DOMINION: PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST (2005)

Now this is pretty strange.  From what I can tell, when the first director turned in his Exorcist prequel to Morgan Creek they didn't care for it and had somebody else remake it.  That was the "The Beginning" version I reviewed yesterday.  That movie was kinda lame and probably didn't make any money, so then Morgan Creek decided to dust off the rejected version and release that also!  That's this version.  Weird huh?  What they should have done it use the budget to both of these films and just make another version of the first film with a teenage girl screaming all kinds of foul filth flarn filth flarn filth with green vomit shooting out of every orifice since that's what audiences have been waiting on in an Exorcist sequel for forty friggin years now and still hasn't received.

Naturally, at the beginning of the film I was more than a little bit confused as to why this film seemed so much like the last film, but once I figured out it was just another version of the same story I actually liked this version better even despite the fact the special effects were quite terrible.  Once again, Stellan Skarsgard plays Father Merrin who after a traumatizing event during WWII leaves the priesthood and focuses on being an archeologist.  Blah, blah, blah there's a buried church in Africa and he has a showdown with Pazuzu, except that the demon is never called Pazuzu in this version.  He's just a nameless demon.  Anyway, much like the last film there isn't much demon action and what there is is pretty tame.

Honestly, even though I liked this film better than The Beginning I still can't see any reason to run out and watch it if you've already seen The Beginning.  Yeah, it looks better, the story makes more sense and the acting is even better but still it doesn't add enough to the overall Father Merrin story to justify wasting two hours on it.  For hardcore Exorcist fans only.  If you haven't seen either version though, this one is the one to watch.


Original trilogy
Part 1 - The Exorcist (1973)
Part 2 - Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
Part 3 - Exorcist III (1990)

Prequel films
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Sequel trilogy
Sequel 1 - The Exorcist: Believer (2023)