Years before Father Lankester 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. Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist is the Prequel and Sequel to Exorcist: The Beginning but also a very different story than the previous film. Once again Stellan Skarsgård does a very good job as Father Lankester Merrin and the storyline although it kinda reminded me a bit of the 2nd film it's actually fun and makes sense unlike that horrible one. (7.5/10) (B+)

In case you don't know the story with these movies, here it is: Morgan Creek films hired Paul Schrader to direct a prequel to The Exorcist, after director John Frankenheimer left the project, presumably due to health reasons. Schrader finished shooting, and presented a rough-cut to the studio. They hated it, and Schrader was fired shortly afterwords. Director Renny Harlin was brought on to make an entirely new film from a somewhat re-worked script, most of the same cast, and the same sets. His movie was released as Exorcist: The Beginning; it got terrible reviews, and was a box-office failure. After this, with some pressure from Schrader, and, I believe, an online petition, Morgan Creek gave Paul Schrader a minimal post-production budget to finish his film, and gave it a limited theatrical release as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.It's an interesting position for me to be in with these movies, because I am a fan of both directors. Both of them have made some of my favorite movies - I love Paul Schrader's sexualized Cat People remake, and Renny Harlin's The Long Kiss Goodnight is a shining example of a great dumb, but not stupid action movie - and they both have areas in which they excel. Though, it would be difficult to find two more different film-makers. Both movies focus on Father Lankester Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård, Max von Sydow's character from the original film), who is going through a crisis of faith (much like Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist) after an incident in a Holland village during World War II, where an SS officer forced Merrin to choose which ten people would be killed for the murder of a German soldier. Merrin is on an archaeological dig in Africa, when he uncovers a thousand year old Christian church which, unbeknownst to Merrin, was deliberately buried to trap the spirit of the demon Pazuzu (the chief antagonist of the Exorcist series).Both movies show the strengths and weaknesses of their respective directors. Schrader capably handles the dramatic and story driven scenes, but his film never really inspires any sense of dread, his climax lacks any real tension, and because of the low budget, the CGI effects are some of the worst in a feature film since that Dungeons and Dragons movie with Jeremy Irons. Thankfully, the CGI shots aren't that abundant. Renny Harlin, however, does give his film a more frightening atmosphere, and there are some scenes - particularly one involving assorted lepidoptera - which make you squirm. But, Harlin's character scenes all descend into clichés and histrionics, and he has an annoying habit of shooting too much of his scenes in close-up, which detracts from the drama. Both movies also feature cinematography by the great Italian cameraman Vittorio Storaro (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Last Tango in Paris, Apocalypse Now) who's lighting you can literally almost feel on your body as look at it.All in all, even though it is a lesser horror movie than Exorcist: The Beginning, I have to give the edge to Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist. Both movies feature more drama than horror, which should automatically give favor to Schrader. Also, Dominion is simply closer in tone and spirit to the original film, which is something that any prequel/sequel/remake should strive for. However, I do recommend watching both movies, preferably back-to-back, as the experience does give one a unique insight into how much impact a director has on a film.Final ratings: Exorcist: The Beginning - ** (out of four) Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist - *** (out of four)

It's really difficult to say something good of "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist" considering that "The Exorcist" is one of the greatest horror movies ever made. And try to add something great to the background of an iconic character such Father Merrin is absolutely ridiculous. Forget about Renny Harlin's movie and forget about this one. William Friedkin is, was and always will be the story you must remember and watch over and over again. Although William Peter Blatty author of the book and the first film claimed to have enjoyed the film directed by Paul Schrader, I must say that this disappointing effort adds almost nothing interesting to the series and to the career of the person involved with it.Similar to "Exorcist: the Beginning" (2004) Father Merrin is played again by Stellan Skarsgard and again his first involvement with exorcisms begun during an archaeological expedition in Africa inside of the ruins of an ancient church. Suddenly strange events starts to happen and faithful Merrin tries to comprehend all this things. The vantage of this film towards the one released in 2004 is the good dramatic moments, involving Merrin and Father Francis (Gabriel Mann) quest for faith. The horror was very boring, nothing scary or memorable to see, and that is the biggest problem of the film besides some exaggerations concerning too much summary executions that happens throughout the film (the script proves a point with that but sometimes it's just too repetitive and annoying). Performances are okay, Gabriel Mann is very good in every scene he appears (very sexy dressed as a priest); Stellan is not much likable during some scenes but dominates greatly during the last moments. Morgan Creek the distributor of this film should be ashamed to release this film and the other one directed by Renny Harlin, it only trashed a good franchise and added nothing meaningful to it. Boring experience. 3/10

I've wanted to see this since I found out Paul Schrader was directing, he's a fantastic director in his own right and one of the great screenwriters of all time. I was so disappointed when news started to filter out that there were issues, that the studio didn't think it was marketable, and then all of a sudden, the director sacked and the hack Harlin brought in. Being a huge Exorcist fan I saw the abomination that was "The Beginning", it was on a par with Sommers Van Helsing, in stupidity and unnecessary gore, the original Exorcist didn't rely on special effects, it was psychological it got under your skin, especially if you had any faith. I'm glad to say that Schraders version fits snuggly next to Friedkins original, it takes its time in the setup, it creeps under your skin with a swelling sense of dread that something is wrong with this place. The acting across the board is top notch, understated and believable. The effects let some of the scenes down but after reading that the director was only given $35,000 for post production, I'd say he did a bloody good job with what he was given. This film was never going to be a box office smash, times have changed, but it would have been successful, with it finding a DVD audience as well, if this could have been completed with proper post production and promotion of the film. It's respectful to the original film and its audience, not everything needs to be displayed on screen, the imagination is a far scarier place if manipulated correctly, the new breed of horror directors seem to forget this and paint by numbers.