Tagline: God is not here today, priest.
Exorcist: The Beginning movie storyline. Father Lankester Merrin thinks that he has glimpsed the face of Evil. In the years following World War II, Merrin (Stellen 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 his faith in 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.
Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 American horror film and the prequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. It is the fourth installment of The Exorcist series. It was adapted by William Wisher Jr., Caleb Carr, and Alexi Hawley and was directed by Renny Harlin. The film stars Stellan Skarsgård, Izabella Scorupco, James D’Arcy, Ben Cross, Ralph Brown, and Alan Ford.
Exorcist: The Beginning was retooled from Paul Schrader’s already completed Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, which Morgan Creek Productions executives feared would be unsuccessful. Reviews for Harlin’s film were overwhelmingly negative, and it was not a financial success. Schrader was subsequently allowed to release his version of Dominion, which was somewhat better reviewed than Harlin’s film but still earned mostly negative reviews.
The project’s estimated budget was $80 million ($30 million for Schrader’s version and $50 million for Harlin’s). Exorcist: The Beginning made $78 million at the worldwide box office.
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Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Stellen Skarsgård, Isabella Scorupco, Alessandra Martines, James D’Arcy, Ilario Bisi-Pedro, Ralph Brown, Alan Ford, Andrew French, Antonie Kamerling
Screenplay by: William Wisher
Production Design by: Stefano Maria Ortolani
Cinematography by: Vittorio Storaro
Film Editing by: Mark Goldblatt, Todd E. Miller
Costume Design by: Luke Reichle
Set Decoration by: Carlo Gervasi
Art Direction by: Eugenio Ulissi, Andy Nicholson
Music by: Trevor Rabin
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and gore, disturbing images and rituals, and for language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: August 20, 2004
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