UHM - Review - Exorcist: The Beginning

Ah yes, so the film finally came out. Originally some years back a rumor of a sequel surfaced online, but many didn't believe it. Of course it was eventually announced that a film was in the works, but instead of a sequel it'd be a prequel. This movie was actually finished a while back, but with Paul Schrader behind the director's chair. After he showed the film to the execs at Morgan Creek, they fired his ass after they felt his vision of the film that was reportedly more focused around "psychological drama", to be too tame and they wanted more blood and gore! They then hired new director Renny Harlin, who eventually shot more than 90% of new footage, and thus, we have the new Exorcist movie. Sadly, due to the re-shoots a lot of characters had to be dropped. There have been talks that both versions of the film will be released on DVD sometime in the future, which should please us curious folks who wonder how bad the Paul Schrader version really was. Considering this version wasn't all that good, who knows?

So the story follows Father Merrin, who we remember as the old priest (played by Max Von Sydow) that was brought in to exorcise Regan in the first movie. In this film he's much younger and this time in East Africa, where his skilled are needed as a priest. Sadly he had recently given up the priesthood due to the atrocities he witnessed in the Second World War Now with the encounters of a seemingly demonic child and unnatural occurrences; his faith is regained in the final battle with the demon, which he'll face again in the first movie. So what's bad about this flick? How about the fact that it isn't even remotely scary for one? Another would be its slow paced story and lack of any good demon action until towards the end. Sure there are some cool scenes here and there, but honestly nothing like I had hoped for. I also found the movie to be too closely similar to another by the name of The Omen at times.

In the end this is just another wasted effort to cash in on the success of the first movie. Hell, even during the trailer they'd show a lot of footage from the first. Maybe because they didn't have enough cool demonic footage in this movie, so they had to use the same old stuff to capture the audience's attention? Hmmm, perhaps. Either way, if you're a fan of the series then you'll probably dig it. I personally didn't really like the film, but I still found it to be better than the much-hyped Open Water, which were both released at the same time. Though, I have to admit that the opening scene of this movie was pretty damn sweet. If anything, you should sneak in and see the first 5 minutes, and watch the rest when it's released on DVD. Sadly when it came down to the actual possession the demon still fails in comparison to the first. Sure it is cool what can be done with computers now, but honestly I didn't find it as creepy as the original.

OVERALL

Fans of the series might enjoy it, but I sure didn't. With its lack of scares and slow-paced story, I felt myself waiting for something to happen, and when something would, I was left unscared and eager for it to end. Despite that, it's still a decent flick with some cool scenes here and there, but nothing in terms of being scary.

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Beshem :

Posted 246 days ago

This movie is exactly like Dominion. Both are slow paced and I jus couldn't get into it.

ash :

Posted 459 days ago

not as good as the original, but none of the sequels were in my opinion. i thought the only really tense part was when a young boy was torn apart by animals. other than that there was nothing to it.

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