Dominion: The Prequel to the Exorcist

By David DiCerto
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Here's something proponents of auteur theory -- that the primary creator of a film is the director -- will be chewing on for a while. Take roughly the same story, the same lead actor, the same setting, and let two directors armed with different visions and different scripts go off and make a movie.

This isn't some film-school experiment. It actually happened -- well, sort of. Several years back, the Morgan Creek production company decided to make a prequel to William Friedkin's 1973 horror classic, "The Exorcist."

Originally, Morgan Creek hired Paul Schrader to direct, but company executives felt Schrader's film wasn't scary enough (no spinning heads). So they axed Schrader, shelved the film, hired director Renny Harlin, recast some secondary roles and started from scratch. Some $80 million later, they released the refilmed movie as "Exorcist: The Beginning" in 2004. It bombed.

Schrader's subdued yet somewhat involved version is now being released -- as "Dominion: The Prequel to the Exorcist" (Warner Bros.).

The basic plot outline remains the same in both films. Set in 1949 British East Africa, lapsed priest Father Lankester Merrin (played in both by Stellan Skarsgard) wrestles with a crisis of faith wrought by wartime memories of Nazi atrocities in his native Holland, before reluctantly assuming the role of exorcist to help a possessed local boy. In both tellings, the problems start after an ancient evil is unleashed by the excavation of a Byzantine church buried in pristine condition.

Violence also erupts between the local tribesman and a regiment of British soldiers dispatched to guard the archeological dig, giving new meaning to "the devil made me do it."

In "Dominion," Clara Bellar plays village doctor and concentration camp survivor Rachel Lesno (a similar role made intentionally more sexy and played by Izabella Scorupco in "Beginning") and the idealistic young missionary, Father Francis, is played by Gabriel Mann as opposed to James D'Arcy.

Where the two films really part ways is how their respective directors handle the climactic exorcism sequences (during which Merrin rediscovers his lost faith). Harlin went for a traditional horror-film showdown, pitting Merrin against his unholy adversary in a mano-a-Mephistopheles free-for-all.

Schrader, raised a strict Dutch Calvinist, opts for a more introspective approach, having Merrin locked in a theological debate about guilt and forgiveness with Satan (androgynously played by Billy Crawford). And while Merrin is shown to be conflicted (though ultimately redeemed), the priesthood is portrayed with respect.

More a thinking-man's horror movie, "Dominion" is a marked improvement over Harlin's gorier "alternate" version, but that's not saying much.

"Dominion" thoughtfully explores the nature of evil, as well as themes of faith and doubt. In one scene Father Francis says, "Faith is not there to conquer evil, but to help (people) survive it."

However, the at times dry film is hampered by laggard pacing, shaky theology and narrative gaps -- not to mention some cheesy computer-generated effects.

The film contains some strong violence, including a graphic suicide, and several grisly murders and executions, demonic violence, a disturbing childbirth scene, a bloody medical procedure and a few racial slurs. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L --- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.

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DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

END

Posted On: Monday, May 23, 2005

Dominion: The Prequel to The Exorcist

Starring: Stellan Skarsgård, Gabriel Mann, Clara Bellar, Billy Crawford, Ralph Brown
Director(s): Paul Schrader
Writer(s): William Wisher, Caleb Carr
Company: Warner Bros. | Morgan Creek

by Michael Sheridan

Honestly, this review’s a little late in the game. I got the opportunity to see this Dominion: The Prequel to The Exorcist at a special screening last weekend, and it was released in a handful of theaters this past Friday.

One of the reasons I’m late in reviewing this film is because I wanted to see the version that was actually released, which was directed by Renny Harlin. I’d also hoped to see The Exorcist, which I haven’t seen in years. Sadly, I wasn’t able to do either of these things last week (partially because I was swept up in Star Wars mania for the latter half of the week).

Either way, I’m taking this opportunity to sit down and dedicate myself to discussing this unique film. It’s not unique in the sense that it is particularly good, because it really isn’t, but because it’s a footnote in film history as being a film that got trashed and quickly remade by a different director.

First, let’s talk about Dominion: The Prequel to The Exorcist (kind of an oddly literal title). The story begins near the end of World War II, where Father Lankester Merrin (the priest played by Max Von Sydow in the original) is forced to pick ten people to die by a Nazi officer.

Years later, he has taken a sabbatical from the priesthood to study archeology. He makes a great discovery in Africa: a mysteriously buried ancient Byzantine church. The beautiful church ultimately hides a deadly secret: a demon had been trapped there centuries earlier. It is soon unleashed, and possess a crippled boy.

The demon quickly begins to manipulate all those around it, including a detachment of British soldiers, forcing a clash between them and the local tribesmen that could destroy them all. Merrin must rediscover his faith in order to battle the demon, before its evil can be inflicted upon the world.

Let me just say right now that in the first few minutes of the film, it’s pretty obvious why this movie was never released. In fact, the director (Paul Schrader) was summarily fired and the film was completely reshot with Harlin at the helm. The cast was also completely changed, except for its star, the always intense Stellan Skarsgård.

It isn’t that Dominion is bad, because it isn’t. Not exactly, anyway. But the first thing I thought 20 minutes into the movie was that the film had a $40 million budget, but looked like it was made for less than $10 million. The cinematography was dry, the visuals were not particularly impressive, and the scope was fairly limited. Dominion just feels like a direct-to-video movie that would air on the Sci-Fi Channel, or perhaps as the late night movie on one of the local channels. It’s completely understandable why a studio would not release it, especially with all the hype connected to it as the prequel to an infamous horror film.

The story also suffers from some needlessly slow pacing. I have no problem with a film that takes its time, but Dominion takes too long to get to the point. But the ultimate failure of the film is the lack of development for its main character, Merrin. Although we see him in the opening scene make a very difficult moral decision, and understand that this causes a serious crisis of faith for him, very little more is explored beyond that. For example, why is he into archeology? What led him to this buried church? None of this is explained or explored.

A possible romantic angle is also touched upon, but ultimately never gets realized. Aside from one or two brief scenes, no sexual tension is even developed. Being on sabbatical, as well as being human, there is plenty of room for a potential romantic relationship to evolve between Merrin and the local doctor, played with a rather stiff, detached performance by Clara Bellar, but it never even comes close to fruition.

Dominion is interesting for brief moments, but I couldn’t really call it entertaining. It’s not even particularly scary, because the audience generally knows more than the characters, so there is no suspense.

I wish I could say that I’m rooting for the underdog here. I wanted to like Dominion, because after the failure of Harlin’s version, I wanted to believe that Schrader was simply unfairly treated and his film misunderstood. And while I think Schrader probably deserved better from the studio, I also can’t blame them for shelving his movie. ##

***

{ mood } complacent

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