Exorcist: The Beginning makes the mistake of confusing loud noises, grotesque images, obscene violence, and buckets of blood for frights.
I liked the movie's opening scene: a vast, ancient battlefield, which, when the camera slowly pans back and over it, reveals the bodies of thousands of dead warriors. That was in the movie's first two minutes, and there was nothing else I liked about the show.
Along for the ride is Izabella Scorupco, playing a beautiful doctor, Sarah, assigned to the dig. Horror and sci-fi movies always have to have a beautiful doctor hanging around to lend a little sex appeal to the affair. Heaven forbid the plot or characters should be enough. James D'Arcy plays a young priest, Father Francis, who assists Merrin at the dig site. Father Francis is there on behalf of the Catholic Church, which is very interested in what Merrin may find. Julian Wadham plays a typically rigid British army officer, Major Granville, who is in charge of the dig and represents the British Empire's colonial racist attitudes. No stereotype is left uncovered. Remy Sweeney is the only appealing actor of the lot, playing a little boy who may be possessed of the devil. And Ben Cross has a thankless bit part as Semelier, a grim-faced fellow who sends Merrin out after the artifact. You remember Cross as one of the stars of the Oscar-winning "Chariots of Fire." Now he's doing cameos in dreadful fright flicks. I hope it was a lark.
As I've said, the filmmakers confuse scary with sickening. We are subjected, for instance, to repeated scenes of a young girl getting her brains blown out. We also watch as a child is torn apart by ravenous hyenas. You can see the cheapness of putting youngsters in danger and forcing us to watch them die. Then there are the axes to the brain, the faces rotting and falling off, the leeches, the throat slashings, and the endless blood, all of it accompanied by the usual ominous, liturgical-sounding background music. (Where was "Tubular Bells" when you needed it?)
When the final confrontation between Merrin and the Evil One arrives, it's more noisy than frightening. But at least Merrin regains his faith. How else could we have had an original "Exorcist"?
Video:
The best things about the movie are its picture and sound. The DVD video replicates much of the film's theatrical exhibition size, measuring a ratio approximately 2.13:1 across my standard-screen HD Sony XBR television. Warner Bros.' current practice of utilizing fairly high bit-rate transfers pays off in deep, solid hues and well-defined color contrasts. The overall image is slightly on the dark side, but that actually complements the movie's tone; and it's a bit glassy, too, but not much. There is only a small amount of grain to be found, except in some of the nighttime shots, and virtually no moiré or halo effects that I noticed.
Audio:
The sound is available in either Dolby Digital 5.1, which I listened to, or DTS 5.1. Most everything about it works well, the dynamics especially impressive, with a strong, clear impact. The surrounds are also well exploited, with some good, spooky noises coming from the rear and sides of the listening area, sounds of crows, falling rocks, weird voices, animals in the night, and shrieking music. I missed a room-shaking bass, but other than that, the sonics are quite effective.
Extras:
The most notable bonus item is an audio commentary with director Renny Harlin. I checked in on it throughout the film (they were welcome breaks from the drivel occurring on screen) and found Harlin a straightforward, no-nonsense kind of guy, explaining in some detail each scene and the background for it. Nonsense is still nonsense, but it's nice to know that somebody was taking it seriously. Then, there's an eight-minute behind-the-scenes featurette with the director, the producer, and some of the cast members. Unfortunately, it doesn't reveal too much new, merely taking us through the plot and expounding on the obvious. The third bonus is one we don't see very much anymore--cast and crew biographies and filmographies. In the early days of DVDs, we found this sort of thing on every disc we bought, and then the idea sort of disappeared. So, welcome back. The extras conclude with thirty animated scene selections; a widescreen theatrical trailer (although in a 1.78:1 dimension); English as the only spoken language choice; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
No chapter insert came with the package, but there was an insert advertising other WB horror titles available on DVD. I wonder if it occurred to anyone at the studio that they could have printed the chapter selections on the insert, too, and people would have been more likely to keep it rather than toss it away as a junk ad.
