The Unseen Movie Review

Exorcist: The Beginning

In 1973, director William Friedkin scared the living hell out of audiences around the world with his adaptation of the William Peter Blatty novel The Exorcist. Revolving around a young girl who is possessed by a foul-mouthed demon, it has since become one of the most spoofed and best loved films of all time.

Since then there have been two sequels to the expertly-crafted original, both of them awful; this latest is actually a prequel, but it has kept up this tradition admirably.

When this project was first announced, it seemed to have some promise. The studio originally hired the superb John Frankenheimer, who had previously helmed a sequel to Friedkin’s French Connection as well as classics like The Manchurian Candidate and the more recent Ronin. Friedkin shortly had to step aside due to ill health (and in fact died a month later). Instead, they brought in talented writer-director Paul Schrader (best known for his superb screenplays for the Martin Scorsese classics Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ), who went off and shot a psychologically-charged drama explaining the origins of the vicious demon of the first three films. He delivered a completed film; the studio binned it, hired a new director, and effectively started all over again. Schrader’s take was, apparently, not violent or gory enough for their liking. This is when the project started to go downhill.

The appeal of the original Exorcist was not in its famous projectile vomiting scene, or the infamous inappropriate behaviour with a crucifix – it was in the all-pervading sense of foreboding and dread. The success of the original was, in other words, psychological, not thanks to fancy effects or exciting action sequences.

The director brought in to replace Schrader is hardly one renowned for his subtlety. Renny Harlin got his big break with the slasher horror Nightmare on Elm Street 4, made his name with the competent sequel Die Hard 2, and then churned out a series of bog-standard to terrible actioners along the lines of Cliffhanger, Cutthroat Island and Deep Blue Sea. Subtlety and suspense are not exactly his forte; Harlin goes for explosions and machine guns over thought and drama every time.

Set in 1949, here Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard takes on the role of the Merrin, played by Swedish actor Max von Sydow in the original, and one can’t help thinking that an actor of Skarsgard’s experience should have known better. Merrin goes to investigate an unusual church, found buried in Africa, with the aid of a stereotypical band, including the obligatory young priest. From then on out the body count rises and relentlessly rises via a succession of boringly unoriginal shock tactics. It has all the subtlety of someone sneaking up behind you and shouting “boo!”

posted by Nosemonkey @ 12:00 AM