"What an excellent day for an exorcism"

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I heard of deleted scenes, but a deleted movie?

That's what we're finally going to be able to see on May 20th when Dominion: A Prequel to The Exorcist is finally given a limited release in theaters. You may remember a terrible film from last year called Exorcist: The Beginning. It was the story of a young Father Merrin (who would later be the exorcist in The Exorcist, played by Max von Sydow) and his first encounter with the Devil. Exorcist: The Beginning had the superb Stellan Skarsgaard playing Merrin and was directed by the loathsome Renny Harlin. It had a budget of $50 million and earned just shy of that at the box office (though it did well internationally and on DVD.) What people may not know is that it was basically a remake of itself.

Right after The Sixth Sense hit it big in 1999, horror movies were all the rage. And it wasn't just shlockmeisters getting in on the action, serious filmmakers like Paul Schrader were pulled in. Schrader is perhaps best known for writing Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver but he is also an accomplished director in his own right. He tends to make films about bad people doing bad things and trying to find redemption. (I've never been the biggest fan, but critics like him, particularly Affliction starring Nick Nolte.) But the idea of someone like him doing a horror film is very interesting. He wrote a film about a young Father Merrin losing his faith after witnessing the atrocities of World War II and finding them again when he is faces the Devil in Egypt in 1947. The movie was given a $30 million budget, shot, edited, scored, CG-ed, and summarily dumped.

The studio honchos decided there weren't enough scares, it was too serious, etc. and fired Schrader. This in and of itself is not completely unusual. But instead of hiring someone to reshoot some new scenes to punch it up, they hired Renny Harlin, put up $50 million more and reshot the entire movie. With a few exceptions, the same cast went back to the same sets and made a "scarier" version of the same movie. (I'm not sure if they were paid for one movie or two.) It was released last year to both audience and critical indifference and is now easily obtainable for purchase in the "previously viewed" section of you local video store.

But people covering the industry kept whispering about Schrader's version. Was it any good? Was it an unseen masterpiece? They finally got there chance to see last month and a film festival in Europe and, lo and behold, it works. It is not a masterpiece, but it is a solid piece of filmmaking that explores a crisis of faith and the search for redemption within the constructs of a horror film. (That description also fits the original classic The Exorcist.) And hell, since there is a buck to be made, they are finally going to release it here in the States.

I am very excited to see this new film and curious to see Harlin's remake. Anyone interested in how a director's vision shapes a movie should see both versions. These movies are going to be studied in film for generations to come. Too bad they are releasing Schrader's version against another prequel, Star Wars: Episode III.