Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Gabriel Mann, Clara Bellar, Billy Crawford
Have I Seen it Before: Never.
Did I Like It: Here’s a confession: For my money, Lankester Merrin (Skarsgård) is one of the least interesting characters in the original The Exorcist (1973), and for that matter, William Peter Blatty’s novel, as well. He wanders throughout the film’s opening scenes encountering vague portents of what is to come (or to the reading of a post-Spielbergian moving going public, accidentally unleashed Pazuzu). He then disappears for the nearly the entirety of the film, only to show up to be just about the only thing that the demon is apparently afraid of.
Hence, hinging a whole movie on the idea thrown around in the film that Merrin once engaged in a protracted exorcism, apparently of Pazuzu, is a bit of strain. Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) tried—seems like the wrong word, let’s go with “flailed”—to truck in the same area.
The history of this version is notably fraught. Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) resulted after this version was deemed as too dull and unexciting by the studio, which in turn was too stupid, needlessly bloody, and fundamentally unwatchable, necessitating the release of this film which by all rights would have been otherwise lost…
And he’s another confession (priests will have that effect on people): I’m not sure I disagree with Warner Bros.’s assessment* that this version is a little turgid. It reckons with some serious themes like morality and faith, but it’s not reaching for anything that the original film didn’t very nearly perfect. Letting Renny Harlin have at the film likely wasn’t the right answer to remedy the film’s problems**.
*For me to ever even dream of admitting that Warner Bros. made the correct decision where a controversial sequel is truly a strange turn of events.
**I took a quick look at the plot summary for The Beginning and determined that it did sound pretty dumb. Just not The Heretic level of dumb.