Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist Blu-ray Movie Review

Long Is the Way and Hard

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 26, 2014

Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist is currently available on Blu-ray only as part of The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology.

In the early years of this century, production company Morgan Creek commissioned what would turn out to be the best followup so far to William Friedkin's 1973 landmark The Exorcist. Based on a screenplay by William Wisher (Terminator 2) and novelist Caleb Carr, the new film would provide an "origin story" for Father Lankester Merrin, the elderly priest played by Max Von Sydow in Friedkin's film. Originally it was to be helmed by John Frankenheimer, but he had to withdraw during pre-production for health reasons (he died shortly after in July 2002). Frankenheimer was replaced by Paul Schrader, who had scripted The Last Temptation of Christ for Martin Scorsese and who seemed an ideal choice, given the recurrent themes of sin and redemption in Schrader's own films.

With an international cast, visuals overseen by three-time Oscar winner Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now), exotic locations in Morocco and interiors built at Italy's legendary Cinecittà studios, Schrader proceeded to deliver an intriguing tale of how Father Merrin lost his faith during World War II, then regained it in his first confrontation with the mysteries of demonic possession. In the process, Schrader raised provocative questions about the nature of evil, whether it's an independent force or something that cannot exist unless man surrenders to it and does its bidding. The film was character-driven, much as Friedkin's had been (a facet of the original Exorcist that is often forgotten), but it also contained a few strategically placed gore effects.

So what happened? Morgan Creek, having apparently learned nothing from the experience of Exorcist II: The Heretic and The Exorcist III, saw a rough cut, decided it wasn't scary enough and shelved the film. After firing Schrader, they had the script rewritten and brought in Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger) to reshoot a loud, bloody piece of popcorn entertainment, which was released in August 2004 as Exorcist: The Beginning—and grossed less than Harlin's and Schrader's combined budgets. No one thought Harlin's film was anything special, probably because it wasn't. Competently assembled, it was a ball of generic cheese that borrowed key references from a horror classic and did nothing original with them.

Following the poor reception of The Beginning, Morgan Creek gave Schrader a limited budget to complete Dominion so that it could have a limited release in May 2005. By then, however, the well had been poisoned. "Haven't we already seen this before?" was the general reaction, although praise came from a few key voices, including Exorcist author William Peter Blatty. Today, with Harlin's film having faded from memory, Schrader's version may finally gets its due, even if Warner Home Video doesn't think enough of it to give the Blu-ray a separate release, so that one must purchase The Exorcist: The Complete Anthology to acquire the disc.

Dominion finds Father Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) as a Dutch priest ministering to the people of a small village as best he can in 1944 during the final days of the Nazi occupation. Forced by a German officer (Antonie Kamerling) to choose which of his parishioners will live and which will die, Merrin prays for help, only to be told by the merciless commander that "God is not here today". The trauma of the experience leaves him a broken man.

Two years later, Merrin is pursuing archaeological research in British East Africa, where he is intrigued by a discovery in the Turkana valley: a Christian church dating from an era before Christianity was known to have reached the region. The area falls under the jurisdiction of a British army officer, Major Granville (Julian Wadham), and the Vatican has sent a missionary, Father Francis (Gabrien Mann), to oversee the religious elements of the excavation (and also, it appears, to keep an eye on Merrin, who is not trusted by Rome).

In the town near the dig site, Merrin finds a friend in Dr. Rachel Lesno (Clara Bellar), whose identity as a concentration camp survivor is betrayed by the tattoo on her arm. Father Francis receives a warm reception from hotelier Emekwi (Eddie Osei), whose sons, James and Joseph (Omari Carter and Adrian Black), become the first pupils in the missionary's new school. An interpreter, Chuma (Andrew French), serves as Merrin's ambassador to the local tribe, which is deeply suspicious of both the archaeological expedition and Father Francis' Christian proselytizing. (Merrin himself views Francis with detached amusement.)

The tribe's concerns appear to be justified, as strange events accompany the unearthing of the buried church, which appears to have been deliberately buried after being constructed as some sort of containment for something beneath it. The troubles are small enough at first to be disturbing but explainable, just as they were in the original Exorcist: a digger who collapses in raving fits (heat stroke, perhaps); the unseasonal appearance of packs of jackals; cattle who seem to go violently mad, then die. But the most striking developments concern a young crippled boy known as Cheche (French pop star Billy Crawford, in elaborate prosthetics), whose deformities have made him an outcast. Under Dr. Lesno's care, he makes a miraculous recovery to full health, beyond anything the doctor expected. (As Schrader notes in his commentary, Cheche is the opposite of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist, because he's an innocent whose health improves, while those around him sicken.)

When the local tribe becomes sufficiently concerned to threaten the dig site, Father Francis calls on Major Granville for aid, and the presence of British troops escalates the situation to the brink of all-out war. Merrin watches aghast as he sees the same bloodlust he witnessed among the Nazis surging anew all around him, but now he suspects that the source lies beneath the ancient church he has been exploring. The question is whether he can find within himself the will to confront the evil that has been released—an evil that, when attacked, retaliates with a psychological assault using everything from Merrin's past that most unnerves him. (Sound familiar?)

