A tale of two exorcists

It was the best of movies -- no it wasn't. But it wasn't the worst of movies either. Yet I confess (not before a priest since I'm Methodist) that I am looking forward to the Exorcist prequel version 1.1 (or would it be Exorcist prequel version 2.0? It's rather confusing really). From The New York Times:

When "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist," directed by Paul Schrader, opens nationally on May 20, some filmgoers may have the strange feeling they have seen it before.

"Dominion" bears a not at all coincidental similarity to Renny Harlin's "Exorcist: The Beginning," a disappointment at the box office last August.

Mr. Schrader's film, the "original" prequel, was shelved by Morgan Creek Productions, an independent film company, in 2003 for being insufficiently scary.

The company then hired Mr. Harlin to remake it. Morgan Creek, which had a distribution deal with Warner Brothers at the time, released the Harlin version with a single screening for critics the night before, usually a bad omen. Advertisement Perhaps someday a cinemathèque will present both versions in a simultaneous, side-by-side screening. The dueling films could provide fodder for a textual analysis of the auteur theory, with almost identical material yielding wildly different results in the hands of two temperamentally opposed artists: Mr. Schrader, the thoughtful, restrained art-house filmmaker ("Affliction"), and Mr. Harlin, the vigorous director of Hollywood action films ("Cliffhanger").

Both prequels star the Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard ("Breaking the Waves") as a young version of Father Merrin, the Roman-Catholic priest played by Max von Sydow in William Friedkin's hugely successful 1973 film based on William Peter Blatty's best-selling novel. And both tell the story of Father Merrin's first encounter with demonic possession when, working for the Vatican in the years after World War II, he investigates the discovery of a perfectly preserved Byzantine church buried in the East African desert.

How these two movies came to be made is a story as tortured and complex as any Hollywood thriller.

Go read the entire article. It doesn't say it, but in my opinion it helps illustrate what is wrong with the horror-film industry today. I understand the importance of making a commercial success (God knows I hope my book is one some day), but the original Exorcist succeeded without relying on CGI or action-movie gimmicks. The Exorcist prequel released last year had good moments before degenerating into a mess. This version of the prequel may have the elements that worked best in last year's movie without the flaws. At least I'm hopeful.