Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist

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Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Paul Schrader
Written by	William Wisher Jr. Caleb Carr
Based on	Characters by William Peter Blatty
Produced by	James G. Robinson
Starring	Stellan Skarsgård Gabriel Mann Clara Bellar Billy Crawford Ralph Brown
Cinematography	Vittorio Storaro
Edited by	Tim Silano
Music by	Angelo Badalamenti Dog Fashion Disco Trevor Rabin
Production company	Morgan Creek Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	March 18, 2005 (2005-03-18) (BIFFF) May 20, 2005 (2005-05-20) (United States) [1]
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$251,495

Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist is a 2005 American supernatural horror film directed by Paul Schrader and written by William Wisher Jr. and Caleb Carr. The film serves as an alternative prequel to The Exorcist (1973). It is the fifth installment in The Exorcist series. The film stars Stellan Skarsgård, Clara Bellar, Gabriel Mann and Billy Crawford.

The official prequel to The Exorcist before being retooled to turn into Exorcist: The Beginning, as Morgan Creek Productions executives feared the already completed film would be unsuccessful, it received a limited release in the United States on May 20, 2005, by Warner Bros. Pictures, after Exorcist: The Beginning became a financial and critical disappointment. The film was not well-received by critics, although it received better reviews than Exorcist: The Beginning.

Plot[]

In 1944, a Nazi SS lieutenant named Kessel forces the parish priest of a small village in occupied Holland, Father Lankester Merrin, to participate in arbitrary executions in retaliation for the murder of a German trooper in exchange for sparing the village.

In 1947, Merrin, whose faith was shattered by the incident, is an archaeologist in Derati, a remote area in the Turkana region of British Kenya excavating a Byzantine church built around the 5th century—long before Christianity had reached that region of Africa. He meets up with Father Francis, a Maryknoll missionary appointed to ensure the church is not desecrated, and Major Granville, the British military officer overseeing the dig. Making their way to Derati with Chuma, Merrin's translator and guide, Merrin introduces Francis to Rachel, a doctor who spent time in a concentration camp and is haunted by her experiences there, and Emekwi, an enthusiastic convert who provides accommodation for the two men. As they tour the dig site, Merrin and Francis notice the church is in perfect condition, as though it had been deliberately buried immediately after its construction was completed.

On the site, Merrin meets a disabled young outcast named Cheche. Although dissuaded by Chuma, Merrin brings the boy to Rachel for medical treatment. Once the door is uncovered, Merrin, Francis, and Chuma go inside the church. A hidden passageway leads them to a crypt containing a demonic idol—an ancient sanctuary where human sacrifice was performed. Merrin deduces that the church was expressly built to seal this underground temple. On their way back, they are confronted by local elders, who demand Merrin stop digging.

Francis contacts Granville to send a detachment to guard the dig against potential robbers, despite Merrin's objections. Two British soldiers attempting to loot some precious stones from the church are then found dead the next day (one without his head; the other crucified to the altar head downward). Despite the Christian symbolism used in the murders and the testimony of local warrior Jomo that the two men were affected by a strange madness, Granville, blaming the Turkana, goes to town in an uncharacteristic fit of rage demanding the purported culprits be given up, shooting a young woman in cold blood when the locals protest. Determined to stop the 'Christian evil' from spreading, Jomo breaks into the mission school and slaughters Francis' students—Emekwi's two sons—before he is shot on the spot by British soldiers. Emekwi bitterly questions if this is how God rewards those who keep faith with him.

Francis has a disturbing realization that Cheche's unusual recovery is not a divinely wrought miracle as he had first thought and considers baptizing him to save his soul; the boy accepts on the condition that it be held at the church. Meanwhile, a shaken and guilt-ridden Granville commits suicide by shooting himself in the mouth. The Turkana elders (via Chuma) demand that the church be reburied and Francis—who they hold responsible for the spread of the 'Christian evil' and the arrival of the British troops—and Cheche be handed over to them to be killed but are turned down. Francis, assisted by Rachel, baptizes Cheche at the church, but the demon inside the boy attacks them. Realizing an exorcism is in order, Francis leaves quickly to fetch his copy of the Roman Ritual. The demon transforms Cheche into an androgynous 'perfect' being, while an earthquake erupts and seals off the entrance to the church.

