Years before The Exorcist takes place, Father Merrin (played here by Stellan Skarsgård travels to East Africa in search of an idol, rumored to be in a church.

The really interesting thing is that the church isn’t supposed to exist. We find out later that the church was built and then excised from the official Vatican records because of the atrocities that happened there, and that’s pretty much everything exciting that happens.

The main problem is that it takes a really long time for anything to happen in this movie. Of course you can argue that the story has to be set up, and to a certain extent you are correct. But only the last ten or fifteen minutes have any action whatsoever. The rest of the movie is spent pussy-footing around a dig as they try to uncover a church that’s been buried for centuries, 1500 miles from where any church is even supposed to exist.

As it is uncovered, strange events start to happen and they seem to point to a small boy who seems to be at the center of them all. One night the villagers come in and try to perform their own sort of exorcism on him, but they are, shall we say, turned away, in a rather violent manner, with bones cracking and all sorts of torn flesh, so he survives without much issue.

But in the end, Father Merrin pursues the boy into the nearly uncovered church along with the nurse, only to find something not quite expected, as he is confronted by the demon Pazuzu, alongside his own memories that turned him from his belief. But in turn he returns to his faith and that helps him to turn away the demon and save the boy (though not the nurse), and that’s where the movie ends, quite unsatisfactorily.

Rated R for strong violence and gore, disturbing images and rituals and for language including some sexual dialogue. Definitely something you want to keep away from the children, and you may want to avoid it yourself if these sort of things bother you.

Tagged with...
Actor: Alan Ford, Actor: Alessandro Casula, Actor: Andrew French, Actor: Antonie Kamerling, Actor: Ben Cross, Actor: Cecilia Amati, Actor: David Bradley, Actor: Eddie Osei, Actor: Israel Aduramo, Actor: Izabella Scorupco, Actor: James Bellamy, Actor: James D'Arcy, Actor: James Paparella, Actor: John Sesay, Actor: Julian Wadham, Actor: Lidia Darly, Actor: Matti Ristinen, Actor: Michel Leroy, Actor: Patrick O'Kane, Actor: Ralph Brown, Actor: Remy Sweeney, Actor: Roberto Purvis, Actor: Rupert Degas, Actor: Sayoh Lahai, Actor: Silvio Jimenez Hernandez, Actor: Stellan Skarsgård, Actor: Yemi Goodman Ajibade, Director: Renny Harlin, Rated: R, Year: 2004