Poster of Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist

Drama, Horror, Thriller

Director: Paul Schrader

Release Date: August 1, 2005

Where to Watch

Somewhere in this mess is a good movie, but don’t bother looking for it. The CGI is better in Christian films & they’re made on a shoestring budget— not good for a Hollywood movie, especially one made by a great director, Paul Schrader. Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist reminds me of the X-Files episodes–if only the agents spoke Spanish & weren’t ignorant of local custom, the crime would have been solved a whole lot earlier & prevented a lot of bloodshed. The script leaves too many unanswered questions: why does the entire village think that Che Che is cursed, why is a Filipino boy in the middle of an African country, why is a demon eager to be a good therapist to help Merrin get over his past so Merrin can be a more effective exorcist and why would a demon stick around & wait to get exorcised when it takes the priests a really long time to get their supplies together to start the exorcism. With that said, the strong points were Stellan Skarsgard (I hope that he bought a boat or paid his mortgage), who adds a believable gravity to the well known role of Father Merrin & has to somehow hold this mess together, the idea of evil behind repeated war atrocities regardless of time, place or nationality, and how to deal with guilt when trying to defeat evil.

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