Exorcist: The Beginning, any1 see it?

Been a while since I saw that movie, or the sequel for that matter.

I'm not sure but I think some of that may have been explained in the sequel (which was just weird and needed several watchings to understand everything that went on).

If I remember right, The demon, Pazuzzu or something, wanted Father Merrin, because he had driven out that same demon years earlier during a stint in Ethiopia (It is never explainend what the heck he was doing there in the first place, Ethiopians are not exactly eager to be converted, having been Christians far longer than the Europeans.)

As non-religious person I found the Exorcist series decidedly non-frightening.

The original "The Exorcist" wasn't particularly oriented with the demon as a manifistation of a Christian concept of the Devil. The exorcism was unsuccessful if you recall and the demon could easily be a psychological manifistation gone totally rapid. The suggestion is definetely there that the inflicted has telekinetic powers. Even the turning head could be an illusion caused by the psychic, hypnotic powers that could have been hightened by a psychological illness. The priests are obviously baffled that their exorcism is unsuccessful. Even the ending could be a telekinetic/hypnotic event. IMHO, the film is opened to interpretation on many levels. I haven't seen the new film but the reviews are terrible:


http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/exorcist_the_beginning/

I doubt I'll being plunking down the price of admission even for a matinee. I doubt whether I would ever rent the DVD nor even see it for free on cable. Maybe there should be a special cable channel for no star movies.

Yikes -- you should warn SPOILER AHEAD for those who haven't seen the movie. I tried to skirt around giving it away. It still remains for me as a metaphysical event and not necessarily the traditional Christian demon.

The sequel, of course, followed the tradition of being an inferior rehash and III was a travesty where elsewhere on the forum I alluded to the idea that it almost fatally damaged George C. Scott's career.

I saw "The Beginning" this weekend and I thought it was pretty good. It was pretty scary...not the stuff jump out at you scary but real "this is freaky" kind of scary.

I didn't have high expectaions of the movie but was pleasantly suprised by it.

"Exorcist" is headed towards your local video store soon. It dropped to number 5 with an almost unprecedented drop in ticket sales. Apparantly the bad reviews and word-of-mouth sent the film into the dumpster.

Just an update if anyone hasn't followed the box office thread. This film has dropped out of the top ten and could easily be added to the list of abject dissapointments critically and in box office.