10 Remakes That Completely Missed The Point

3. Exorcist: The Beginning

In a move similar to what happened to "I Am Legend", this Exorcist prequel stands unique as a remake of a film that was entirely finished and tested badly. Rather than re-edit the existing footage or shoot new scenes to address concerns from audience reactions, the WHOLE MOVIE was remade with a new director (Renny Harlin). I'm choosing to count this because both films are available (The initial film, "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist" is in fact available to stream on Netflix. "Exorcist: The Beginning" is not.) I've seen both. Neither are particularly good, but "Dominion" at least seems to recognize the source material and is concerned with telling a story earlier in the life of Father Merrin, the elderly clergyman originally portrayed by Max Von Sydow in "The Exorcist". The pace of "Dominion" is pretty gradual, and seems very concerned with things that happen - it just doesn't necessarily show them. This is pretty much the way both "The Exorcist" and "Exorcist III: Legion" worked. (We don't talk about "Exorcist II: The College Years".) It's by no means a perfect movie, but it feels like a work that has some connection with these earlier films. "Exorcist: the Beginning", by contrast, seems to think that by putting things that were in the Exorcist canon in a movie and having at least two character possessions they've successfully completed their movie. Stellan Skaarsgard (who had to be a bit confused being Father Merrin in two totally different films) tries equally hard in both films but in "Exorcist: The Beginning" he often seems confused as to if this is a serious film or a blockbuster action remake of "The Exorcist" - He veers from introspective and unsure of his faith to the kind of action movie cliche who just blunders in to play hero because it's the final scene and time for a confrontation. The film clearly is strained for resources too (They did just throw an ENTIRE MOVIE out), so set pieces like a wild dog attack are let down by appalling CGI and locations are reused in ways that scream "It's what we already had" rather than making any narrative sense. Other films in "The Exorcist" series succeeded because they told a story and invested you in the character's lives. Even lesser "Possession/Exorcism" films that have come out in years since realize that for their stories to work you need to be invested in the characters and want to see the suffering party saved - While "Dominion" attempts to do the same, "Exorcist: the Beginning" expects you to care about Father Merrin because he's Father Merrin. If you take that away, there's little to care about worth saving. Perversely, with all the similar locations in "Dominion" that have less relevance to the plot in the remake it's literally as though having a character study was conscientiously avoided in favour of drumming up demon problems. "Dominion" and "The Beginning" prove that no one got the point from the outset: The studio didn't want an Exorcist prequel, they wanted action-paced movie with elements of "The Exorcist". They could've shot "Paranormal Activity" a few years early and saved a lot of trouble and money......

ARGH: Well, there's the fact that you only know it's an Exorcist film because BAM! In the last ten minutes a girl starts doing her best Linda Blair possession voice and mocking Father Merrin like it's 1975 all over again. In its defense, the previous hour and a half has such tenuous connections to the film it's supposed to be that the crassness is almost justified. IRREPLACEABLE ELEMENT: I'm not sure there is one. This is such a weird case, it's literally a remake of a so-so movie. That said, they realized their film fell short, remade it, and totally missed the point of what they were going for in the first place. So, at least its inclusion here makes sense.....