History Film / ExorcistTheBeginning

* McGuffin: The Pazuzu head, which Merrin is hired to steal from the buried church. We never find who was hiring him through Semellier or how did they know that the head would be inside the church.

** Compared to ''Dominion'', Clara Bellar's doctor character was recast with former [[Franchise/JamesBond Bond]] [[GirlOfTheWeek Girl]] Izabella Scorupco and given a nude scene and a WillTheyOrWontThey subplot with Merrin.

* ImpendingDoomPOV: Jefferies is attacked by an unseen force.
* InferredHolocaust
* ItIsTheSameNowItSucks
* JumpScare
* LesCollaborateurs
* MamaBear
* MindOverMatter
* McGuffin

* MyGreatestFailure
* MythologyGag
* {{Narm}}

* AmbiguouslyEvil: It is possible that ''all'' questionable behavior of the characters is a result of Pazuzu's influence, or that Pazuzu just amplifies tendencies that are already inside them.

* HotterAndSexier
* HostageSituation
* HumanSacrifice
* ImpendingDoomPOV
* ImprobableInfantSurvival

* AmbiguouslyEvil: It is [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation debatable]] if ''all'' questionable behavior of the characters is a result of Pazuzu's influence, or Pazuzu just amplifies tendencies that are already inside them.

* HeinousHyena
* HistoryRepeats
* HolyBurnsEvil
* HollywoodAtheist
* HollywoodDarkness
* HollywoodTactics
* HopeSpot

* SadisticChoice: Flashbacks show that Merrin lost his faith after he was forced by Nazis in WWII to pick ten people from a crowd to be shot, lest they all be killed.

* AncientEvil: The Catholic Church believes Derati is the place where {{Lucifer}} fell. Even if Pazuzu isn't Lucifer, he is an ancient Mesopotamian demon, and the church was built to seal him 1500 years ago.

* EverybodysDeadDave
* EvilDetectingBaby
* EvilLaugh
* EvilIsSexy
* FantasticCatholicism
* FisherKing

* FoeYay
* ForgottenFallenFriend
* GoMadFromTheRevelation

* TheAlcoholic: Jefferies is almost always seen drink, trying to drink, or appearing to be drunk.

** Though the architecture and wall paintings do resemble Byzantine art, the statues are much more in line with Western art from the Renaissance on. The Byzantine priests in the beginning correctly use the Chi-Rho instead of the Cross, but the rosary looks more Catholic than Greek.
** Finding a church from that age would presumably interest every Christian church the same (and also scholars of every stripe), but all priests in the movie are Catholic. Catholics do exist in Kenya and are in fact the oldest Christian denomination in the country, but they are dwarfed in numbers by Protestants due to the British colonization.

* TheDarknessGazesBack
* DecapitationPresentation
* DemonicPossession
* TheDevil
* DoesNotLikeShoes
* DroppedABridgeOnHim
* DrivenToSuicide: Bession slits his own throat after being driven mad by the demon.
* EatenAlive
* EurekaMoment

* ChristianityIsCatholic
* ChurchMilitant
* CompositeCharacter
* CorruptChurch

** The three soldiers who sneak to rob in the church at night [[spoiler:and are made to kill each other]].
** Major Granville veily voices his racist contempt for the Turkana.

** [[spoiler:Jefferies]] develops larger and nastier looking pustules on his face as the movie goes on. Eventually, one pops and [[spoiler:flies come out flying]]. He is then attacked by an unseen force; the next morning, Merrin finds parts of his teeth in a pool of blood in his room, and his eviscerated body hanging in the church.

* TheDanza

* DeathByMaterialism

* CallForward
* DeathByMaterialism: Two British soldiers attempt to loot the church, and pop up dead the next day.

* ChildrenAreInnocent

* CreepyChild: Joseph, who seems to attract bad luck everywhere he is present. [[spoiler:Subverted since the one actually [[DemonicPossession possessed]] is Sarah, the doctor.]]

[[folder:A-I]]

* CatScare: The characters are surprised many times by flocks of crows.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:M-V]]

* AmbiguouslyEvil: It is not clear if ''all'' questionable behavior of the characters is a result of Pazuzu's influence, or Pazuzu just amplifies tendencies that are already inside them.

** The Turkana shamans who try their own exorcism on Joseph have their bones broken and sometimes ripped out of their bodies.

%%* CallBack: Many to the original ''Film/TheExorcist''.
* CanonDiscontinuity
* CatapultNightmare
* CatScare

%%** James.

** One of Pazuzu's pet taunts is an eviscerated but still living crow. The second time it happens, he also makes a butterfly crawl out of [[spoiler:Granville's]] mouth.

