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Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) N
The last film of The Exorcist franchise (at least for now). I'd seen the Renny Harlin version of the film earlier but this was the first watch of this version.
"Is this how the Almighty treats those who have kept faith with him?"
"Yes."
Young (or maybe I should say younger because he's already middle-aged here) Merrin is in Africa doing some archaeology and finds an old church buried in the sand. Accompanying missionary priest decides to call British military to protect the find from robbers. Opening of the church releases an ancient evil and madness spreads among the people.
Like all the other films in the franchise Dominion is stylistically completely different from the others. In many ways it feels like a standard unearthing an ancient evil script with some familiar names and images attached to link it to The Exorcist. Just like Exorcist II it doesn't seem to fit in with the other two. All in all the story was very generic and boring.
The film is too much about Merrin's guilt and overuses the themes from the opening scene throughout the film. There's no subtlety at all in this but irritating underlining and repetition. It also reduces Merrin's character to just his loss of faith and finally regaining it. Pazuzu seems much stronger than in The Exorcist yet he's cast out with far less effort. Also why does he look like a Buddhist holy man when he's supposed to be a local African cripple?
Not as bad as Exorcist II but clearly worse than others. Extra credit for stunningly bad CGI for the cattle eating the hyenas
The last film of The Exorcist franchise (at least for now). I'd seen the Renny Harlin version of the film earlier but this was the first watch of this version.
"Is this how the Almighty treats those who have kept faith with him?"
"Yes."
Young (or maybe I should say younger because he's already middle-aged here) Merrin is in Africa doing some archaeology and finds an old church buried in the sand. Accompanying missionary priest decides to call British military to protect the find from robbers. Opening of the church releases an ancient evil and madness spreads among the people.
Like all the other films in the franchise Dominion is stylistically completely different from the others. In many ways it feels like a standard unearthing an ancient evil script with some familiar names and images attached to link it to The Exorcist. Just like Exorcist II it doesn't seem to fit in with the other two. All in all the story was very generic and boring.
The film is too much about Merrin's guilt and overuses the themes from the opening scene throughout the film. There's no subtlety at all in this but irritating underlining and repetition. It also reduces Merrin's character to just his loss of faith and finally regaining it. Pazuzu seems much stronger than in The Exorcist yet he's cast out with far less effort. Also why does he look like a Buddhist holy man when he's supposed to be a local African cripple?
Not as bad as Exorcist II but clearly worse than others. Extra credit for stunningly bad CGI for the cattle eating the hyenas