Sisyphusean Horror
We all must make our little deals with the devil, Merrin.
Julian Wadham as Major Granville, Exorcist: Prequel to the Exorcist
Director: Paul Schrader
Writer: William Wisher, Caleb Carr
Producer: James G. Robinson
Starring: Stellan Skarsgård, Gabriel Mann, Clara Bellar, Billy Crawford
Released: 20th May 2005
Trailer
The making of this film has already been covered to an extent in the previous essay. However, it is worth mentioning that this is the original prequel, and Schrader saw The Beginning with Blatty on opening weekend. Blatty was embarrassed by what he saw, and Schrader said, ‘This is really bad. If it stays this bad, I bet there’s a chance I can get mine resurrected.‘ And lo, so it came to be.
I wonder if Schrader regretted it at all though. He was brought back with a meagre budget to finish off his film, scrabbling to get some form of score together and, lacking his cinematographer, having to colour time the film himself. There was no ability to reshoot or pick up shots that may have helped the film, nor much chance to do a proper attempt at special effects. But still, Schrader was triumphantly brought back and able to deliver his vision of the film to a wildly muted response.
In fairness, everyone agrees that this was a better prequel attempt than The Beginning. It’s fascinating watching the two back to back and seeing just how much of a marked improvement this is in almost every respect, even just down to the fact that Stellan Skarsgård appears to give a shit this time around with his performance. But the more remarkable thing is how much it is better than The Beginning. The story isn’t very different, but it is the telling of the story that is so much better. Though not in the same style of The Exorcist, it feels at least related to it, unlike the attempts at shock and gore shown The Beginning. Don’t get me wrong – this is not a great film (third best by my ranking at time of writing, but being better than Exorcist II and The Beginning is damming with faint praise), but these two in tandem should be studied by film students in how to make a good film. In fact, I would recommend only watching The Beginning so long as you watched this one first, but only if you wanted to study the differences. It’s a truly fascinating experience. The special effects are worse, but given the circumstances that’s forgivable.
The film also does a lot of work in explaining the thinking behind certain beats in from The Beginning. Early on in both films, a worker faints from the heat and seizes on the floor. In The Beginning, this is treated as a moment, forgotten and mostly ignored. In Dominion, it is used as character point, to demonstrate Merrin’s coldness and single-mindedness unbefitting someone of the faith. Rather than being told about Merrin’s loss of faith, we see it. Similarly, a birth gone wrong that has little plot relevance in The Beginning is actually done far more effectively here, even if the sequence is using broadly the same shots. The flashbacks used previously this time form a prologue, and much better inform the character.
The original casting is generally better too. Izabella Scorupco played the thankless Sarah in The Beginning, and it is notable how often the director in his commentary or how the behind the scenes sections would comment on her beauty, as if there wasn’t much else to go on. Clara Bellar as Rachel gives a much more warm performance, less purely a presence for the eye and something that serves the film as a whole. Though playing differently named characters, they are essentially the same, sharing backstories and occasionally even the same lines with each other. But with the space this film has to breathe, the assumption of a motherly character with Sarah is actually demonstrated with Rachel.
Stellan Skarsgård’s Merrin is also much more true to the priest he will become in The Exorcist, as well as giving a performance that at times is removed from the people, but never quite removed from his empathetic, priestly origins. There is charm, a sense of humour, but still a sense of loss. Gone are the indications of an Indiana Jones-type character. Merrin barely wears a hat, and is more inclined to wear shorts that Harrison Ford wouldn’t be seen dead in. His arc from loss of faith to believer is just more effective in every sense.
But even on a plot level, everything is just so much more clearly defined, such as the conflicts between the religious dig and the locals. Exposition is more elegant, almost as if The Beginning had assumed you had seen this version already and just take things as read they would be similar. At the same time, it’s less gross. I don’t mind horror being gross. But there’s an extremely rapey, nasty character in The Beginning who is coded as evil in every scene he appears. He is played with aplomb by Alan Ford, but the evil in this film is far more subtle, the racism present but taken as part of what the British are capable of as a whole, rather than one disgusting individual. Major Granville’s descent in madness is much more logical, lacking as it does the threatening butterflies.
Yes, it’s not as good as The Exorcist. That’s an impossible bar to reach. But at least feels like a more respectful take on the material. The main criticism I can level at it is that, as a prequel, it struggles to say anything new that The Exorcist hasn’t already said. Merrin’s road to belief mirrors Karras’s in the original, but since we know Merrin’s destination it can’t innovate too much. The Star Wars Prequel trilogy took advantage of our knowledge of Darth Vader by making Anakin’s story a tragedy, playing on the audiences’s expectations. This can’t quite achieve the same thing, and as such the film is still unnecessary.
This does at least try to say some interesting things about the evils of colonialism, with the demon possession of Cheche (Billy Crawford) acting as metaphor for colonisation. As the demon colonises the body of Cheche, he stands to profit bodily in the same way the British Empire benefitted from the colonisation of the world. It’s not quite the exploration of faith Blatty was perennially interested in, but at least the film is trying to say something new.
Where the film falls down is when it tries to be scary. This may be due to the effects available to Schrader in delivering his vision under strained circumstances, but Cheche’s reaction to a cross being placed on his head is a ridiculous, with gravelly bass voice and glowing bright red eyes. The possession is bad, and is at odds with the subtlety the film is otherwise mostly going for. Even Blatty, for all his meditating on faith, ended his story with a violent clash between good and evil. Here, Merrin confronts a fully possessed Cheche who appears as some sort of floating white figure and has an artistic conversation with Merrin. Cheche is freaky looking in this form, don’t get me wrong, but an exorcism movie has to deliver on some of the things expected from what that means, even if you want to avoid the tropes of head spinning and green vomit. But the red eyes were a bad choice, even if trying to do an inverse of how Regan appeared when possessed is an interesting way to tackle the possession in this film. And the dream sequence is impenetrable, with the woman’s identity a mystery even to Schrader.
It’s not actively bad, like Exorcist II or Exorcist: The Beginning, but nor is it as good as Exorcist III. It just about gets by with what it has, but in no way could it be considered essential to The Exoricst experience. But considering the process by which the film even saw a form of release, that should be considered a miracle.
Notes
As a prequel, the references are present to help tie the film into the original film, though this time around they do serve the movie better.
- Captain Howdy is more visibly prominent resembling their design from the original film. A statue outside, I’m guessing showing the ArchAngel Michael holding Lucifer at spear point, has a face that also resembles Captain Howdy.
- The statue below the buried Church is designed to resemble the statue of Pazuzu found in Iraq in the original film.
- Cheche temporarily morphs his face to resemble Captain Howdy’s during the exorcism.
In general though, the film wisely avoids quoting the original too much in favour of creating its own voice.
If you were to stay until the end of the credits, you get to hear Cheche saying ‘I am Perfection,’ which seems like tempting fate somewhat.
It is notable that neither prequel actually jibes with what we know of Merrin’s exorcism, which is supposed to have taken place over the course of a couple months and nearly killed him, not the twenty minutes as shown in both of these films.
UP NEXT: There was a TV series? Yes, and it was quite good. The Exorcist, series 1.
Deeper Thoughts for the Horror Inclined 