Warner's late-game recruiting of a vulgarian like Renny Harlin to tack on some barf-bag moments is simply an insult to fans of the original.
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:126
Fresh:14
Rotten:112
Average Rating:3.5/10
Consensus: A mediocre, gory horror film, nowhere near the quality of the 1973 original.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] strong violence and gore, disturbing images and rituals, and for language including some sexual dialogue
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Aug 20, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $41,784,746
Synopsis: Father Lankester Merrin thinks that he has glimpsed the face of Evil. In the years following World War II, Merrin (STELLAN SKARSGÅRD) is relentlessly haunted by memories of the unspeakable... Father Lankester Merrin thinks that he has glimpsed the face of Evil. In the years following World War II, Merrin (STELLAN SKARSGÅRD) is relentlessly haunted by memories of the unspeakable brutality perpetrated against the innocent people of his parish. In the wake of all he has seen, both his faith in his fellow man and the Almighty have deserted him. He can no longer honestly call himself a man of God. Merrin has traveled far from his native Holland in a desperate attempt to escape the horrors that he witnessed there. While drifting through Cairo, he is approached by a collector of rare antiquities to join a British archeological excavation in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. They have unearthed a Christian Byzantine church in inexplicably pristine condition - as if it had been buried on the day it was completed. The collector wants Merrin, an Oxford-educated archeologist, to find an ancient relic hidden within the church before the British discover it. But beneath the church, something much older sleeps, waiting to be awoken. Madness descends upon the local villagers and the contingent of British soldiers sent to guard the excavation. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are repeated against another innocent village - atrocities he had prayed never to see again. The blood of innocents flows freely on the East African plain, and the horror has only just begun. In the place where Evil was born, Merrin will finally see its true face. Warner Bros. Pictures presents, a Morgan Creek production, Exorcist: The Beginning, directed by RENNY HARLIN and starring STELLAN SKARSGÅRD, JAMES D'ARCY and IZABELLA SCORUPCO. The film is produced by JAMES G. ROBINSON, executive produced by GUY McELWAINE and DAVID C. ROBINSON. Story by WILLIAM WISHER and CALEB CARR, screenplay by ALEXI HAWLEY. VITTORIO STORARO serves as cinematographer. The film is edited by MARK GOLDBLATT. Music by TREVOR RABIN. Exorcist: The Beginning will be released on August 20, 2004 by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures and Morgan Creek International. Exorcist: The Beginning has been rated "R" by the MPAA for "strong violence and gore, disturbing images and rituals, and for language including some sexual dialogue." [More]
Starring: Stellan Skarsgard, James D'Arcy, Izabella Scorupco, Ralph Brown
Starring: Stellan Skarsgard, James D'Arcy, Izabella Scorupco, Ralph Brown, Alan Ford
Director: Renny Harlin
Director: Renny Harlin
Screenwriter: Alexi Hawley
Producer: James G. Robinson
Composer: Trevor Rabin
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning is less a fully formed franchise product than a bunch of naughty bits strung together.
Blood, flies, maggots, ravenous hyenas, power failures, grave-digging and much ineffectual voodoo ensue.
Exceedingly lame production has few frights and not much story either.
Not unlike Exorcist II. It's a huge mess with passages of great beauty, juxtaposed with a few truly scary moments and a bunch of hokum and stupidity.
Yet another film where a loyal black man dies to save his "master," a Hollywood trend that's downright sickening.
Yet another film where a loyal black man dies to save his "master," a Hollywood trend that's downright sickening.
I would think that John Boorman, director of Exorcist II: The Heretic, is now officially off the hook. This isn't entertainment; it's assault and battery.
The Beginning tries to be three films in one, but winds up lacking coherence or any identity of its own. However, it isn't horrible when taken as a simple horror flick.
Its not that they didnt try to make a good film. They just didnt try to finish a good film.
...a soul-deadening, feature-length hodgepodge of clichéd horror reveals and unstylish gore-for-the-sake-of-gore, sewn together with loose threads of dull exposition.
It's ironic that the producers enlisted Harlin specifically to up the movie's fright quotient, because the finished product contains zero scares. Laughs, on the other hand, are abundant.
a $54 million sensationalistic hack job that is heavy on gore and cheap shocks and almost completely devoid of any sense of genuine human, social, or religious insight
A horror movie that starts off decently but quickly falls victim to cliché.
Schrader's vision still comes through, despite Harlin's excessive and posturing blood-letting.
As shocking as an Dokken album cover and, finally, as pious as The Passion of the Christ.
Harlin's film doesn't even work on the level of entertaining schlock like Peter Hyams' devil thriller End of Days.
...A movie that unfolds with all the urgency of a History Channel production.
Latest News for Exorcist: The Beginning
May 31, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Renny Harlin
Finnish director Renny Harlin has one of the most schizophrenic CVs in movie-dom. He's directed some of the most beloved action films of the last 20 years, including Die Hard 2,... More...
April 14, 2005:
Schrader's Exorcist Prequel Gets a Release Date
Remember all the hoopla that surrounded last year's "Exorcist: The Beginning"? How the execs didn't like Paul Schrader's cut so they hired Renny Harlin to do the whole... More...
December 09, 2004:
Schrader's Shelved Exorcist Sequel to See Limited Release in '05
Moviehole chimes in with an exclusive scoop update on Paul Schrader's version of "Exorcist: The Beginning": "Why isn't Paul Schrader's cut of "The Exorcist:... More...
June 11, 2004:
Gene Wilder has been dug up and is narrating the trailer for The Exorcist. ![]()
More...
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