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Still disapoints me that this did not make it into Dominion
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That is why I chose Beginning. There “is” a Pazuzu/Captain Howdy in this. What does Dominion give us? A four year olds art project and a weird guy in a costume.
Sorry to be the skunk at this garden party, and I realize that this post probably won’t win me many friends, BUT I find Dominion to be the superior film.
Starting out with the trivial, first: just contrast the DVD cover art of the two films. Beginning has a “scary screaming demon face” suggesting straight horror, whereas Dominion has a thoughtfully-shot silhouette of Merrin with his Rosary, suggesting a tale of faith and spirituality. Both films proceed along the lines of these small details, and for me, Dominion comes out on top. Beginning’s only strong point is its reasonably short running time and fast pacing. Beginning is a popular-audience film. Dominion “feels” more like an art-house piece.
Dominion gets to Merrin’s spiritual center; Beginning does not. Shooting a film about Merrin’s first encounter with the demon without centralizing Merrin’s spiritual crisis and its resolution is a pointless endeavor. Yes, the crisis is there in Beginning, but it remains secondary to the spook-show and the Brits vs. the Natives War. Dominion delves much more deeply into Merrin’s character, and places much more emphasis on his redemption.
Even Dominion’s carefully honed soundtrack has a hand in explicating Merrin’s crisis: Merrin has a nightmare in which a long-haired, red-headed woman, presumably one of the witnesses to the Nazi officer’s shooting spree, confronts Merrin while on the soundtrack, a lone female voice is heard wailing a little tune: “Bring him back to me…” asking the guilty, impotent Merrin to bring back to her a child or some other loved one shot by the German troops. Beginning contains no such subtlety, even though it does tinker with sentimentality via the shot of the murdered little girl’s “ghost” who appears in the underground cave scene, but it’s not really very much in contrast to Dominion’s power.
Worse, Beginning seems to want to make a connection to the dreadful Exorcist II: The Heretic, where the elderly hospital priest tells Merrin that a person can be “brushed by the wings” of a demon. It’s as if Harlin, in an ecstasy of self-loathing, resurrected one of Heretic’s most ludicrous themes and grafted it into Beginning.
Dominion handles the possession itself with more subtlety than does Harlin’s film. Harlin’s script has a male child being possessed, but then for no discernable reason, the demon jumps from the kid into a female nurse, who (gag) begins to mentsruate, even though she is no longer physically capable of it. I mean: Jesus, this really is a pop horror junk movie. The possessed nurse then proceeds to rape Merrin (cowgirl position, Gee-HAW) while spouting some of the most foolishly degraded dialogue ever penned for film. Dominion’s demonic dialogue is virtual Shakespeare compared to Beginning’s tomfoolery.
On the other hand, however, Dominion, like the original Exorcist, has a single-person possession, but with a very interesting twist: the young victim, Che Che, is a severely deformed native whose condition, as the possession progresses, becomes increasingly improved, until, when completely possessed, is “perfection”. This reversal of the “possession makes a person really ugly and ‘demonic’-looking” is theologically apt, since after all Satan is supposedly an “angel of light” and is capable of manifesting as such.
Dominion contains a couple of “Blattyesque” themes, which commend it in terms of faithfulness to the original author’s intentions: Nurse Rachel, after seeing Che Che’s improvement under Merrin’s care, and after explaining to Merrin her imprisonment in a Nazi prison camp, tells Merrin, “Sometimes I think the best view of God is from Hell”, a typically Blattian piece of irony; the original novel’s ongoing theme of Merrin’s sinful pride is also addressed, when Fr. Francis lashes out at Merrin, scolding him for mocking in others a faith that once sustained Merrin himself. This theological view and depth is utterly lacking in Harlin’s film, which in contrast to Dominion, has virtually no “Blatty feel”.
