Review

Back in 1949 Father Merrin has lost his faith and is hanging out in grunge African bars shooting back the hard stuff. Hitler's war proved too much of a burden on Lancaster Merrin and he's simply going through the motions. He's approached by the mysterious Semelier who wants Merrin to investigate an archaeological dig in Kenya. Apparently the British have discovered a 5th Century Christian Church in a remote area, the Church shouldn't be there! Semelier presents Merrin with a replica of an object he wants Merrin to obtain from within the church. The replica is strikingly similar to the icon of Pazuzu seen at the start of The Exorcist.

Merrin duly arrives at the Duarte dig and finds himself in the midst of rising tensions between the white archaeologists and the local Turkana tribesman. He meets with Sarah, a doctor who is working at the local clinic, and Father Francis who has been sent by the Vatican to represent their interests, Father Francis knows a lot more than he lets on. With weird things starting to happen the situation is deteriorating rapidly. The Turkana believe the church site to be evil and blame the white man for stirring things up, Father Francis calls for aid and a detachment of British troops arrive under the command of Major Granville. A full rebellion is brewing and even worse an ancient evil has been unleashed unwittingly by Merrin, my interpretation, can the ex-Priest regain his faith in time to avert history repeating and another massacre taking place on an unholy site?

Back in 2002, give or take a couple of years, a real strange meeting must have taken place in the Morgan Creek corporate offices. Setting the scene, a group of Execs had just received the daily prints of Paul Schrader's prequel to The Exorcist. The Execs were concerned there wasn't enough gore and violence in the movie for the average horror fan and wanted changes; Schrader disagreed and left them to pick up the pieces. What follow was one of the more bizarre decisions in horror movie history, no doubt first pick Michael Bay wasn't available so the Execs in their infinite wisdom decided Renny Harlin should make the revised prequel. Use the Renny Harlin who claimed people wouldn't notice the sharks were CGI in Deep Blue Sea! Harlin duly made another version of the sequel and in the process irreplaceably damaged The Exorcist franchise, and that's saying something considering the franchise also has Exorcist II: The Heretic in its line up!

Harlan kicks off his movie with a prologue that at least makes sense in a "history repeating" fashion later in the movie. A Priest is walking through a battlefield, thousands of CGI corpses are cluttering up the place but of more importance is the large number of inverted crosses the Priest stumbles upon, a clear sign of demonic witchcraft that the Paranormal Activity franchise hasn't picked upon yet. While the scene is definitely impactful it does raise the spectre of CGI, which is just as well as Harlan goes buck naked wild with the CGI during the rest of the movie. And yes Harlan the green screen was noticeable; in fact it was as noticeable as the CGI sharks in Deep Blue Sea.

Accompanying the CGI, and I'm sure Harlan was disappointed he couldn't insert sharks somehow, is a plot that meanders along with a number of weird developments that must have made sense to Harlan but for the rest of us are plain and simply on the brain dead side of the equation. A plague apparently wiped out the local inhabitants, which explains why the Turkana tribesmen are happily living in an "evil place". The mass graves are an idea so dumb I'm surprised Rob Zombie hasn't purloined the concept already! If everyone is dead who dug the graves, you do get an answer but holy hell that is one stupid development. Similarly we get the attack of the CGI hyenas, Harlan having to make do with them as he couldn't shoe horn in sharks, that comes out of the blue, isn't repeated, and which makes no plausible sense in the context of what we are watching. There are plenty of other examples, but you get the idea, scenes are shot to add some gore to proceedings but those scenes do nothing to advance what narrative the movie possesses, no pun intended.

Renny Harlin has put the final nail in the coffin of the franchise, till Morgan Creek dust it off again, perhaps in space.

Naturally Morgan Creek demanded that there be an actual exorcism in the movie, cause that's what the fans want as they can't get them any satisfaction or sharks, and Harlan delivers the cut price Kmart example. I was actually bored during this part of the movie as we ventured into Spiderman territory with, you guessed it, more CGI shenanigans. Merrin is forced to face his inner demons, find God lurking in the ashes, and take down the demonic entity that has been plaguing the local valley for a honking long time. Don't expect The Exorcist type intensity here, Harlan knows what the fans want, which explains why this movie bombed at the box office.

There are some cool references to the other movies in the franchise, a medallion, the Pazuzu head icon, etc, but I did mention I was bored right? So I'm calling that the cherry on top, if bored then seek out references to other entries in the franchise to get you through the night as there's kind of a lack of CGI sharks to keep you amused.

On the bright side there are some decent performances going down. Stellan Skarsgård (Merrin) nails it as the ex-Priest who has lost God but rediscovers his faith in the face of ultimate evil. Actually come to think of it that's a cliché that was covered in the original movie. And if I had to be brutally honest Skarsgård's performance is about the only notable one here. Izabella Scorupco (Sarah) doesn't embarrass herself I guess, which given the script is probably a win for her career.

While I'm probably painting this movie as lame beyond all lameness there is a fan factor to it. Don't expect anything dramatic, or making much sense, and you are probably going to get out of the movie without receiving too many metaphoric bruises. Sure Harlan is heavy handed, when has he not been, but at least we were spared Michael Bay adding explosions to proceedings. After the war in heaven Satan fell to earth right where the church is being dug up, which adds some consistency at least to the concept of there only ever being one entity, if for the moment we completely forget about Christian mythology and, oh I don't know, the serious lack of CGI sharks. So at least Harlan is consistent with the franchise mythology. Watch this movie at your own peril, I wouldn't exactly be sweating on seeing it if I was you. Like a true fan I rushed out and saw this one as soon as it was released, Morgan Creek must have really respected the fans to reshoot the movie right, only to be severely disappointed in the finished product. Adding fuel to the fire Morgan Creek would also release Paul Schrader's version as they sort to leverage as much return as they could from investment. Far from respecting the fans Morgan Creek simply don't understand fan requirements or the fact that we know where their studio offices are, I'm sending some CGI sharks in their direction!