The next morning, Merrin and the British find Francis tied to a tree naked, shot with arrows. The dying Francis reveals to Merrin that Cheche is possessed and begs him to perform an exorcism. Another earthquake shifts the rocks, unblocking the church entrance just enough to allow Merrin to go inside. At the underground temple, Merrin finds Rachel—who runs away under a trance—and the possessed Cheche. After donning Francis' vestments, Merrin returns to the church to begin the exorcism. The demon offers Merrin a chance to rewrite his past, at which Merrin (in a hallucination) finds himself back in 1944 Holland: when he refuses to cooperate, Kessel instead has Merrin and all the villagers killed for his defiance.

When Merrin comes back to his senses, the demon mocks the futility of his attempt to change what happened. An aurora appears in the sky as the evil spirit's influence causes the entranced Rachel to attempt to kill herself, Emekwi to violently beat his wife, and the Turkana to charge into battle against the British. The exorcism eventually succeeds and the demon leaves Cheche's body, causing him to regress to his former condition.

With the demon exorcised, life in Derati returns to normal and the British detachment leaves. One of the local elders, however, warns that the demon will pursue Merrin. Merrin bids farewell to Rachel and Cheche before leaving for Rome, having now regained his faith.

Cast[]

• Stellan Skarsgård as Father Lankester Merrin, a half-Dutch, half-English parish priest and scholar from Holland undergoing a crisis of faith ever since he was forced to participate in an arbitrary execution of his parishioners by the Nazis during World War II. He has subsequently devoted his time to archaeology after the war. Skarsgård reprises the same role in Exorcist: The Beginning.
• Gabriel Mann as Father Francis, an idealistic missionary to the area appointed to ensure the sanctity of the excavated church is respected. He looks up to Merrin (having studied his works at the seminary) and tries to make him regain his faith in God.
• Clara Bellar as Rachel Lesno, a doctor in the town hospital who had undergone a harrowing experience in a Nazi concentration camp.
• Billy Crawford as Cheche, a physically-handicapped boy shunned and abused by the locals before Merrin gets him medical attention. He starts to recover from his disabilities once the demon possesses him, ultimately achieving physical perfection before the demon is exorcised.
• Julian Wadham as Major Granville, a British army officer overseeing the Derati dig. A kindly man well-liked by his own troops, he begins to exhibit an uncharacteristic loss of temper after the mysterious deaths of two of his men in the church.
• Ralph Brown as Sergeant-Major Harris, Granville's second-in-command. Unlike Granville, he is less kindly disposed towards the Turkana.
• Israel Aduramo as Jomo, a local warrior who constantly observes the archaeological site.
• Andrew French as Chuma, a local serving as an interpreter and guide for Merrin and the British.
• Eddie Osei as Emekwi, a hotel owner and Christian convert who provides Merrin and Francis accommodations during their stay in Derati. He offers his two sons, James and Joseph, to Francis as students for his planned missionary school. Their death at the hands of Jomo leads him to question his faith.
• Antonie Kamerling as Lieutenant Kessel, the SS officer who forces Merrin to decimate the villagers under his wing in retaliation for the murder of one of his men.
• Mary Beth Hurt (uncredited) as the voice of possessed Cheche.

Production[]

John Frankenheimer was originally hired as director for the project, but withdrew before filming started due to health concerns. He died a month later. Paul Schrader replaced him, agreeing to do the film because he found the script and the studio's approach intriguing. The film, titled Exorcist: The Beginning, was nearly completed and even had begun to be marketed (a teaser trailer had been released) when it was shelved by Morgan Creek Productions over concerns about the film's commercial viability.

Despite Schrader having faithfully directed the script the studio had developed, Morgan Creek (in Schrader's estimation) had a case of "buyer's remorse" upon seeing the result in rough cut form, believing that the film was too cerebral and lacking in overt "horror" scenes that would be expected from the franchise. The studio consequently replaced Schrader with Renny Harlin, originally with the plan to conduct a few re-shoots. Ultimately, the movie was re-written and re-shot altogether, albeit with many of the same plot points, locations and sets as the original production, but with a tone dramatically shifted to that of a more conventional horror film. Several cast members were retained for the more expensive second production, as was cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.^[2]

After poor audience and critical response to Harlin's version, Morgan Creek decided to complete the Paul Schrader version on the potential of recouping what was now a compounded investment. The studio first hired an editor, Tim Silano, to assemble Schrader's version, but Silano insisted that Schrader be brought back to oversee the editing of his own material. Morgan Creek allocated $35,000 and a very short amount of time for Paul Schrader to finish his version.^[3][4][5]

The film, like Exorcist: The Beginning, is shot in Univisium (2:1) aspect ratio (developed by Vittorio Storaro, who also acted as the cinematographer), although the video release was presented in 1.78:1.

