Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
Encyclopedia
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist is a 2005 supernatural horror film directed by Paul Schrader
. It is a prequel
to The Exorcist
(1973).
, the young Father Lankester Merrin (played by Skarsgård, who played the same part in Exorcist: The Beginning
) travels to East Africa
. Merrin has taken a sabbatical from the Church and devoted himself to history and archaeology as he struggles with his shattered faith. He is haunted especially by an incident in a small village in occupied Holland during World War II
, where he served as parish priest. Near the end of the war, a sadistic Nazi SS commander, in retaliation for the murder of a German trooper, forces Merrin to participate in arbitrary executions in order to save a full village from slaughter.
He meets up with a team of archaeologists, who are seeking to unearth a church that they believe has been buried for centuries. At first, Merrin resists the idea that supernatural forces are in play, but eventually helps them, and the ensuing events result in an encounter with Pazuzu
, the same demon referenced in The Exorcist.
was originally hired as director for the project, but withdrew before filming started due to health concerns. He died a month later. Paul Schrader
replaced him. Dominion was essentially completed, then shelved by Morgan Creek Productions
, who feared the film would be unsuccessful and replaced Schrader with Renny Harlin
as the director to make a new version of the film, Exorcist: The Beginning
(2004). This film used basically the same plot, and the same locations and sets as Dominion but shifted the tone to a more conventional horror film
. But after poor audience and critical response to Harlin's version, Morgan Creek
gave around $35,000 to Paul Schrader
to finish his version; Morgan Creek
also allowed Warner Bros to release Schrader's version theatrically under the title Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist. It was released to limited showing in May 2005.
, the author and screenwriter of The Exorcist
, described Dominion as "a handsome, classy, elegant piece of work", critical reaction to the film has nonetheless been mixed to negative. Many critics stated that it is only slightly better than Harlin's version, holding a rating of 29% on Rotten Tomatoes
and a score of 55 out of 100 on Metacritic
, whereas Exorcist: The Beginning holds a rating of 11% on Rotten Tomatoes
and a score of 30 out of 100 on Metacritic
.
Nonetheless, the good reviews Dominion did get were much more positive than those of Harlin's version. Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
gave it three stars out of four, and wrote that it "does something risky and daring in this time of jaded horror movies: it takes evil seriously." Leslie Felperin of Variety
magazine wrote that this film is " intelligent, quietly subversive" and "Schrader has delivered a 100% Paul Schrader film, drenched in the spiritual and moral angst that's watermarked his career from Taxi Driver
(as a writer) to Auto Focus
(as a director)."
Owen Gleiberman
of Entertainment Weekly
said that "Schrader's film is a notch better than Harlin's
, but when you boil out the demon feathers, it's the same damn movie." Scott Tobias of The Onion
's A.V. Club
said that "Skarsgård [gives] a quietly mesmerizing performance," and that "Schrader's movie isn't particularly scary, but it's more substantive than The Exorcist and its sequels, because it takes demon possession out of head-spinning literalism and considers evil as something more real and commonplace."
David Edelstein
of the magazine Slate
said the film is "a good, thoughtful horror picture, and [very] close to being a very good one. Brent Simon of IGN
gave the film a score of 4 out of 10, saying: "The overall feeling Dominion gives off is one of rootless languor. You keep waiting for someone or something to show up and seize control of the picture, but it never really happens until the final confrontation, which feels like it might as well come from a different movie. It's not blood or gore that's missing, it's context; Dominion is too polite and urbane to frighten.
Director Erik Kristopher Myers, who was the first to ever review the film in 2005, wrote, "The curious thing about the Exorcist
franchise is that you have three films following the same narrative thread, but none of the chapters feel as though they belong to a greater whole. Each one plays too differently from the previous installment, destroying any sense of genuine continuity beyond names or locations. Schrader
’s film is the first to synthesize the elements of each one, whether intentionally or otherwise, and presents us with an Exorcist
that owes as much to Friedkin
as it does to Boorman
and Blatty
. At the same time, it also manages to achieve its own identity while still being directly linked to The Exorcist, Exorcist II: The Heretic
, and The Exorcist III
. No other film in the series has a genuine marriage to each of its partners the way that Schrader’s does."
and included deleted scenes
, photo gallery, and an audio commentary
by director Paul Schrader. On October 10, 2006, the film was released with The Exorcist
, The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen, Exorcist II: The Heretic
, The Exorcist III
and Exorcist: The Beginning
in a box set titled The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology.
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
. It is a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to The Exorcist
The Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
(1973).
Plot
Many years before the events in The ExorcistThe Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
, the young Father Lankester Merrin (played by Skarsgård, who played the same part in Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 prequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. This is the second version of the third Exorcist sequel. It was adapted by William Wisher Jr., Caleb Carr and Alexi Hawley, and directed by Renny Harlin...
) travels to East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
. Merrin has taken a sabbatical from the Church and devoted himself to history and archaeology as he struggles with his shattered faith. He is haunted especially by an incident in a small village in occupied Holland during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, where he served as parish priest. Near the end of the war, a sadistic Nazi SS commander, in retaliation for the murder of a German trooper, forces Merrin to participate in arbitrary executions in order to save a full village from slaughter.
