Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Release date: 2004-08-20
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Renny Harlin
Production Co: Morgan Creek Entertainment, Dominion Productions, Post Amazers
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: 5.1/10
Length: 1h 54min

Storyline

Archeologist Lankester Merrin is asked to go to East Africa to excavate a church that has been found completely buried in sand. Merrin is also an ordained Roman Catholic priest who, still haunted by what he was forced to do during World War II in his native Holland, eschews any religion or belief. He's fascinated by what he finds and that it dates hundred of years before Christianity was introduced to the area. Accompanied by a young priest, Father Francis, to keep an eye on the religious elements of what they find, Merrin makes his way to the camp. There he meets a young doctor, Sarah and soon realizes there is an air of gloom that envelops the entire site. Workmen go mad and a young boy is mauled by a pack of hyenas while completely ignoring his younger brother Joseph. Inside the church itself they find signs of desecration. Merrin is forced to re-examine his lack of faith and come face to face with the devil.

Plot Keywords

tent, exhumation, dream sequence, crow, clock, child murder, child in peril, cemetery, catholic church, cafe, butterfly, archeological dig, animal attack, 1940s, throat slitting, flashback, fly, holocaust survivor, subterranean, shower

Short Review

The serious Catholic themes that made the original film genuinely disturbing have been flattened out into a cartoonish backstory pitting Merrin against Nazi storm troopers.