Dominion:
Prequel to The Exorcist

Director Paul Schrader goes back to The Beginning and does it one better by adding evils that are human

	Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist
	Starring Stellan Skarsgard, Gabriel Mann, Clara Bellar and Billy Crawford
	Written by William Wisher and Caleb Carr
	Directed by Paul Schrader
	Warner Brothers/Morgan Creek
	Rated R
	Opened in limited release May 20

By Patrick Lee

n 1944 Holland, Father Lankester Merrin (Skarsgard) faces an unimaginable choice: A Nazi officer (Antonie Kamerling) wants him to choose 10 villagers to be executed as a reprisal, or he will kill them all. A horrified Merrin beseeches him for mercy, invoking God's name. "God isn't here today," the officer replies. As the shooting begins, Merrin makes his choices.

Three years later, Merrin is no longer a priest. He's an archaeologist working in British East Africa, where he has made a startling discovery: what appears to be a Byzantine church, buried in the desert.

The Vatican, concerned that the church's relics be properly cared for, has dispatched the earnest young priest, Father Francis (Mann), to observe. Merrin wants nothing to do with him, or the church, but the region's presiding military officer, Major Granville (Julian Wadham), forces him. "We will make our little deal with the devil," Merrin says.

Merrin's headquarters is a small Turkana village with a tiny hospital run by Dr. Rachel Lesno (Bellar), a survivor of a Nazi camp.

At the dig, Merrin and Father Francis uncover more mysteries as they unearth the church. It appears to have been buried just after it was completed. It's far too old to be there, and yet there it is. And the church seems to be looking downward, as if it were built to hold something in, not exalt the heavens.

In the village, meanwhile, Dr. Lesno has begun treating Cheche (Crawford), a crippled outcast boy.

The local Turkana tribesmen don't like it. And they don't like the archaeological dig, which they fear is freeing an unnameable evil. Major Granville sends in troops to keep the peace. But why are the hyenas coming round? And what lies beneath the church?

A prequel far more equal

If a casual moviegoer finds herself saying, "Wait, I've seen this movie before," she won't be entirely wrong. Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist is the first version of a prequel to the classic 1973 supernatural horror film, from the helmer of the critically acclaimed Auto Focus. Shot in 2003, Dominion was turned in to Morgan Creek, which decided it wasn't scary enough, then scrapped and completely reshot it, with a new script and a new director, actionmeister Renny Harlin. That movie, called Exorcist: The Beginning, was released last year to disastrous reviews and poor box office, prompting Morgan Creek to take another look at Schrader's movie.

Both films share roughly the same plot, from veteran screenwriter Wisher and Alienist author Carr, but that's where the similarity ends. Schrader's film, shot with what might be called a heightened realism, deals with the psychology behind the supernatural events, in particular Merrin's crisis of faith and his eventual journey back to God. It is as different from Harlin's movie as the devil is from a 13-year-old girl.

The horrors in Schrader's movie are mainly those visited by humans, not demons: atrocities delivered by Nazis, British soldiers, African tribesmen. All of the characters, right down to the saintly doctor and former concentration camp survivor played by A.I.'s Bellar, have a dark side. And Schrader neatly flips the possession conventions of the first movie: Instead of a girl who physically deteriorates as evil takes over, Dominion offers up a ravaged boy who moves toward physical perfection as the demon awakes, while evil spreads over the village like a shadow. The film delves into themes of faith, guilt and redemption that the Calvinist-educated Schrader has plumbed in his other movies.

But though Dominion is a far better film than Harlin's Beginning, it remains a chimera: a serious art film grafted to a genre movie. (Schrader stepped in to direct Dominion only a few months before production started, filling in for the ailing John Frankenheimer.) As such, it's not completely successful: The psychology is ultimately too sketchy, while the genre elements are too wan. (Morgan Creek was right: It's not that scary, though it has some suspense.)

Still, the existence of the two movies gives film buffs a unique opportunity to compare and contrast different treatments of the same subject matter. It's especially fascinating to see how an accomplished actor like Skarsgard, who stars in both movies, can deliver a nuanced performance in Schrader's movie, then puff up the same character to fulfill the mechanical requirements of Harlin's gorefest. —Patrick

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Also in this issue: The Life & Times of Juniper Lee and Spaceballs Collector's-Edition DVD

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