Parting Shots:
In its favor, "Exorcist: The Beginning" is not as totally incomprehensible as "Exorcist II: The Heretic." Otherwise, the movie is a pretty repulsive mess.
Along for the ride is Izabella Scorupco, playing a beautiful doctor, Sarah, assigned to the dig. Horror and sci-fi movies always have to have a beautiful doctor hanging around to lend a little sex appeal to the affair. Heaven forbid the plot or characters should be enough. James D'Arcy plays a young priest, Father Francis, who assists Merrin at the dig site. Father Francis is there on behalf of the Catholic Church, which is very interested in what Merrin may find. Julian Wadham plays a typically rigid British army officer, Major Granville, who is in charge of the dig and represents the British Empire's colonial racist attitudes. No stereotype is left uncovered. Remy Sweeney is the only appealing actor of the lot, playing a little boy who may be possessed of the devil. And Ben Cross has a thankless bit part as Semelier, a grim-faced fellow who sends Merrin out after the artifact. You remember Cross as one of the stars of the Oscar-winning "Chariots of Fire." Now he's doing cameos in dreadful fright flicks. I hope it was a lark.
As I've said, the filmmakers confuse scary with sickening. We are subjected, for instance, to repeated scenes of a young girl getting her brains blown out. We also watch as a child is torn apart by ravenous hyenas. You can see the cheapness of putting youngsters in danger and forcing us to watch them die. Then there are the axes to the brain, the faces rotting and falling off, the leeches, the throat slashings, and the endless blood, all of it accompanied by the usual ominous, liturgical-sounding background music. (Where was "Tubular Bells" when you needed it?)
When the final confrontation between Merrin and the Evil One arrives, it's more noisy than frightening. But at least Merrin regains his faith. How else could we have had an original "Exorcist"?
Video:
The best things about the movie are its picture and sound. The DVD video replicates much of the film's theatrical exhibition size, measuring a ratio approximately 2.13:1 across my standard-screen HD Sony XBR television. Warner Bros.' current practice of utilizing fairly high bit-rate transfers pays off in deep, solid hues and well-defined color contrasts. The overall image is slightly on the dark side, but that actually complements the movie's tone; and it's a bit glassy, too, but not much. There is only a small amount of grain to be found, except in some of the nighttime shots, and virtually no moiré or halo effects that I noticed.
Audio:
The sound is available in either Dolby Digital 5.1, which I listened to, or DTS 5.1. Most everything about it works well, the dynamics especially impressive, with a strong, clear impact. The surrounds are also well exploited, with some good, spooky noises coming from the rear and sides of the listening area, sounds of crows, falling rocks, weird voices, animals in the night, and shrieking music. I missed a room-shaking bass, but other than that, the sonics are quite effective.
Extras:
The most notable bonus item is an audio commentary with director Renny Harlin. I checked in on it throughout the film (they were welcome breaks from the drivel occurring on screen) and found Harlin a straightforward, no-nonsense kind of guy, explaining in some detail each scene and the background for it. Nonsense is still nonsense, but it's nice to know that somebody was taking it seriously. Then, there's an eight-minute behind-the-scenes featurette with the director, the producer, and some of the cast members. Unfortunately, it doesn't reveal too much new, merely taking us through the plot and expounding on the obvious. The third bonus is one we don't see very much anymore--cast and crew biographies and filmographies. In the early days of DVDs, we found this sort of thing on every disc we bought, and then the idea sort of disappeared. So, welcome back. The extras conclude with thirty animated scene selections; a widescreen theatrical trailer (although in a 1.78:1 dimension); English as the only spoken language choice; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
No chapter insert came with the package, but there was an insert advertising other WB horror titles available on DVD. I wonder if it occurred to anyone at the studio that they could have printed the chapter selections on the insert, too, and people would have been more likely to keep it rather than toss it away as a junk ad.
Parting Shots:
In its favor, "Exorcist: The Beginning" is not as totally incomprehensible as "Exorcist II: The Heretic." Otherwise, the movie is a pretty repulsive mess.
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[release]14102[/release]