Exorcist: The Beginning announced on DVD from Warners on Jan 4th (1 Viewer)

[Pat_TL]

"I actually found it kind of cool how in "The Beginning," after Merrin has forced the demon back into the caves, it screams "Merrriiiinnnnn!!" in exactly the same way. Of course, it's the same sound file, but I digress"


I didnt; this was a poor excuse just to rip off more of the original....a girl possessed and gyrating while spewing horrific vulgarities at a priest..come on...did they have to have Pazuzu doing the SAME things as the first time? This didnt even feel like a PREQUEL to me...it felt like an actual part 4 in succession.....

I didnt understand the end of 4 anyway....who was that chick that was possessed and why was Pazuzu in her? Wasnt Merrin, according to the story, supposed to be taking Pazuzu out of a young African boy who was possessed by it? What was the deal with the chick at the end crawling around the cave?

 

[Matt Thompson]

SPOILERS (and language ), first of all.

The lead-up to the demon was definitely designed like a sequel. Suddenly Sarah's there, possessed, speaking in that classic 'ol Pazuzu voice. However, the demon doesn't spoil its surprises. There's no green vomit or head spinning (which were both present in William Wisher's draft, along with the demon's mouth; at one point, when asked where the possessed boy is, the demon responds, "I sent him to Hell, bound and gagging on my cock!").

Sarah was possessed because she went into the church. There's two ways of looking at this -- one, it was her all the time, or two, Joseph was possessed until the Turkana tried to kill him, in which time the demon jumped bodies. I prefer the second theory, because it explains the hyena attack.

Also, the Exorcist prequel has always intended to show Merrin's first encounter with Pazuzu, even before the events mentioned in the original film. Remember, the priest in the first said the exorcism was "ten or twelve years ago," setting it around 1960. But all versions of The Beginning have been set in 1947 or 1949.

So I look at it as this -- because Merrin never sought church approval, they didn't recognize it for what it really was, an exorcism. And so the priests were talking about an exorcism that took place between both films.

 

[Pat_TL]

Yes, I know the prequel was supposed to chronicle Merrin's first encounter with the demon; it was what II was supposed to do but failed miserably....or, as Pazuzu would say, "bound and gagging on my cock..."

But I digress. Harlin's version was just not convincing in my eyes; I dont know....I guess I expected more out of it. I was expecting the entire film to deal with Merrin and encounters with Pazuzu; I thought he would exorcise a boy at some point, as Von Sydow was shown doing in Part II...instead, we get a girl, once again, possessed by Pazuzu, once again...climbing around walls and speaking in language only a porn star's mother would approve of, and maybe not even....suck cock, and eat this, and fuck that....this just wasnt that convincing to me. As a matter of fact, I am a die hard Exorcist fan and I may not buy "The Beginning" on DVD; the end almost seems like a tacked-on attempt to add an exorcism battle between a priest and the king of the evil spirits of the air....you know who Im talking about (the big P)....much like the end of III.

 

[Matt Thompson]

The exorcism is definitely the worst part of the film, though I enjoy it as a cheap-thrills bit. And I love when Merrin gives last rites. Powerful scene.

At this point, The Heretic and The Beginning just don't match up, so you have to accept one or the other as 'canon.' I believe The Heretic is one of the worst films of the last thirty years (though it makes a great comedy!), so I side with Harlin's movie.

It is interesting, though, that Wisher did try to make his prequel and The Heretic work in terms of continuity. In his script, it is a boy who's possessed (named Fassi; no grasshopper Kokumo here), and the priest sent out to oversee Merrin's dig, Ambrose, goes on to mention how the villagers are terrified of the demon they've unleashed: Pazuzu.

 

[Pat_TL]

Yes Matt, that is interesting.....and I DO agree 100 percent about The Heretic...for years now, I have put it on my Worst Films of All Time list, along with other stinkers like Grease 2....The Heretic is such an awful film I wont even buy the disc to complete the trilogy; Burton is absolutely horrendous in it, and what was the deal with the mind-melding device that Father Lamont needed to get into Regan's brain in order to see Pazuzu? I couldnt follow that script for shit, to be honest. What a god awful piece of cinema; I cant believe Warner Bros was behind that piece of crap from John Boorman.