He meets up with a team of archaeologists, who are seeking to unearth a church that they believe has been buried for centuries. At first, Merrin resists the idea that supernatural forces are in play, but eventually helps them, and the ensuing events result in an encounter with Pazuzu
Pazuzu (The Exorcist)
Pazuzu is a fictional character and the main antagonist in The Exorcist horror novels and film series created by William Peter Blatty. Blatty derived the character from Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, where Pazuzu was considered the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi...
, the same demon referenced in The Exorcist.
Cast
- Stellan SkarsgårdStellan SkarsgårdStellan John Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in Angels & Demons, Breaking the Waves, The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist,...
as Father Lankester Merrin - Gabriel Mann as Father Francis
- Clara Bellar as Rachel Lesno
- Billy CrawfordBilly CrawfordBilly Joe Crawford is a Filipino-American recording artist, singer-songwriter and philanthropist.Crawford is a Bilingual Filipino Singer. His second language is English and he is conversational in French. Crawford not only lived in New York City, USA, but also in Paris for five years and for one...
as Cheche - Ralph BrownRalph BrownRalph William John Brown is an English actor and writer, known for playing Danny the drug dealer in Withnail and I, the security guard Aaron in Alien 3, DJ Bob Silver in The Boat That Rocked, and the pilot Ric Olié in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace...
as Sgt. Maj. Harris - Israel Aduramo as Jomo
- Andrew FrenchAndrew French-Biography:French was born on December 10, 1859 in Green Lake County, Wisconsin. He would become a farmer....
as Chuma - Antonie KamerlingAntonie KamerlingAntonie Kamerling was a Dutch television and film actor and musician.-Biography:Antonie Kamerling was still a law student when in 1990 he was cast in the then new Dutch soap opera Good Times, Bad Times. His character, Peter Kelder, quickly became one of the most popular on the program...
as Kessel - Julian WadhamJulian Wadham-Career:He has appeared on television as both Charles II and George V...
as Maj. Granville - Mary Beth HurtMary Beth HurtMary Beth Hurt is an American actress of stage and screen.-Personal life:Hurt was born Mary Supinger in 1946 in Marshalltown, Iowa, the daughter of Delores Lenore and Forrest Clayton Supinger. Her childhood babysitter was actress Jean Seberg, also a Marshalltown native...
(uncredited) as Voice of possessed ChechePazuzu (The Exorcist)Pazuzu is a fictional character and the main antagonist in The Exorcist horror novels and film series created by William Peter Blatty. Blatty derived the character from Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, where Pazuzu was considered the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi...
Production
John FrankenheimerJohn Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...
was originally hired as director for the project, but withdrew before filming started due to health concerns. He died a month later. Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
replaced him. Dominion was essentially completed, then shelved by Morgan Creek Productions
Morgan Creek Productions
Morgan Creek Productions is an American film studio that has released box-office hits like Young Guns, Dead Ringers, Major League, True Romance, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The King and I, The Crush, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and others. The studio was co-founded in 1987 by James G...
, who feared the film would be unsuccessful and replaced Schrader with Renny Harlin
Renny Harlin
Renny Harlin is a Finnish-American film director and producer. He is best known for Die Hard 2 , Cliffhanger , The Long Kiss Goodnight and Deep Blue Sea...
as the director to make a new version of the film, Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 prequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. This is the second version of the third Exorcist sequel. It was adapted by William Wisher Jr., Caleb Carr and Alexi Hawley, and directed by Renny Harlin...
(2004). This film used basically the same plot, and the same locations and sets as Dominion but shifted the tone to a more conventional horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
. But after poor audience and critical response to Harlin's version, Morgan Creek
Morgan Creek
Morgan Creek is a stream in Mono and Inyo counties of eastern California, in the western United States.It flows from the high eastern Sierra Nevada in the Inyo National Forest, through Round Valley, to its confluence with Pine Creek near the Owens River northeast of Bishop in the Owens...
gave around $35,000 to Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
to finish his version; Morgan Creek
Morgan Creek
Morgan Creek is a stream in Mono and Inyo counties of eastern California, in the western United States.It flows from the high eastern Sierra Nevada in the Inyo National Forest, through Round Valley, to its confluence with Pine Creek near the Owens River northeast of Bishop in the Owens...
also allowed Warner Bros to release Schrader's version theatrically under the title Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist. It was released to limited showing in May 2005.
Reception
While William Peter BlattyWilliam Peter Blatty
William Peter Blatty is an American writer and filmmaker. The novel The Exorcist, written in 1971, is his magnum opus; he also penned the subsequent screenplay version of the film, for which he won an Academy Award....
, the author and screenwriter of The Exorcist
The Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
, described Dominion as "a handsome, classy, elegant piece of work", critical reaction to the film has nonetheless been mixed to negative. Many critics stated that it is only slightly better than Harlin's version, holding a rating of 29% on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and a score of 55 out of 100 on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, whereas Exorcist: The Beginning holds a rating of 11% on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and a score of 30 out of 100 on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
Nonetheless, the good reviews Dominion did get were much more positive than those of Harlin's version. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
gave it three stars out of four, and wrote that it "does something risky and daring in this time of jaded horror movies: it takes evil seriously." Leslie Felperin of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine wrote that this film is " intelligent, quietly subversive" and "Schrader has delivered a 100% Paul Schrader film, drenched in the spiritual and moral angst that's watermarked his career from Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...
