Exorcist: The Beginning
Movie, 2004, Father Merrin, Set in Kenya, 1949
Exorcist: The Beginning is #4 of 7 in release order and #1 of 7 in chronological order in the The Exorcist.
The story
Years before Father Merrin helped save Regan MacNeil’s soul, he first encounters the demon Pazuzu in East Africa.
Exorcist: The Beginning recap
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) sends a young Father Lankester Merrin, his faith lost, to a dig in British Kenya where a buried church lies intact. Renny Harlin directs, with Stellan Skarsgård as Merrin. In 1949 Merrin is still haunted by the day a Nazi officer forced him to choose villagers to be shot in occupied Holland. A collector hires him to bring back a demon relic from the church, built 1,500 years earlier far beyond where Christianity had reached. With Father Francis (James D'Arcy) and the doctor Sarah Novak (Izabella Scorupco), he finds angel statues pointing their spears down, an upside-down cross and a pagan temple underneath with a statue of Pazuzu. Hyenas kill a boy, a baby is born dead with maggots, and the lead archaeologist kills himself after speaking in the Nazi's voice. Merrin opens empty graves and learns the church was built to seal in evil. It is set before The Exorcist and replaced Dominion, the first version.
Exorcist: The Beginning ending explained
Exorcist: The Beginning ends with Merrin learning that Sarah is the one possessed. She kills Francis, and Merrin performs an exorcism in the temple beneath the church; Sarah dies. Outside, British troops and local tribesmen have wiped each other out. Merrin returns to Rome as a priest again and tells the collector he found no relic. Dominion, Paul Schrader's original cut, tells the story differently.
Post-credits scenes
No. Exorcist: The Beginning has no mid- or post-credits scene.
Where to watch Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning is streaming on Tubi in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 5.1/10, Rotten Tomatoes 10%
Where it fits
- Release order: after The Exorcist III, before Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
- Chronological order: first, before Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
What to watch before Exorcist: The Beginning
In release order, the essentials before Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) are The Exorcist (1973), Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), and The Exorcist III (1990).
Cast
- Stellan Skarsgård as Father Lankester Merrin
- Izabella Scorupco as Sarah Lesno
- James D'Arcy as Father Francis
- Julian Wadham as Major Granville
- Remy Sweeney as Joseph
- Andrew French as Chuma
- Antonie Kamerling as Lieutenant Kessel
- Ben Cross as Semelier
- Alan Ford as Jefferies
- Ralph Brown as Sergeant Major
- David Bradley as Father Gionetti
- Eddie Osei as Emekwi
Directed by Renny Harlin.