Years before Father Lancaster Merrin helped save Regan MacNeil’s soul, he first encounters the demon Pazuzu in East Africa. Merrin’s initial battle with Pazuzu leads to the rediscovery of his faith.
Following the lackluster reception to Harlin’s version (well I enjoyed it), Schrader’s version was finally released as “Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist”.
If you remember Paul Schrader was originally hired as director of Exorcist: The Beginning, but Morgan Creek ultimately rejected his psychological thriller approach. The decision was made to extensively rewrite and re-shoot the script, re-cast and give the director’s chair to Renny Harlin. Schrader’s version was set to be released as a bonus feature on the DVD release of Harlin’s version. However, in the wake of “Exorcist: The Beginning” box office failure, Morgan Creek abandoned this idea, allowing Schrader to present his version at several film festivals, as well as giving it a small scale theatrical release in several countries under a new title (Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist). Schrader’s version also received support from William Peter Blatty, who said to The Houston Chronicle that Schrader’s version is “a handsome, classy, elegant piece of work.”
As stated many times the takes more of a psychological thriller approach, it doesn’t mean that it lacks scares although there’s probably only 2 or 3 scare scenes in the film but you feel they’re just the right amount for the nature of this film, it’s definitely a more serious version of events than the film that replaced it but you just get the feeling they tried too hard to make it seem more serious and you just sense that your being forced into the seriousness of it all instead of letting it draw you slowly into the story.
Once again the special effects are absoloute rubbish, yes I’m talking about the CGI again. They are used sparsely as they were in it’s predecessor but they can ruin the viewing experience , it’s such a shame that “The Exorcist” is highly regarded in it’s amazing effects and as you go down the line to this film the effects are just so weak. You’d think for a film that had the high budget of $30Million they could’ve done better.
Upon watching the film you can understand why cast changes were made, it does put a bit of a damper on things from the get go as the performances of some are just too stiff and some even seem a little overwhelmed. The saving grace is Stellan Skarsgård’s performance, like I said in the previous review his talent is amazing. You also see why some script changes were made as a few scenes seem like filler to bump up the timing and if I’m completely honest the climatic scene at the end is a bit of a whimper compared to we’ve seen throughout the franchise, such a shame.
“Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist” didn’t exactly grip me but it it is a good addition to the series, in my opinion if they had found a middle ground between this and “Exorcist: The Beginning” then you’d have got the perfect film to end the series. It’s definitely worth a watch but it can become quite stale and boring if you watch it soon after watching “Exorcist: The Beginning” so I suggest you leave it a while.
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
John Frankenheimer voluntarily stepped down from directing the Exorcist prequel (then referred to as “Exorcist: Dominion”) one month before his death in July 2002.
Michael Kamen had originally been selected to compose the score. Schrader replaced him with Christopher Young shortly before the “exec screening” that had him replaced as director. For the final theatrical release, Angelo Badalamenti and Trevor Rabin are the credited composers.
On the day of audition, Gabriel Mann went to meet director Paul Schrader dressed as a priest and carrying a DVD copy of The Exorcist. He immediately got the role.
Paul Schrader’s son Sam Schrader suggested Dog Fashion Disco do the score for the ending. The song that they wrote, “March of Satan”, is based in part on Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s “A Hymn to the Morning Star.”
Father Francis’ line “Satan is real!” is a reference to The Louvin Brothers’ album and song of the same name.
Paul Schrader was given no money for publicity or music production after Morgan Creek decided to release his version. He was also only given $35,000 for visual effects and post-production (which explains the shoddy computer graphics and inconsistent audio quality). Additionally, Morgan Creek chose the release date of May 20th, the weekend Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith came out.
Billy Crawford was called for an audition when a casting staff saw the cover of his album “Ride” where he was portrayed in demonic fashion, wearing a hood with eyes resembling the demon.
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