Neither film, of course, is “great” cinema. The exorcism scenes in both – an exorcism that Blatty says went on for months and “damn near killed” Merrin – are ludicrously simple, tame and of course, sfx-bound. They should at least have lasted over a period of days … AND this prolonged format could have been the perfect place to have introduced Merrin’s heart condition. Having shown the exorcism nearly killing Merrin, certainly Dominion could have ended with Merrin’s conversation with Rachel handing him his new nitro prescription, saying, “Don’t forget to take this”, and Merrin replying with a smile, “Yes, we do need to keep my heart beating”.
There’s no accounting for taste. Mine may differ from yours, and vice-versa. I suppose which film comes out higher on one’s list depends on the expectations one brings to the Exorcist franchise. If you’re thinking of a fast-paced but pedestrian horrror flick, then you’ll prefer Beginning. If you’re thinking of a more studiously-paced theological character study appealing to more minority tastes, you’ll prefer Dominion.
Pazuzu is specifically a Middle Eastern god. No such entitiy existed in Africa when Merrin was “stationed” there. – therefore Pazuzu does not appear as a character in Dominion. The demon never reveals its identity to Merrin in Africa. All that Merrrin knows is that, as the tribal elder tells him, the demon will be pursuing him from now on. Twelve years later in Iraq, Merrin gets premonitions that the demon he exorcised in Africa is now in very close pursuit, and that Merrin will once again “face an ancient enemy”. Director Paul Schrader, however, did make a nod toward the franchise by showing a sort of “African version” of a winged demon that is meant to resonate with the Friedkin film's Pazuzu. Dominion's demon sculpture seems a mere stick figure in contrast to Friedkin's giant statue, but it's there in the shadows, creating a kind of resonance between Schrader's and Friedkin's films.
Granville,your pretty on the nose, Im not so great with words.
but you have described most of my feelings on the matter.
for me Dominion is the superior film, maybe not a great one, and has some missed opertunities, but it does feel more like an Exorcist film thematically.
And thats how I tried to present it in my mock teaser, to connect the themes.
In general, Im able to watch it, then the Exorcist, and feel more informed on the Character of Merrin, I always found him to be a compelling enigma is certain ways, he didn’t need his back story told, but I felt it would be intriguing, and the African flashbacks are the only part of the Heretic I can really watch, but that was really just to see Max playing a younger Merrin.
I actually liked the voice of the Demon in The Beginning, but the profane language I found laughable.
I like the Africanized version of Pazuzu in Dominion, although I do have my moments where I wish it would have resembled the Iraq version a bit more, I’ve grown to accept it the way it is.
I would like to have seen more talk between the Demon and Merrin in Dominion, and in earlier script drafts there were.
I prefer the idea that the Demons tactics are not quite the same in Dominion, the Demon is in a differn’t setting, dealing with differn’t people, it’s not Manifesting through a little girl, it’s not not trying to shock people with a littler girl doing vulgar and disgusting things, that was always part of the act, it was perfectly capable and willing to speak in more civilized fashion, but doing that through a little girl would not be very effective.
I prefer the depiction of the Demon in Dominion, but I’ve always thought it would have played out better and been a bit more satisfying, if the Demon totally flips out on Merrin, when Merrin finally makes it clear that the Demon can'’t tempt him, it gets pissed, and it’s beautified look washes away, and it becomes a more recognizable Howdy Demon, and Physically fights merrin, and has resorted to something very primal and raging.
I think that would have played out better, it also would have been a great way to Put Merrin through so much physical Strain that he even has a stroke or a heart attack in the process, but stell defeats the Demon.
Im glad the name Pazuzu was not used onscreen in either prequel
But captain howdy was used in both. Well sort of. There might not of been a name but at least we seen him. Right?
with the Beginning, the captain howdy that showed up atleast twice was crap, the only way I new what it was because tv spots and trailers clearly showed ith there, but in the actual movie, the image of the face had a transparancy filter added, so there was a little wavy transparancy, but not recognizable.
I was hugely disapointed that it did not make it into the final version of ETB.
the TVspot for Dominion, suggested that there would be a howdy like creature of some sort. instead it was a quck face morph, but I still liked it.
I had really wanted to see something like this
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