- Director: Paul Schrader
- Writers: William Wisher, Caleb Carr
- Stars: Stellan Skarsgård, Gabriel Mann, Clara Bellar
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 57 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3fuNnLo
Synopsis
Holland 1944. A Bunch of Nazis round up the villagers over a murdered officer. Father Merrin is selected from the crowd, and the officer orders him to choose ten innocent civilians to die or he will kill them all. “God isn’t here today,” taunts the officer. The officer orders them all killed, so Merrin starts pointing at the old men.
In 1947 in British East Africa, Father Francis talks to Major Granville about Mr. Merrin, who used to be a priest but is now an archaeologist. Granville blackmails Merrin into taking Father Francis along as a sort of watchdog. Merrin is working on unearthing an old church that has been buried.
They arrive on the site and meet some of the locals. The old church is remarkably well preserved, almost as if it were buried on purpose right after it was built. Joseph and James are the only little boys in the village, so they won’t need to build a new school.
There’s a wild man, Cheche, who walks with a cane. The other villagers think he’s cursed. Merrin leaves water out for him, but he won’t approach the others. Merrin gets threatened by some really bad CGI hyenas.
Merrin and Dr. Rachel have dinner, and she talks about her time in the concentration camp. Merrin has a weird dream punctuated by the face of the demon from Exorcist II.
Finally, they get the church unearthed enough to enter. It’s not a normal church, it looks like it was built to hold something inside. There’s a sarcophagus that opens into a secret passage. When they open it up, Cheche the wild boy gets agitated in his hospital bed. They find a statue that doesn’t look at all like Pazuzu.
The cows are attacked by hyenas, but the cows eat them all, get sick, and die. The elders see this as a bad sign that the old church is evil. Father Francis calls in the military to protect them all from looters. The pair of soldiers who are guarding the church go inside to look around. They start prying precious stones off the altar… And their mutilated corpses are found the next day.
They bring in a surgeon to fix Cheche’s leg, and before long, it’s completely healing, but it should have taken weeks. Miraculously, his deformed arms starts to straighten out on its own.
Major Granville gets irrationally angry with the villagers and executes one of them in front of everybody. Merrin punches Granville, and is arrested. The next day, the natives are revolting, and several children are killed, which Father Francis takes badly. Not long after, Granville kills himself.
Francis prays over Cheche, thinking he’s blessed, but Cheche reacts quite the opposite from what was expected. Francis wants to baptist Cheche, but Cheche wants it done in the church.
Tensions between the Africans and the British increase, and the Sergeant Major calls for more reinforcements. The Africans insist that they hand over Father Francis and Cheche or the rest will be killed. Meanwhile, Cheche has red eyes and makes it really obvious that he’s possessed.
Father Francis is attacked by the locals and asks for last rites. He explains that Cheche is possessed. Merrin goes back into the church and sees what Cheche has become. The two of the have a long conversation about faith and temptation. Merrin goes out and gets his priest equipment and prepares to do battle. Yes, he’s a priest again.
Merrin starts the exorcism ritual. Merrin sees himself in the past with the Nazis, but this time, it goes even worse. That doesn’t sway Merrin, who continues with the ritual. Meanwhile, all Hell breaks loose with the soldiers and Africans.
Then, the exorcism is over, and everything is fine everywhere. The soldiers go home, and Merrin heads off to Rome.
Commentary
So, when The Exorcist IV: Dominion was being shot, the production company fired and replaced the director, and ninety percent of the film was reshot. It flopped at the box office, so they recut the original director’s vision into this film. It’s essentially the exact same story, but with several different actors and situations. They didn’t even have the Pazuzu statue for this one.
The sets and props are mostly very different, and almost without exception are low-budget. There’s a lot more going on between the Africans and the British soldiers. The CGI is atrocious at best, but this film isn’t about the monsters, it’s about the drama of the situation. It’s more psychological than anything else.
I liked it. It’s a good movie, again, just don’t come for the monsters.