Exorcist: The Beginning

Set well before the events of The Exorcist, this horror film follows Father Lankester Merrin, a Dutch priest whose faith has been shaken by his experiences during the Second World War. He travels to Africa and joins an archaeological expedition in Kenya, where a British-backed dig has unearthed a Byzantine church that was buried on the very day it was completed. Beneath the church lies an older crypt, and what the team finds there draws Merrin into his first confrontation with a demonic presence.

Stellan Skarsgård plays Merrin, with Izabella Scorupco, James D'Arcy, Julian Wadham, Remy Sweeney and Andrew French among the credited cast of twenty-eight. Renny Harlin directed; the screenplay is by Alexi Hawley, and James G. Robinson produced. It is the twelfth of the twenty-eight films Harlin has directed in chronological order, arriving between Mindhunters and The Covenant, and it was made for a reported 80 million dollars, returning 78 million worldwide.

Audience response has been muted: on IMDb the film holds 5.1 out of 10 from around 42,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.4 out of 10 from roughly 900 votes. A critics' rating of 3.7 out of 10, drawn from 131 reviews, sits below both audience figures.