Exorcist: The Beginning
Originally written for The Milpitas Post.
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Stellan Skarsgard, Izabella Scorupco, James D’Arcy
Rated: R for strong violence and gore, disturbing images and rituals, and for language including some sexual dialogue.
Parental Notes: This movie is rated R, but could be NC-17 for some pf the material shown. Numerous violent and disgusting images abound here, and this is not material for the faint of heart, let alone youngsters.
Let’s begin with a caveat: When I saw “The Exorcist” back in college, the chief emotion I registered was boredom. It’s widely regarded as one of the most terrifying movies of all time but I was neither shocked nor scared.
I felt pretty much the same way about “Exorcist: The Beginning.” Maybe it’s just that a lot of the films’ scariness comes from religiously-themed ideas and I’m not terribly religious. I didn’t expect to like “Exorcist: The Beginning,” but I hoped to be at least vaguely entertained, maybe to be made to jump a couple of times. Unfortunately, it’s so predictable that I didn’t so much as flinch one time in its entire 114 minutes.
Many years before the events of the original “Exorcist” film, Lankester Merrin (Stellan Skarsgard) is loitering in Egypt. Haunted by the brutality he witnessed in his parish in Holland during World War II, he no longer calls himself a priest and has lost all faith. A collector of rare antiquities approaches him, asking him to join a dig in East Africa and locate an artifact before the British find it. It seems that a 5th Century Byzantine church has been found and in a condition so pristine as to suggest that the church was buried immediately after it was built.
Merrin takes the job, but when he arrives in Kenya he finds the dig poised on the edge of chaos. The local Africans won’t go into the church for fear of evil spirits, and soon increasingly unnerving and satanic things are happening around the camp. Before long, innocent blood is being shed and Merrin has to face the conclusion that the evil is real and he can do something about it if he can just rediscover his faith in God.
As mentioned above, “Exorcist: The Beginning” is astonishingly predictable. Anyone with any experience in horror films will see every surprise coming. It also suffers from a lack of clarity and an assumption that its audience is heavily Christian. Decent vampire movies, for example, develop a mythos for their monsters, giving us some background and laying out the ground rules. “Exorcist: The Beginning” doesn’t bother, assuming that its audience knows who Satan is and exactly how he can be defeated. It’s true that most moviegoers do know who Satan is, the same way that most moviegoers know what vampires are, but that doesn’t mean that a filmmaker can be lazy and not explain things at least a little. The ground rules vary from story to story, so it’s only polite to lay them out.
Like many modern horror movies, this one also suffers from the confused belief that disgusting equals frightening. Personally, I don’t think that seeing a young child torn apart by hyenas onscreen is frightening. Disgusting, horrifying, and possibly indicative of moral failing on the part of the filmmakers, but not frightening. That’s only one instance. The film is heavy on disturbing and viscerally revolting shots, but light on genuine fear.
Fortunately, there are a couple of good things lurking in this film. The acting is generally skillful in spite of the fact that the actors are given very little to work with. Stellan Skarsgard, as anyone who’s seen the original “Insomnia” or “Ronin” knows, is a phenomenal actor, and his portrayal of the world-weary Merrin is spot-on. He gives Merrin real force of personality and makes it believable that he might turn out to be the powerful exorcist of the original film. Izabella Scorupco (“Reign of Fire”) gives a solid performance as Sarah, the camp doctor, although it’s never explained how a woman reached her level of medical expertise during that time period.
Furthermore, the film is beautifully shot. When the subject matter isn’t repulsive the cinematography is surprisingly lovely. Merrin’s initial descent into the church is a rhapsody of light and darkness, and one can only mourn the fact that the rest of the film was not up to the par of the visuals.
In the end, what will determine your reaction to “Exorcist: The Beginning” is probably a combination of your willingness to ignore the film’s clear signals about what’s about to happen and your ability to be frightened by disgusting images. Those who, like me, prefer more intellectual horror will be disappointed.