(as a writer) to Auto Focus
Auto Focus
Auto Focus is a 2002 American biographical film directed by Paul Schrader that stars Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe. The screenplay by Michael Gerbosi is based on the book The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith....
(as a director)."
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
said that "Schrader's film is a notch better than Harlin's
Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 prequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. This is the second version of the third Exorcist sequel. It was adapted by William Wisher Jr., Caleb Carr and Alexi Hawley, and directed by Renny Harlin...
, but when you boil out the demon feathers, it's the same damn movie." Scott Tobias of The Onion
The Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
's A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
said that "Skarsgård [gives] a quietly mesmerizing performance," and that "Schrader's movie isn't particularly scary, but it's more substantive than The Exorcist and its sequels, because it takes demon possession out of head-spinning literalism and considers evil as something more real and commonplace."
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
David Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
of the magazine Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
said the film is "a good, thoughtful horror picture, and [very] close to being a very good one. Brent Simon of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the film a score of 4 out of 10, saying: "The overall feeling Dominion gives off is one of rootless languor. You keep waiting for someone or something to show up and seize control of the picture, but it never really happens until the final confrontation, which feels like it might as well come from a different movie. It's not blood or gore that's missing, it's context; Dominion is too polite and urbane to frighten.
Director Erik Kristopher Myers, who was the first to ever review the film in 2005, wrote, "The curious thing about the Exorcist
Exorcist
In some religions an exorcist is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or other demons. A priest, a nun, a monk, a healer, a shaman or other specially prepared or instructed person can be an exorcist...
franchise is that you have three films following the same narrative thread, but none of the chapters feel as though they belong to a greater whole. Each one plays too differently from the previous installment, destroying any sense of genuine continuity beyond names or locations. Schrader
Schrader
Schrader may refer to:People:*August Schrader , German-American inventor*Barry Schrader , American composer*Carol Schrader , American TV presenter*Clement Schrader , German Jesuit theologian...
’s film is the first to synthesize the elements of each one, whether intentionally or otherwise, and presents us with an Exorcist
The Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
that owes as much to Friedkin
William Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
as it does to Boorman
John Boorman
John Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.-Early life:Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey,...
and Blatty
William Peter Blatty
William Peter Blatty is an American writer and filmmaker. The novel The Exorcist, written in 1971, is his magnum opus; he also penned the subsequent screenplay version of the film, for which he won an Academy Award....
. At the same time, it also manages to achieve its own identity while still being directly linked to The Exorcist, Exorcist II: The Heretic
Exorcist II: The Heretic
Exorcist II: The Heretic is a 1977 American horror film and the sequel to The Exorcist , directed by John Boorman from a screenplay by William Goodhart and starring Linda Blair, Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, Max von Sydow, James Earl Jones, Ned Beatty and Kitty Winn...
, and The Exorcist III
The Exorcist III
The Exorcist III is a 1990 American supernatural thriller written and directed by William Peter Blatty. It is the second sequel of The Exorcist series and a film adaptation of Blatty's novel, Legion . The film stars George C. Scott, Brad Dourif, Ed Flanders, and Nicol Williamson...
. No other film in the series has a genuine marriage to each of its partners the way that Schrader’s does."
Home media
The film was released on DVD October 25, 2005 by Warner Home VideoWarner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
and included deleted scenes
Deleted Scenes
A deleted scene is a scene removed from or replaced by another scene in the final version of a film or television series.It may also refer to:* "Deleted Scenes", an episode of the Adult Swim animated television series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force...
, photo gallery, and an audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
by director Paul Schrader. On October 10, 2006, the film was released with The Exorcist
The Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
, The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen, Exorcist II: The Heretic
Exorcist II: The Heretic
Exorcist II: The Heretic is a 1977 American horror film and the sequel to The Exorcist , directed by John Boorman from a screenplay by William Goodhart and starring Linda Blair, Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, Max von Sydow, James Earl Jones, Ned Beatty and Kitty Winn...
, The Exorcist III
The Exorcist III
The Exorcist III is a 1990 American supernatural thriller written and directed by William Peter Blatty. It is the second sequel of The Exorcist series and a film adaptation of Blatty's novel, Legion . The film stars George C. Scott, Brad Dourif, Ed Flanders, and Nicol Williamson...
and Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 prequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. This is the second version of the third Exorcist sequel. It was adapted by William Wisher Jr., Caleb Carr and Alexi Hawley, and directed by Renny Harlin...
in a box set titled The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology.
External links
- Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist at ComingSoon.net
- Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist at Box Office ProphetsBox Office ProphetsBox Office Prophets is a web site that contains movie-related features and information. Debuting on July 25, 2001, the site is a de facto sequel to the now-defunct the-prophets.com, a movie web site started in 1998...
- "Schrader's Exorcism"
- Official site