The meager outlay provided by the studio to resume the film's final stage of post-production resulted in a number of compromises. Specifically, Schrader was not given enough money to conduct ADR, to bring cinematographer Vittorio Storaro back to perform the film's color timing (forcing him and Silano to approximate it themselves), nor to commission an original score for the entire film. Instead, the score was developed piecemeal, with fourteen minutes (including a central theme) being composed without payment by Angelo Badalamenti. The final twenty minutes of the film were scored by the American metal band Dog Fashion Disco (the unusual choice stemming from Schrader's son's affection for the group), while the balance of the score - about an hour's worth - was recycled from Trevor Rabin’s work for the Harlin version. In addition to contributing compositions, Dog Fashion Disco also "finessed" the score as a whole to give it a unity despite its disparate sources.^[6]

Warner Bros. Pictures released Schrader's version theatrically under the title Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (since Exorcist: The Beginning was used by the Harlin version) as a very limited release (110 screens) in May 2005, followed later that year by a DVD release.

Release[]

Box office[]

The film was a financial disaster.

Reception[]

While William Peter Blatty, the author and screenwriter of The Exorcist, described Dominion as "a handsome, classy, elegant piece of work",^[7] critical reaction to the film has nonetheless been mixed to negative. Many critics stated that it is only slightly better than Harlin's version, holding a rating of 30% on Rotten Tomatoes^[8] and a score of 55 out of 100 on Metacritic,^[9] whereas Exorcist: The Beginning holds a rating of 10% on Rotten Tomatoes^[10] and a score of 30 out of 100 on Metacritic.^[11]

Nonetheless, the good reviews Dominion did get were much more positive than those of Harlin's version. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it three stars out of four, and wrote that it "does something risky and daring in this time of jaded horror movies: it takes evil seriously".^[12] Leslie Felperin of Variety magazine wrote that this film is "intelligent, quietly subversive" and "Schrader has delivered a 100% Paul Schrader film, drenched in the spiritual and moral angst that's watermarked his career from Taxi Driver (as a writer) to Auto Focus (as a director)".^[13]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said that "Schrader's film is a notch better than Harlin's, but when you boil out the demon feathers, it's the same damn movie".^[14] Scott Tobias of The Onion's A.V. Club wrote that "Skarsgård [gives] a quietly mesmerizing performance", and that "Schrader's movie isn't particularly scary, but it's more substantive than The Exorcist and its sequels, because it takes demon possession out of head-spinning literalism and considers evil as something more real and commonplace".^[15]

David Edelstein of the magazine Slate said the film is "a good, thoughtful horror picture, and [very] close to being a very good one".^[16] Brent Simon of IGN gave the film a score of 4 out of 10, saying: "The overall feeling Dominion gives off is one of rootless languor. You keep waiting for someone or something to show up and seize control of the picture, but it never really happens until the final confrontation, which feels like it might as well come from a different movie. It's not blood or gore that's missing, its context; Dominion is too polite and urbane to frighten".^[17]

Director Erik Kristopher Myers, who was the first to ever review the film in 2005, wrote: "The curious thing about the Exorcist franchise is that you have three films following the same narrative thread, but none of the chapters feel as though they belong to a greater whole. Each one plays too differently from the previous installment, destroying any sense of genuine continuity beyond names or locations. Schrader’s film is the first to synthesize the elements of each one, whether intentionally or otherwise, and presents us with an Exorcist that owes as much to Friedkin as it does to Boorman and Blatty. At the same time, it also manages to achieve its own identity while still being directly linked to The Exorcist, Exorcist II: The Heretic and The Exorcist III. No other film in the series has a genuine marriage to each of its partners the way that Schrader’s does".^[18]

Home media[]

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The film was released on DVD October 25, 2005 by Warner Home Video and included deleted scenes, photo gallery, and an audio commentary by director Paul Schrader.

On October 10, 2006, the film was released with The Exorcist, The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen, Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Exorcist III and Exorcist: The Beginning in a box set titled The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology.

On September 23, 2014, the film was released on Blu-ray as part of the Blu-ray version of The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology. The film will be released in a standalone Blu-ray by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on October 13, 2020.^[19]

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist

• Official website
• Official Morgan Creek website
• Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist at IMDb
• Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist at AllMovie
• Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist at Rotten Tomatoes
• Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist at Box Office Mojo
• Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist at ComingSoon.net
• Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist at Box Office Prophets