Review of Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist (2005) by Jason Y — 05 Nov 2005

[b]DVD[/b] First Viewing, 2 Schrader films seen.

I was crushed when Schrader's cut was not released as an extra feature to the DVD of Renny Harlin's [i]Exorcist: The Beginning[/i]. What was once a fine attempt by a studio to please fans of the franchise soon turned into a greedy situation. When Harlin's cut didn't make much money in the box office, they decided they had to do something with Schrader's.

Neither are very good movies, but it is extremely clear to me that Schrader's cut is the film that should have seen the initial theatrical release. Harlin is an incompetent director who can't go three seconds without poorly executed special effects and horrible dialogue. Did anyone see [i]Mindhunters[/i]? Or am I still the only one?

I have seen all of the [i]Exorcist[/i] films. The original will always reign supreme, but not many people know that the third one is also quite good. You should check that out if you accidentally saw the lousy first sequel on AMC mistaking it for the original. If you saw Harlin's cut of [i]The Beginning[/i], please do yourself a service and compare it to Schrader's cut. Even if you don't like it, it is really interesting to see two completely different approaches to similar material.