%%* CainAndAbel: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] brothers James and Joseph, the only two Christian children in Derati.
* CallBack

* AlmostDeadGuy: One of the Byzantine priests in the beginning finds the other in the battlefield. Believing him dead, he makes the sign of the cross and tries to take the Pazuzu head from him before the "dead" guy grabs him.
%%** [[spoiler:Sarah]]

** Jefferies' interest on Sarah is as obvious as rape-y.

** Pazuzu taunts [[spoiler:Granville]] by substituing the butterfly he's preparing with an eviscerated, ''living'' crow. Then makes the butterfly crawl out of his mouth.

* CastScare

* HollyBurnsEvil

%%** Jefferies.

** Merrin meets Semelier only at the beginning and end of the movie.

%%* AssholeVictim: Although it could be argued all evil activity at the site is ultimately the result of Pazuzu's influence, some examples still come across as this.
%%** The three soldiers who sneak to rob in the church at night [[spoiler:and are made to kill each other]].
%%** Granville.

* AteHisGun: After [[spoiler:Major Granville]] witnesses supernatural activity in his tent in the form of finding himself preparing a crow for his butterfly collection instead of a regular insect specimen, his collection coming to life and then having butterfly crawling out of his mouth, he puts his gun into his mouth and pulls the trigger.

* BookEnds: The movie opens with a Byzantine army massacred on the future site of the buried church, which is mirrored at the end by [[spoiler: the Turkana and British garrison massacring each other]] in the same place.

* CaliforniaDoubling

* AncientEvil: The Catholic Church believes Derati is the place where {{Lucifer}} fell.

* ActionizedSequel: ''Exorcist the Beginning'' is an actionized ''prequel'' to the 1973 horror classic, as well as an actionized ''remake/reshoot'' to Schrader's ''Dominion'', since it has a noticably faster pace, as well as an elaborate battle scene with a huge body count.

* AteHisGun: After Major Granville witnesses supernatural activity in his tent in the form of finding himself preparing a crow for his butterfly collection instead of a regular insect specimen, his collection coming to life and then having butterfly crawling out of his mouth, he puts his gun into his mouth and pulls the trigger.

* BodyHorror
* CainAndAbel

!!''Exorcist: The Beginning''
* AllLoveIsUnrequited

* AscendedToCarnivorism

* BloodierAndGorier
* BookEnds

Cairo, Egypt, 1949. A young Father Lankester Merrin (Creator/StellanSkarsgard) has left the Church and become an archeologist, haunted by his experiences in Nazi-occupied Europe during the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo Second World War]]. He is then approached by a mysterious collector who hires him to travel to Kenya and steal an ancient relic of a demon from a British archaeological dig... in an ancient church from a time and place where there shouldn't be any. Needless to say, once Merrin reaches his destination, strange events start happening.

* AcceptableTargets

''Exorcist: The Beginning'' is a 2004 ReligiousHorror film. It is a {{Prequel}} to the 1973 film ''Film/TheExorcist''.

Cairo, Egypt, 1949. A young Father Lankester Merrin (Creator/StellanSkarsgard) has left the Church and become an archeologist, haunted by his failure to save a small Dutch village from Nazi slaughter. He is then approached by a mysterious collector who hires him to travel to Kenya and steal an ancient relic of a demon from a British excavation. However, once Merrin reaches his destination, strange events start happening...

This chapter of ''The Exorcist'' remains as one of the most bizarre productions in film history. Originally Creator/PaulSchrader was brought to direct a psychological horror movie in the vein of the original; he did his job and almost completed what was called ''Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist''. However, as the movie was being marketed, Morgan Creek Productions decided it was not scary enough to fit expectations, so they tossed the unfinished film to a vault and brought an entirely new director, Creator/RennyHarlin, to direct '''an entirely new movie'''. This was the final result, a retooling named ''Exorcist: The Beginning'' that only shared Skarsgard as the main role and the outlines of its plot. Only after the latter failed at critics and box office they allowed Schrader to finish and release his film, edging the previous in success and giving birth to the strange event of two films in one.

* TheGrotesque: Cheche.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Bession]] slits his own throat after being driven mad by the demon.

This chapter of ''The Exorcist'' remains as one of the most bizarre productions in film history. Originally Creator/PaulSchrader was brought to direct a psychological horror movie in the vein of the original; he did his job and almost completed what was called ''Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist''. However, as the movie was being marketed, Morgan Creek Productions decided it was not scary enough to fit expectations, so they tossed the unfinished film to a vault and brought an entirely new director, Creator/RennyHarlin, to direct ''an entirely new movie''. This was the final result, a retooling named ''Exorcist: The Beginning'' that only shared Skarsgard as the main role and the outlines of its plot. Only after the latter failed at critics and box office they allowed Schrader to finish and release his film, edging the previous in success and giving birth to the strange event of two films in one.

''Exorcist: The Beginning'' is a 2004 ReligiousHorror film. It is a {{Prequel}} to the 1973 film ''Film/TheExorcist'', starring Creator/StellanSkarsgard as a younger Father Merrin.

[[redirect:Film/TheExorcist]]