Exorcist - The Beginning (Widescreen Edition)
by Renny Harlin
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Izabella Scorupco, James D'arcy, Stellan SkarsgardDirector: Renny Harlin
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: James G. Robinson
Producer: Guy Mcelwaine
Producer: David C. Robinson
Writer: Alexi Hawley
Writer: William Wisher
Writer: Caleb Carr
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 114 minutes
Published: 2005-03-01
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 24674
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Prequel. Exorcist: The Beginning traces the story of Father Merrin back to his first encounter with the Devil during his missionary work in Africa.Running Time: 114 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R Age: 085392467426 UPC: 085392467426 Manufacturer No: 24674
Movie Reviews of Exorcist - The Beginning (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
Summary: 5 Stars
In 2004, a fourth installment to THE EXORCIST was released to audiences around the world, for them to feel more terror. This installment is brilliantly and appropriately titled, EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING. This sequel is a prequel showing you Father Lankester Merrin's first encounter with the deadly Evil Spirit before it went on to possess Regan McNeil.
In the 1940s, LANKESTER MERRIN (played by the brilliant Stellan Skarsgård) has recently lost his faith in God, and has decided to withdrawl his priesthood. He continues his life as an Archeologist Investigator. He is assigned a new case: to investigate the strange goingson in the city of Kenya, Africa. He travels to Kenya with FATHER FRANCIS (played by James D'Arcy) by his side. They arrive in Kenya, where they meet the beautiful SARAH (played by the beautiful Izabella Scorupco), a nurse working at the local hospital. After meeting Sarah, Lankester meets young JAMES (played by James Bellamy), and his younger brother, JOSEPH (played by Remy Sweeney). Lankester, Father Francis, and Sarah discover that a beautiful church was built in Kenya only to be buried after it was completed. The local Africans continue to dig it up, and with the help of Lankester, investigate why this church was buried when its construction was completed.
That late afternoon, James and Joseph are playing around in a nearby cave, where hyenas stumble upon James and Joseph, and viciously kill James, where they leave Joseph in shock. Joseph's father takes him to the hospital where Sarah cares for him. Over the course of the next few days, Lankester and Sarah begin seeing things that are more evil than you could ever imagine. They enter the church, which has finally been uncovered, and begin searching for the answers they are in need of. They happen to find the church's huge statued crucifix hung upside down, in the symbol of Satanism. What the Hell is going?
One night, while taking a shower, Sarah happens to here a noise coming from somewhere inside her house. She continues to search for this mysterious noise, until she finds herself standing in a puddle of blood...coming from her private area. This she has seen after she saw Joseph running by. She goes to check on Joseph, but Joseph is sound asleep. Lankester and Sarah come to the conclusion that Joseph must be suffereing from demonic possession. Later that night is where we find how Lankester lost his faith in God. The German Nazi's had stumbled upon the village where Lankester worked as a priest, captured all the civilians and had Lankester decide which one of the civilians dies.
The next night, all hell breaks loose, where the British soldiers and the Kenya Africans begin fighting each other, where the soldiers turn on each other, as the Africans do the same, as this was in B.C. Lankester runs to the hospital to grab Sarah and Joseph and take them to saftey from the war and sandstorm, but neither one of them are to be found. Lankester runs to the church and finds Father Francis' dead body. At this moment, Lankester winds up regaining his faith in God, dabs his finger in the spilt Holy water, and uses it to make a sign of the cross on his forehead, which is when he finds Joseph. Joseph is fine, but his is scared to death, for there is someone else that is under demonic possession...Sarah. She, Lankester, and Joseph battle it out, until Lankester succeeds in the exorcism. Sarah is free from the evil spirit, but it left for dead, for once it left her body, Sarah, unfortunately had died. Lankester arrives back from his assignment, and it appears to be that Lankester has gone back to being a priest. Lankester seems to think that this is all over, but he has know idea of what lies ahead, come 1973.
This is a great film to close the franchise. I was really amazed at how well this film was put together. Yeah, it was not as scary as THE EXORCIST, but this one still gave me the creeps. I just want to point out that, DOMINION-PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST is not an official sequel to the whole franchise. What happened was that this film had gone through three directors. The first one had mysteriously died, where they brought in Paul Schrader as the second director. He directed the entire film, which turned out to be DOMINION-PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST, and then held a screening for it in April of 2003. But it was not received well at all, for Paul had done everything opposite of what was originally wanted by the producers. He was fired and the film was shelved. Renny Harlin (who directed A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER) came in as the third director. He changed 85%-90% of Paul Schrader's script and cast. The only actor he kept on board was Stellan Skarsgård. He shot the film, and it was released in the Summer of 2004. DOMINION-PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST was released on DVD in 2005, so that fans could compare and contrast between EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING and DOMINION-PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST.
Summary of Exorcist - The Beginning (Widescreen Edition)
THIS TRACES THE STORY OF FATHER MERRIN BACK TO HIS FIRSTENCOUNTER WITH THE DEVIL DURING HIS MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA."This movie is cursed!" exclaimed movie-magazine headlines regarding Exorcist: The Beginning, but those dire warnings turned out to be exaggerated. Considering a tumultuous production history that actually did seem cursed, Renny Harlin's much-maligned prequel to The Exorcist is a surprisingly competent, serious-minded shocker filled with the same anxious foreboding that made the 1973 original so phenomenally effective. The story lacks focus and feels cobbled together (perhaps the result of its tortured development, which included the untimely death of original director John Frankenheimer), but Stellan Skarsgård is well-cast as Father (now Mr.) Merrin, a lapsed Catholic priest summoned to East Africa in 1949 to retrieve a demonic idol. He discovers a buried church, a vast underground cavern, demonic possession, and a legacy of carnage that preys upon guilt-ridden memories from his parish in Nazi-occupied Holland. Harlin delivers the gross-out moments that Warner Brothers demanded, but otherwise shows remarkable restraint while cinematographer Vittorio Storaro delivers doom-laden visual atmosphere. It's not the classic many were hoping for--not even close--but it's still a win-win scenario for horror fans, since it's rumored the unreleased and "abandoned" version directed by Paul Schrader will be paired with this film for its DVD release. Comparisons will no doubt prove interesting. --Jeff Shannon
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