Movie Review

Dominion: A Prequel to the Exorcist

The original Exorcist is one of the greatest films ever made, so I was intrigued and excited to see a prequel to such frightening fare - directed by Paul Schrader (Auto Focus), no less. I had heard the infamous story of how the studio shelved this version and re-shot it with director Renny Harlin, which hit theaters first. The honchos were apparently scared of the intellectual nature of Schrader's version, and felt that it wouldn't play to any kind of cash-throwing audience. It pains me to say this, but the studio was exactly right.

Father Lancaster Merrin (Max von Sydow in the original film, Stellan Skarsgard in this one) comes face to face with traumatic events during the Holocaust. He, a Dutch priest, is asked by a Nazi commander to pick a few people to be executed so that the rest of the folks in the village can live. The stress of this leads him away from the priesthood and into the field of archaeology. Then in "British East Africa" three years later, he uncovers an ancient and mysterious temple buried in the sand. Needless to say, this temple is the trap house of the Devil and causes all kinds of strangeness and death in the surrounding area.

This movie is intellectual in the sense that it is dry, bland, and doesn't really care about entertaining anyone. It contains a few undercooked ideas about the nature of evil, which are presented in extremely low-key conversations that seem designed to put the audience to sleep. I can understand why Schrader would want to turn it into a dialogue movie, but the execution is atrocious. But the real kicker is its complete failure to create any sense of terror or dread. There are more laughs than scares, and believe me, the humor is unintentional. The movie also has some of the worst special effects in recent years; there is a level of cheese that Velveeta would envy.

Gabriel Mann as a young priest gives a performance that is painful to watch: He just looks constipated. Stellan Skarsgard looks like he does in every other movie - a blank expression that's supposed to denote seriousness and thoughtfulness; he's supposed to carry the film and instead just stands around like a lump. And the demon Pazuzu looks more like a leukemia patient. His scenes are especially anticlimactic: We want a grotesque horror-show and all we get is a bald guy bearing his teeth and moving around a dusty room while a vaguely Scandinavian dude loudly quotes scripture and waves a crucifix. It has no impact whatsoever, and it just rips off the far-superior original film. This movie is beyond disappointing; it is a complete joke.

Scott's Grade: C-

A	15.1%
B	59.2%
C	24.5%
D	1.2%
F	0.0%