WHAT AN OFF DAY FOR AN EXORCISM! "The Exorcist: The Beginning", a movie so bad they had to shoot it twice? I guess so! I heard that Morgan Creek (who should sell the “Exorcist” rights to another studio already) nixed Paul Schrader’s version of this film (see Bull's Eye section for more on that) because it was too "character-driven and dull", horror wise. Why am I not surprised that this second account by the champion of “wham-bam-thank-you- ma'am -- now pass me your daughter” Renny Harlin, wound up being the total opposite, but in a ham-fisted way?

It all started on the right stab (literally) with quite the striking display of macabre imagery (all I’ll say is…”massacre”). The flick set up its story in a gripping fashion and I was ready to rock and roll with the devil till the sun went down! Subsequently, Mothra-Boozer Stellan Skarsgard (Merrin) stepped up to the plate and I was transfixed to the screen by his magnetic presence and rugged ways of downing hard liquor like a man’s man who can out-drink all men’s men. I love this hombre to pieces! Sadly, after that, apart from Harlin’s random slick directing moves (the dude does have talent), gripping Nazis being Nazis flashbacks (ouch), impressive locations/sets and a surprisingly large amount of enjoyable (by me, anyways) gory goods, it was straight to ho-hum-ville for this fluff-stuff. What makes it an immense shame is that it was all there!

This movie could’ve been tight if the compelling enough substance and the good ideas would’ve been executed in a more fleshed out and focused manner. Merrin and his riveting plight aside, the characters were far too clumsily developed (where did Father Francis go…a tittie bar?), the chain of events was handled sloppily while the plot turns happened with zero momentum to back them up. And don’t get my weed-whacker started on the pathetic “Fisher Price” visual effects! What occurs if you slap some obvious CG beasties into a supposedly grounded mix? Think…think hard…THINK FOR THE LOVE OF NON-SILICONE BREASTS! EXACTLY! I laugh my ass off! Consequently, most of the disturbing scenes “on paper” were ruined here, which severely hurt the tone the flick was going for (but made it funny). The final gush of pea-soup urinated on this one’s smack-me-silly mug was its absurd third “Super Regan” block. It strived to echo Merrin’s encounter with Evil in the original film, but did it all wrong! It was big, flashy, action-movie like and imminently asinine. Was this "Spider-Man" or an Exorcist sequel? It didn’t work!

This flick was plagued with huge snags along the way.

John Frankenheimer was signed to direct, but had to drop out due to health reasons. Not soon thereafter, he died.

Paul Schrader then came on board and shot the film. Morgan Creek (who also mishandled "Exorcist 3") fired him after seeing it-- not having liked it (weren't they watching the dailies throughout? Didn’t they read the script? Why wait till after post-production?)

Renny Harlin then came on board and re-shot 90 percent of the film with a mostly new cast (only Skarsgard remained) .

Alexi Hawley retooled Caleb Carr and William Fisher’s screenplay.

The good news is that Schrader’s version is supposed to be released at the same time as Harlin’s version when the DVD kicks in. We’ll see…I sure hope so!

Stellan Skarsgard replaced the initially cast Liam Neeson who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.