Best movie of this year hands down!

Too much of everything

Admirable film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Years before Father Lankester Merrin helped save Regan MacNeil's soul, he first encounters the demon Pazuzu in East Africa. This is the tale of Father Merrin's initial battle with Pazuzu and the rediscovery of his faith. Exorcist: The Beginning is another really good and quite creepy Prequel/Sequel to the Exorcist (1973) although not as good as the original. Skarsgard does once again a terrific job as Merrin and the opening scene was creepy to say the least and the exorcism sequence in the end as well although the CGI were a bit lackluster at times. (8/10)

In 1949, the British army has stumbled onto a buried Byzantium church in Kenya. The church's date is too early and shouldn't exist. Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) is a former priest who suffered a traumatic war experience. He's called in to help with the archaeological dig. Father Francis (James D'Arcy) is sent in by the Vatican, and Sarah (Izabella Scorupco) is also trying to escape the horrors of WWII.This is simply not a scary movie. That's the biggest and really the only measuring stick for a horror movie. At almost 2 hours, it's way too long. The pace is way too slow. The look of the production seems smaller than what the budget would indicate.The feel of the movie hearkens back to the 70s, and not in good way. Horror movies have moved on, but this one still believes that flies are scary. The CGI is not the best. The blood and guts are acceptable. The baby with maggots looks creepy. But other times, the movie holds back too much. The coyote attack should have been scary, but it's never given a chance. It's just not good enough for today's audience.

As always never keep my hopes high about sequels, prequels and... but this one surprised big time.When the movies started and Mr. Merrin was approached and sent there to investigate in a desert i thought, okay, this is going to be either very good or unwatchable, and it turned out to be a very good Exorcist.I really enjoyed The Beginning from the starting point till the very end of it it started good, it developed slowly but brilliantly it didn't leave any questions unanswered from Father Merrins earlier life.The original one left me wondering why the figurine that Father Merrin found meant to him, but it is very well explained in The Beginning.There were also some very scary moments and scenes in this movie that every horror fan expects to see in a horror movie. And apart from these goodies it has very surprising events that keep the movie very very watchable.But there were some discrepancies historical as well as factual that are preventing me from giving ten stars to The Beginning, but still a very good horror movies.

Hollywood sure chews 'em up and spits 'em out: one minute, director Paul Schrader is working on a long-awaited prequel to The Exorcist; the next, he's been replaced by Renny Harlin, one-time director of mega-budget action films starring the likes of Stallone and Willis, now reduced to the task of salvaging other people's failed projects (the result of having had one too many expensive box office disasters of his own).However, despite the film's troubled history, Harlin has managed to turn out a fairly reasonable time-waster. The story is pretty unremarkable, detailing Father Merrin's struggle with his faith and his first encounter with the demon Pazazu in Africa—but the stylish direction, wonderful cinematography, decent gore (gotta love those snapping limbs!), and a strong central performance from Stellan Skarsgård as the emotionally scarred Merrin give viewers plenty to appreciate.Some of the CGI could have been better—I wasn't very convinced by the hyenas or the insects—and Isabella Scorupco's shower scene is woefully short, but these are minor quibbles for a film that had the potential to be absolutely horrendous.