Schrader keeps Dominion focused relentlessly on Merrin, and Skarsgård gives a subtle but compelling performance in which his inner struggle is always visible on his face and in his eyes, but without overt theatricality. He is completely believable as a younger version of the man who, having lived through the experiences of Dominion, acquires the certainty and spiritual fortitude of the professional exorcist who will appear at the door of the MacNeil household some twenty-six years later, where another, younger priest is wrestling with many of the same doubts that Merrin must overcome in the wilds of East Africa. After watching Dominion, you may find that Max Von Sydow's exchanges with Father Karras in The Exorcist play differently, because you now know what's behind them.

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Both Schrader's Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning were shot by famed cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, but they are presented on Blu-ray and DVD in different aspect ratios. And thereby hangs a tale.

Ever the innovator, in 1998 Storaro proposed a new shooting format called "Univisium", which was designed to provide an ideal medium for both theatrical exhibition and HDTV presentation. The format had other advantages, including image quality and the ability to film longer takes without changing magazines, but the key point for present purposes is that its aspect ratio was 2.00:1. (Those familiar with Storaro's involvement in home video releases of his work will recall that this is the AR for which he reframed The Last Emperor and, for versions before Blu-ray, Apocalypse Now.)

To date, almost no one other than Storaro has filmed in the Univisium format, but the two Exorcist prequels were shot that way. Harlin's film was slightly cropped at top and bottom for 2.39:1 exhibition. I did not see Schrader's film theatrically, but since no commercial theater is equipped for Univisium's 2.00:1 projection, the originally photographed format could not be shown theatrically. On video Dominion has had various presentations, but the Blu-ray is formatted at 1.78:1, which means that the left and right have been cut off slightly. However, if one did not know this, nothing about the composition would suggest that anything was missing. This is consistent with Storaro's design of Univisium as a "compromise" format between HDTV's 1.78:1 and the 2.20:1 AR of 65mm.

Questions of AR aside, Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray features a good, if not exceptional, reproduction of Storaro's meticulous lighting. (Listen to the commentary for a detailed description of the cinematographer's unique methods.) Blacks are solid, a critical element whenever the film descends into underground passageways or the action occurs at night; contrast is sufficient to bring out detail without overwhelming it; and the palette runs the gamut from the chill of the Dutch winter in which the film opens to the intense heat of the African sun under which Merrin and Father Francis, each in his own way, confront the forces of evil. Schrader was especially proud of the fact that the film uses minimal CG; most of the sets were actually built, either on location in Morocco or on soundstages at Cinecittà. Dominion is especially noteworthy in today's CG-dominated markets for its "old-school" approach.

Like the other newly issued films in Exorcist: The Complete Anthology, Dominion was been relegated by Warner to a BD-25. With a 116-minute running time, its average bitrate is a mere 18.37 Mbps, which is too low for a film with such complex imagery and action. Although there probably was little visible grain to begin with, thanks to the high quality of the image created by the Univisium process, the Blu-ray image is so uniformly smooth that it suggests some high-frequency filtering to facilitate such tight compression. Judicious filtering is preferable to compression artifacts, of which there were none, but a far better solution would be to spring for a BD-50 and permit a higher bitrate.

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Although Schrader wasn't given a large budget to complete the sound mix for Dominion, the film still registers forcefully at the right moments in its 5.1 soundtrack presented in lossless DTS-HD MA. It helps that the director was making a character study rather than an action movie so that, for example, the gun shots in the opening sequence don't have to sound like cannon fire to achieve the appropriate effect. Sounds of African wild life, workers digging at the archeological site, of water dripping in places known and unknown and, eventually, of the demonic presence against which Merrin must battle, are all rendered with clarity and, when necessary, reach out into the surround field. The dialogue is always clear, and the eclectic score works quite well despite have been pieced together from three different sources: Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks), who, as a favor to Schrader, wrote some temp music that the director ended up keeping; Trevor Rabin (Hot Fuzz), who also scored Harlin's film; and Dog Fashion Disco, a metal band to which Schrader's son had introduced him and which was willing to contribute material for free.

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2005 DVD of Dominion, minus the photo gallery.

• Commentary with Director Paul Schrader: Recorded in February 2005 when the director was overseeing the final sound mix, Schrader's commentary is an informative combination of thematic insight and technical detail about the making of the film. Although he discusses the history of the project before his own involvement, he carefully refrains from any discussion of his exit or of Renny Harlin's reshoot.



• Deleted Scenes (480i; 2:00; 5:33): A "play all" function is included.
• On the March
• House of Saint Michael
• Cigarette
• Classroom Song
• Finest Painter
• Church in Ruins

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is typical of the commercial short-sightedness and artistic miscalculation that has characterized every effort to follow up William Friedkin's classic original film that Warner has denied the very best effort to date an independent Blu-ray release, so that only purchasers of The Complete Anthology can acquire Dominion on Blu-ray. The plus is that they will have the opportunity to watch it back to back with Renny Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning and judge for themselves just how different the films are. I recommend viewing them in the order in which they were made, i.e., Schrader's Dominion, then Harlin's Beginning. No one will ever again equal the shock and surprise of Friedkin's Exorcist, because, among other things, he had the advantage of going first, but Schrader made the only follow-up that feels completely of a piece with Friedkin's film. Though Warner could have treated it better, highly recommended.