Exorcist: The Beginning ***
Cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Izabella Scorupco, James D'Arcy, Remy Sweeney, Julian Wadham
Director: Renny Harlin
Running Length: 114 min
MPAA Classification: R

The classic movie, "The Exorcist" established a backstory for the older priest, Father Merrin. Now, "Exorcist: The Beginning" looks to provide the full story of Merrin's first exorcism. As the story opens, Merrin (Skarsgård) is a archeologist and has quit the priesthood after World War II. He is tormented by the War and it has caused his faith to falter. Merrin is summoned to Africa by the Catholic Church to investigate the discovery of a church buried in the sand. When it is unearthed, strange things start happening, and Merrin must find his faith to exorcise the demons that threaten to consume himself and the whole excavation team.

This movie does not live up to the original, but there really is no way that it could. Considered a classic by many, "The Exorcist" sets a high bar that the two previous sequels could not surpass. This is better than 3, and I have not seen 2. A lot of the problems with this movie are external to some extent. The original director was fired after he did not give the studio the blood and gore that it wanted, and Renny Harlin came on board to do reshoots and piece together a "scarier" version. Of course, blood and gore are not necessary to make a movie scary, and at times it seems like overkill.

Skarsgård fills the role of Merrin well, and brings to him a haunted quality that is necessary to his character for reasons that become apparent quickly. All in all, this is a good movie that could have been great, but is still highly entertaining and enjoyable for horror fans. I would recommend it, and also recommend looking for it on DVD when it comes out, because the rumor is that both versions will be included on it.