The problem was, the first film was so awesome, the studio probably figured the public was willing to accept ANYTHING as a sequel.

 

[Matt Thompson]

Agreed. At this point my Exorcist collection consists of The Exorcist and Legion. When The Beginning comes out, I'll put that in front of the original movie, so in many years when my kids look at my DVDs, they won't get confused by Legion's "Exoricst III" tag

 

[Pat_TL]

LOL. Good idea!

 

[Esten]

That would explain why Exorcist III's EPK footage was shown on The Fox Movie Channel a few weeks ago.

 

[Pat_TL]

Yes, I believe on the back of the DVD box, there are three production companies mentioned: Warner (obviously), Morgan Creek and 20th Century Fox.

 

[Elijah Sullivan]

Well, just spun the DVD and my verdict is -- crappy DVD for a crappy movie.

The video has adequately balanced color and contrast, and is somewhat dimensional, but there is a serious abundance of edge enhancement. It's really bad. Vittorio Storaro's photography is at times striking, but the transfer doesn't give it much of a fighting chance.

Audio is fine but fairly average. In fact, I would blame the poor quality of this mix on the sound designer of the film itself: it's a crappy bit of work, and no amount of DVD audio beauty is going to make it enjoyable.

The extras: commentary, making-of featurette and trailer.

The featurette is about 8 minutes long, I believe, and frighteningly uninformative. I mean, you will learn absolutely nothing from this at all. Not surprisingly, there is no mention of Schrader, Frankenheimer, or reshoots. Those interviewed make the shoot sound blessed! The Fox marketing department left fingerprints all over this one, I'll tell ya. Don't bother watching it.

As for the commentary -- it's with Renny Harlin, the director, who I have absolutely zero respect for, and I feel confident in saying that only the most hardcore fans are going to give it a listen. I'm betting that anyone with half a brain will listen to five minutes of this commentary and arrive at a similar judgment: this guy should not be directing movies.

In short: skip this DVD and pray that Schrader's cut gets released in the near future. The film is simply terrible and the DVD is no better.

 

[Peter Svensson]

Go for R2JAP or R4 if you want DTS.

 

[Stephen Brooks]

The region 1 has DTS. And it's a Warner release. I thought they had sworn off of that?

 

[Peter Svensson]

Ok, sorry. Yes, Warner usually don´t use DTS, but they did so for The Passion Of The Christ. Maybe they have changed their mind.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

"Passion" was from Fox in R1, so WB wasn't involved.

WB puts out DTS tracks when Morgan Creek is the production company behind the film. Beginning, True Romance, Robin Hood: POT - all DTS, all WB, all Morgan Creek...

 

[Dwayne]

I don't know if this has been mentioned but it looks like Amazon has a listing for Schrader's version. Doing a search there turned up the following:

Exorcist - The Beginning (Widescreen Edition) DVD ~ Stellan Skarsgård (2004)
DVD: See all 4 items (Rate this item)
Buy new: $19.57 Not Yet Released -- On Order

Exorcist - The Beginning/Version You've Never Seen DVD ~ Stellan Skarsgard
DVD: See all 4 items (Rate this item)
Buy new: $25.19 Not Yet Released -- On Order

 

[Peter Svensson]

Off topic: Not entirely true, the Canadian release (R1) was from Warner and it had DTS. The R4 DTS edition was also from Warner.

 

[Dwayne]

Possible threatrical release for Schrader's version:

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/ind...plate=newsfull

 

[Geremia P.]

I belive this is just a 2-pack of the Renny Harlin film and the 2000 re-edit of the original 'Exorcist'.

 

[Dwayne]

Yeah...that makes sense. Bummer.

 

[Matt Thompson]

I don't get the cracks against the audio quality. The range and use of the surrounds is superb.