GL84 Asked to investigate a strange Kenyan church, a former priest finds the strange incidents happening to the villagers around the site are connected to the true reason for the church's placement at the site as a great evil sweeps through camp and forces him to rely on his faith to save them.Of the two versions of the film, this one is the slightly better effort. What really helps this one is the more overt and explicit showings that demonstrate something here, which this one wisely manages throughout. There's plenty of chilling work around the village of the natives and their superstitions tied into the different stories about the others running away terrified of the events around them for getting the first half going, but it's the action scenes here that start this off even better. From the utterly savage hyena attack in the village, the continuous efforts to protect the possessed son from the demonic targets against him and the crazed ambushes by the drunken guide there's plenty of rather fun action within here that all give this one the idea that something's brewing. Even better here is the intriguing suspense scenes that not only play up the action but also get the biggest points possible for the film's ploy about the building evil around the site. There's the creepy walk-through of the church where they discover the desecrated religious artifacts still preserved in immaculate condition, a later scene of him exploring the underground caves where the sacrifices thousands of years earlier were held which is quite tense for the way this one goes about showing the underground tunnels littered with strange statues and the rather chilling scene where the villagers appear to the possessed child in full tribal gear to perform their own exorcism which fails spectacularly that really gives this one a decent enough feel here. As well, the finale is a lot of fun with the big battle between the natives and soldiers which forces the sanctuary in the church where the final exorcism attempts occur throughout the crypts and underground caverns that comes of with tons of action, thrilling suspense and great demon makeup that makes this a fantastic sequence. There's enough good here that this holds off the few small flaws within this. The main issue here is the absolutely dreary pacing here in the first half which is building up the storyline but places them so far apart it's hard to really get any suspense from the proceedings. It's all implications in here, as nothing is really explained as a matter-of-fact statement and is quite aggravating when things get out of control and nobody tells why. Its other big issue is the lame CGI throughout here which really don't look impressive at all as the comical nature of the sequences undercuts the tension drastically. Otherwise, there's not much to dislike here.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, Language and intense demonic themes.

Filipe Neto This prequel to "The Exorcist" seeks to follow the first confrontation between a young Father Merrin and Pazuzu, countering the opening scenes of the first film. The environment of the film is roughly in British Kenya, where a Byzantine chapel has just been discovered, in perfect condition because it was deliberately buried soon after construction. Here begins the problems of this film, with the script gluing Byzantine art to a chapel whose interior has nothing to do with it, besides being outside the geographical area where the Byzantines were. Okay, the movie is fiction, but does it need to invent something so unrealistic? Father Merrin is the most dense and complete character. Interpreted by Stellan Skarsgård in a relatively satisfactory manner, he is a priest in doubt due to the remorse and traumas of World War II. All this has been well used and intelligently developed. Another thing I liked was the romantic subplot between the priest and Sarah, the attractive nurse of the field, played by Izabella Scorupco. Possessions are slow to occur although demonic signs are evident, and the ending may even be surprising, but only partially. The film attempts to compensate for obvious screenplay flaws with special effects, but most attempts are so rudimentary that it does not have the desired impact. Renny Harlin may not be the worst director ever but he is definitely not one of the best. Throughout the film, there are very obvious exaggerations, likely fruit of a bad script and an indolent director. One of them is the characterization of Scorupco at the end of the film, in a clear and unnecessary allusion to "The Exorcist". This film was an effort, but an effort without glory or merit for any of those involved.

scottmannen1 For those who don't know- some call it the movies curse- this movie was actually made twice! First came Exorcist the Beginning a movie that was directed in the same mood as the Exorcist orgininal. When the movie was finished it was submitted to the studio for approval; however the studio did not like the movie! Instead they made the poor decision to have the movie re-filmed by another director.The movie was re-filmed and the result called Dominion was a complete and utter flop at the box office. Because of the flop, the studio decided to allow the first director to release The Beginning.On to the Movie- This movie was excellent in my opinion. Its not a fantastic Oscar worthy movie; however, where it stands strong is the fact that it incorporates much of the same lore, history and suspense that we saw in Exorcist. The original director should be praised for his efforts, and the second version director should be ashamed.You will enjoy this movie if you enjoy thought proking, suspenseful horror that utilizes much lore. Enjoy!

drystyx This exorcism story lacks any originality, particularly in the stereotypical treatment of characters. It goes beyond predictable.The hero is the usual cynic we get in 99.9999% of action films, and this one is over the top. The director tries to get us to buy into this character with the usual trite devices, and we just don't care.This would've been overused even 40 years ago.We get the usual and predictable gore and violence, and are not impressed.We never can really buy into the plot, the characters, or the logistics of what happens. We know the good priest will fail, and the cynic will succeed, because that is Hollywood. But the writing never even comes close to giving any credibility to this. It probably could have been done, but it wasn't done. Poor writing, and of course, since the director has the last say, poor directing.