for better technical advice on things Catholic), especially with a young priest sent from the Vatican to check whether a legend is true, that this is the spot where, after he rebelled against God, Lucifer fell to earth!! Towards the end of the film, as Mr Merrin is on his way to becoming Fr Merrin again, there is a feel of the original in the exorcism sequences (which spare us the headspinning and the bile).
Harlin has made a straightforward religious/horror film.
1.The impact of this film? Its being made in two versions? This film as the second version? The producers wanting to spice it up and add action? The poor reception of the film?
2.The homage to the original, the styles, content? Father Merrin? Exorcisms? The same themes for a 21st century audience? The Exorcist in 1973, Exorcist II in 1976 – and the similarity of plot in this film? The tradition of exorcism films, the imitations and parodies?
3.Anything new in this film? Or the same material for a new generation?
4.The religious issues: the Catholic tradition, the Catholic church, church history, the early centuries and pagan and Christian clashes? Christians persecuted? The role of the Devil, the stories of Lucifer and his falling from Heaven to Earth? Located in places, shrines, place of curses? Superstitions and their effect? Churches and shrines? Churches, secret chambers under the churches? Rituals and exorcisms? The melodramatic aspects, the language of the possessed, disfigurement, bile? Exorcism prayer? The impact on priests, leaving the priesthood, returning? How well did the film explore these themes?
5.The credibility of the plot, the African settings? The history of the Christian church in Africa? The pagans? The colonial situation of East Africa in the 40s, the presence of the British, the army? Archaeology, the diggings? The strange occurrences on these sites? Possession and exorcisms?
6.The historical prologue, the presentation of the pagans, the massacres? Statues and deities?
7.The portrait of Father Merrin? Devotees of Exorcist films knowing him from the previous films? Seeing him younger? His background in Holland, the Nazis and the massacre, his having to choose the hostages? The effect on him? As a priest? American background? Archaeologist, his knowledge of religions and deities? Going to East Africa? His predecessor, Father Bession? His interaction with the British, with Major Granville? His friendship with Father Francis, Father Francis’s theories? The violence of Father Bession’s death? On the site, the boys, the taking of Joseph and his being killed? The locals wanting to make a human sacrifice of the boy? The colonel and the waging of war? The impact on the colonel and his committing suicide? Sarah and her coming to the diggings, her work, skills and knowledge? Her change, her threats, her being possessed? The exorcism? Her death? The repercussions for Father Merrin, the impact of the events, the exorcism of Sarah? His future? Going back to the priesthood?
8.Sarah and her work, her personality, collaboration, the relationship with Father Bession? The manifestations of the symptoms? The melodrama of her possession? The exorcism, her malice? Her death?
9.Father Francis, the priest of the times, his academic background, his theories, sharing these with Father Merrin?
10.Father Bession and Father Gionetti? Sinister? Violent deaths?
11.The local authorities, the interaction between the archaeologists and the local people? Fears? The place as a sacred shrine?
12.The locals, the young boys, deaths and sacrifice?
13.The special effects for the exorcism, in the underground caverns, the ladder, the visual effects for Sarah, for the suffering? The actual leaving of the demons?
14.The overall effect of this kind of film? On secular audiences who see it simply as a horror film? On the religious audiences with their own theological and spiritual interpretations?
