Exorcist: The Beginning rated R for strong violence and gore, disturbing images and rituals, and for language including some sexual dialogue

Even though the first Exorcist movie scared me pretty well, I was curious about this one both because of the premise of it being a prequel and because of Stellan Skarsgard being cast as Father Merrin.

In this prequel we find a younger Father Merrin (played by Stellan Skarsgard) who is struggling with his faith while participating in an archaeological dig in East Africa.  A church has been found completely buried in the sand. Father Merrin is assisted in the dig by a team including Father Francis (played by James D'Arcy) who is supposed to protect any religious artifacts that they come across and a doctor named Sarah (played by Izabella Scorupco).

Father Merrin is haunted by what he did in Holland as a young man and his helplessness in that situation.  He tries to push aside his nightmares and his struggles with his faith as he focuses on the dig.

Strangely enough, when Father Merrin shows up at the excavation site, there is an air of darkness at the site.  It seems that as more and more of the church is uncovered strange and frightening events start to happen to various members of the the dig including a child getting mauled by hyenas while his brother is left unmolested.

And so it is that Father Merrin has his first encounter with the demon Pazuzu.  Pazuzu is apparently the same demon that possesses Regan in The Exorcist.  Through his battle with Pazuzu Father Merrin works hard to regain his faith while trying to perform an exorcism on Sarah.

The film had some definitely frightening moments although there are other movies that are scarier.  The story for this film was very good.  The acting was great.

As I stated above I watched this movie partly because of Stellan Skarsgard.  I personally think that he is a great actor and is worthy of the critical acclaim that he has gained over the years.  He is great at subtly adding depth to characters.

I am a little confused by the similarities between this film and Dominion:  Prequel to the Exorcist that was released in 2005.  The two movies are so similar that it feels like Dominion was a remake of this picture.  I've heard that the difference is mainly in the styles of the respective directors.