Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Great Film overall

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Asked to investigate a strange Kenyan church, a former priest finds the strange incidents happening to the villagers around the site are connected to the true reason for the church's placement at the site as a great evil sweeps through camp and forces him to rely on his faith to save them.Of the two versions of the film, this one is the slightly better effort. What really helps this one is the more overt and explicit showings that demonstrate something here, which this one wisely manages throughout. There's plenty of chilling work around the village of the natives and their superstitions tied into the different stories about the others running away terrified of the events around them for getting the first half going, but it's the action scenes here that start this off even better. From the utterly savage hyena attack in the village, the continuous efforts to protect the possessed son from the demonic targets against him and the crazed ambushes by the drunken guide there's plenty of rather fun action within here that all give this one the idea that something's brewing. Even better here is the intriguing suspense scenes that not only play up the action but also get the biggest points possible for the film's ploy about the building evil around the site. There's the creepy walk-through of the church where they discover the desecrated religious artifacts still preserved in immaculate condition, a later scene of him exploring the underground caves where the sacrifices thousands of years earlier were held which is quite tense for the way this one goes about showing the underground tunnels littered with strange statues and the rather chilling scene where the villagers appear to the possessed child in full tribal gear to perform their own exorcism which fails spectacularly that really gives this one a decent enough feel here. As well, the finale is a lot of fun with the big battle between the natives and soldiers which forces the sanctuary in the church where the final exorcism attempts occur throughout the crypts and underground caverns that comes of with tons of action, thrilling suspense and great demon makeup that makes this a fantastic sequence. There's enough good here that this holds off the few small flaws within this. The main issue here is the absolutely dreary pacing here in the first half which is building up the storyline but places them so far apart it's hard to really get any suspense from the proceedings. It's all implications in here, as nothing is really explained as a matter-of-fact statement and is quite aggravating when things get out of control and nobody tells why. Its other big issue is the lame CGI throughout here which really don't look impressive at all as the comical nature of the sequences undercuts the tension drastically. Otherwise, there's not much to dislike here.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, Language and intense demonic themes.

The astonishing aspect about Exorcist: The Beginning is that Farther Merrin's back-story wasn't made into a film ten or twenty years ago. There are some discrepancies between the original Exorcist and this 2004 prequel, which created a feeling that this film wasn't truly a part of the franchise in comparison to The Heretic and Part III. The story wasn't that interesting, portraying Merrin as kind of a pathetic person, not giving the same respect and honor that Max von Sydow was given on screen. However, the majority of the characters in The Beginning were dull and weak due to poor writing and dialogue. Special effects, make-up and an unexpected twist ending that the original Exorcist perfected also failed miserably too. Exorcist: The Beginning can be sat through and watched but the film is pretty avoidable, not recommended.

In 1949, the British army has stumbled onto a buried Byzantium church in Kenya. The church's date is too early and shouldn't exist. Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) is a former priest who suffered a traumatic war experience. He's called in to help with the archaeological dig. Father Francis (James D'Arcy) is sent in by the Vatican, and Sarah (Izabella Scorupco) is also trying to escape the horrors of WWII.This is simply not a scary movie. That's the biggest and really the only measuring stick for a horror movie. At almost 2 hours, it's way too long. The pace is way too slow. The look of the production seems smaller than what the budget would indicate.The feel of the movie hearkens back to the 70s, and not in good way. Horror movies have moved on, but this one still believes that flies are scary. The CGI is not the best. The blood and guts are acceptable. The baby with maggots looks creepy. But other times, the movie holds back too much. The coyote attack should have been scary, but it's never given a chance. It's just not good enough for today's audience.

As always never keep my hopes high about sequels, prequels and... but this one surprised big time.When the movies started and Mr. Merrin was approached and sent there to investigate in a desert i thought, okay, this is going to be either very good or unwatchable, and it turned out to be a very good Exorcist.I really enjoyed The Beginning from the starting point till the very end of it it started good, it developed slowly but brilliantly it didn't leave any questions unanswered from Father Merrins earlier life.The original one left me wondering why the figurine that Father Merrin found meant to him, but it is very well explained in The Beginning.There were also some very scary moments and scenes in this movie that every horror fan expects to see in a horror movie. And apart from these goodies it has very surprising events that keep the movie very very watchable.But there were some discrepancies historical as well as factual that are preventing me from giving ten stars to The Beginning, but still a very good horror movies.