TV Times

TV Times

Return of a Horror Legend
By Harinda Vidanage
After the lapse of nearly thirty years, a Horror movie that was rated as one of scariest movies ever made has hit the screens, Exorcist: The Beginning is the prequel to the highly successful Horror creation The Exorcist screened in early Seventies.

The Exorcist written by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, graphically chronicles the macabre story of Regan, a 12-yearold girl who becomes demonically possessed. The only force that can release her from the demon’s grasp and end her torture is a powerful exorcism, performed by Father Lankester Merrin in a ritual that almost kills them both. Exorcist: The Beginning takes audiences back in time, 25 years into Father Merrin’s past, to illuminate the horrifying events that first turned him away from God, then ultimately led him down the path to becoming an exorcist.

The story begins with a broken and desolate Father Lankester Merrin who, in the wake of his agonizing experiences in his native Holland during World War II, has traveled the world in a vain attempt to escape the horrors of his past. “We chose to tell the story of Father Merrin as a young priest,” says Harlin the director of the new movie, “and learn how he first came into contact with the demon. The central story of this movie is really Merrin’s struggle to find his faith again.

Merrin has traveled far from his native Holland in a desperate attempt to escape the horrors that he witnessed there. While drifting through Cairo, he is approached by a collector of rare antiquities to join a British archeological excavation in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. They have unearthed a Christian Byzantine church in inexplicably pristine condition – as if it had been buried on the day it was completed. The collector wants Merrin, an Oxford educated archeologist, to find an ancient relic hidden within the church before the British discover it.

But beneath the church, something much older sleeps, waiting to be awoken. Madness descends upon the local villagers and the contingent of British soldiers sent to guard the excavation. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are repeated against another innocent village – atrocities he had prayed never to see again. The blood of innocents flows freely on the East African plain, and the horror has only just begun. In the place where Evil was born, Merrin will finally see its true face.

Stellan Skarsgård plays the disillusioned priest, a role that Harlin found particularly fitting for the actor. “Max Von Sydow played Father Merrin in the 1973 original,” says the director, “and I think there’s a very natural connection. Both actors are Swedish, they look alike, and both are fantastic actors who are renowned both in their own country and abroad. Stellan brought a real sense of reality to this part.”

Director Renny Harlin, known for the dynamic directing style he has brought to hit action films such as Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and The Deep Blue Sea, has created a new chapter in the Exorcist legend. “I am a huge fan of the horror genre,” says Harlin. “I’m known for my action films, but I started in horror and it is a genre that I’ve always loved and admired. And obviously the original Exorcist is one of the most famous horror films ever made. It’s one of my favorite films, so when this opportunity came across my path, I just couldn’t pass it by.”

In this chapter of the Exorcist, Merrin soon finds he has a like-minded ally in the suspicious and fearful climate. Dr. Sarah Novack has come to the region to try and bring aid to its inhabitants. But she has had to overcome the suspicion of the Turkana tribesmen, whose mistrust of all the newcomers who have descended upon them only deepens as their land becomes increasingly corrupted by dangerous forces. The role of Sarah is played by Izabella Scorupco, who has appeared in films such as Reign of Fire, Vertical Limit and GoldenEye. “Sarah has made the choice to come to this little village in Africa to help the people she feels need to be taken care of,” says the actress. “She’s a woman with a past full of suffering and she wants to do something good, to try and make up for the ways in which the world is so unfair.

She’s a very strong personality, and she’s not going to give up.” While Exorcist: The Beginning was filmed entirely at the world-famous Cinecittà Studios in Rome, the action of the film takes place in the disparate locations of various sites in Africa, Cairo and Holland. Thus for the fans who loved the psychologically chilling moments in The Exorcist can find out where it all began by taking a trip back in time.

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