Review

Following a nasty incident with the Nazi SS in 1944 Holland Father Merrin is on a sabbatical from his normal occupation of Priest. This allows him to follow his second calling, that of archaeologist at a dig site in outback Kenya. Merrin has unearthed the top of a Christian church which dates back to the 5th Century A.D, however the Christian empires of the time had not extended their reach this far south in Africa. The church presents an enigma that Merrin wants to get to the bottom of, unfortunately he has been called back to Nairobi as there are problems with his papers. The military representative, Major Granville, gives Merrin an ultimatum, either return to the dig with the papal representative Father Francis or exit the Country. Merrin duly returns to the dig site with Father Francis, where we find the natives are not happy with the church being uncovered. They believe it is an evil place and the Christians are spreading that evil. Father Francis calls in the cavalry as tensions rise and Major Granville arrives with a detachment of British combat troops.

As the Church is uncovered Merrin finds evidence that it was buried on completion back in the 5th Century, as evidence by the lack of erosion on the lintel etc. He further discovers that inside the church rather than everything pointing upwards toward God, as church architecture is prone to do, everything is pointing down to the ground. Merrin further discovers an ancient pagan site under the church, where Francis finds evidence of past human sacrifice. The good Fathers may have unleashed an ancient evil as the signs and portents start to mount, something not going unnoticed by the local tribesmen. As tensions escalate Merrin finds himself facing an ancient adversary of the human race. Can Merrin re-find his faith and defeat the forces of evil, or will chaos reign?

Morgan Creek, proving they are just as venal as any other studio, finally decided to release Paul Schrader's version of a prequel to The Exorcist even after they made pork chops of themselves by declaring the movie to be ponderous and poorly shot. If the movie is ponderous with crap cinematography then why subsequently decide to release it? Naturally since general agreement was that Renny Harlan's version was disaster anticipation built up as to whether or not Schrader could pull off the elusive decent follow up to the first movie in the franchise. Most horror Reviewers rushed to get a glimpse of the by now legendary version that no one had seen and we got mixed messages, in one camp there were Reviewers raving about Dominion in another there were Reviewers decrying Schrader's vision. Not surprisingly we have never got an R4 release of the movie, this review is from the R1 version contained in The Exorcist Anthology, a box set ScaryMinds imported in anticipation of our 1,000 review event. So for Aussie readers, if you want to catch a glimpse of Dominion then you are going to have to import a copy or hit torrents, we don't promote the second option by the way as piracy is theft! Let's rip into the review and see how Schrader did.

Schrader kicks off his movie with a prologue piece dealing with Merrin's clash with an SS Officer in Holland as the Germany forces retreat across Europe. Merrin is put in an impossible position and the incidence destroys his faith in God and leads directly to his sabbatical from clerical duties. Schrader isn't about to descend into the special effects Harlan indulges his movie in, with Schrader's movie immediately indicating it is going to be a dramatic serious outing with little time for the wham bang scenes Harlan disrupts his narrative flow with.

What is immediately evident with Dominion is the narrative flow is a vast improvement over The Beginning, things simply flow from one scene to the next in a natural progression that tells a story you want to decipher. What is even more evident is script writers William Wisher Jr. and Caleb Carr understand the hero's progress, a requirement of fiction in my opinion. Dominion is all about Merrin, his lost of faith, and his journey toward regaining that faith. The icing on this particular cup cake is that the Writers don't bring anything out of left field, the narrative simply flows in a logical fashion that makes you believe in what you are watching. Well okay, after you suspend belief and get beyond the possessed person.

I've given this movie some leeway as it looks to be an unfinished cut, witness the CGI and lack of a develop score, once again this underlines Morgan Creek's complete disregard for the potential audience.

Schrader has his movie on a slow burn right from the first scene through to the final confrontation, that doesn't rely on Harlan's overuse of CGI. While the church is slowly uncovered, and divulging its secrets, we have any number of portents being unleashed, many of which Harlan purloined for his own movie, and a gradual increase in tension between the characters. For Schrader the evil works subtlety rather than in Harlan's over the top fashion, Schrader's devil is thus more malevolent and a greater adversary as it works from within the shadows for a large part of Dominion.

Schrader doesn't feel the need to add a half arsed twist to his movie, which Harlan thought was a great idea, you are pretty much getting what you expect. The possessed person however was something of a letdown for mine, we're talking a sort of unholy alliance of Jim Carrey's The Mask and some sort of outlandish David Bowie clip. If there is a weak point to Schrader's vision then it certainly revolves around the final confrontation of the forces of order and the forces of chaos. Our demonic entity simply isn't scary enough to make the confrontation anything like a decent pay off for the slow moving, and at times overly dramatic, hour and a half we have sat through.

There's certainly a divided camp in the horror community over the prequel debacle that Morgan Creek unleashed. Beginning appeals to the popcorn end of the genre fandom who simply have to have something happening every five minutes, preferable violence and death, while Dominion appeals to the other end of the market who are happy with more drama and strange things like sub plots. I know which version I preferred but to each their own, neither movie in all reality is that good, and for sure neither were really going to threaten to wreck havoc at the box office.

I was highly anticipating the release of Dominion but for whatever reason the movie never arrived on these ferial shores. Eventually I simply imported it and have to say I'm pleased I imported it in a box set with other movies, most of which were also not entirely successful as films. While Dominion is definitely a step up from Beginning neither movie is ever going to make it on anyone's top ten list. I'm pleased I eventually got to see Dominion, but to be honest the movie isn't going to lift The Exorcist franchise out of the mire that Morgan Creek have allowed it to descend into. The lesson to be learnt from this is of course not to disrespect the fans, end of day they are the ones who are going to make a franchise a success or not. Make your own mind up about whether or not you want to complete your Exorcist dance card, I've signed off on that now and am actually quite pleased to put it in my rear view mirror. Fingers crossed that's an end to the franchise before Morgan Creek besmirch it further.