History Film / ExorcistTheBeginning

* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: Compared to Harlin's version, most characters live through the film. Even Cheche gets a happy ending as Sarah's new assistant.

%%* WouldHurtAChild
%%* WouldHitAGirl

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The movie was effectively cancelled and shelved before post-production while another director was brought in to make a new movie from almost whole cloth. Only after that other film failure, the studio allowed the original film to be finished and have a limited release, but still allocated virtually NoBudget to do so.
* SuddenlyFluent: Ordinarily, Cheche has little command of English, but Pazuzu speaks fluently through him.

* Misblamed: ''The'' Movie. The British blame the Turkana for the murder of the soldiers in the church and the attempted murder of Francis, while the Turkana blame the evil occurrences on the Christians, and Father Francis in particular. Even Francis blames himself for the murder of a Turkana girl by a British soldier because it was him who told the British Army to come.

%%* RedEyesTakeWarning
%%* RedHerring
%%* SadisticChoice
%%* ScrewedByTheNetwork
%%* TheSmurfettePrinciple
%%* SuddenlyFluent

Cairo, Egypt, 1949. A young Father Lankester Merrin (Creator/StellanSkarsgard) has left the Church and become an archeologist, haunted by his experiences in [[ThoseWackyNazis 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.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Unlike ''Dominion'', the film doesn't explain why Merrin was in the Netherlands during WorldWarTwo (or makes evident that he was in the Netherlands).

%%* Misblamed
%%* MortonsFork
%%* NobleBigot
%%* NoBodyLeftBehind
%%* NoBudget: Following the release and poor reception of ''The Beginning'', the studio allocated Schraeder a meager $35,000 to edit and score his own film.
%%* OffingTheOffspring
%%* OnlyMostlyDeadGuy
%%* OutlivingOnesOffspring
%%* ReasonableAuthorityFigure

%%* SpecialEffectsFailure
* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Compared to Harlin's version, most of the people live through the film.]]
%%* WalkingShirtlessScene

* CutCharacter: The Turkana chief, looting soldiers, and Granville's second in command don't appear in this version.

%%* BodyHorror
* BoomHeadshot: During the war, a SS commander shoots a girl on the head to compel Merrin to follow his order to pick ten villagers from a crowd to be executed or have all shot. Later, when Granville loses it under Pazuzu's influence, he shoots a Turkana in the same way, and eventually [[spoiler: himself]].
* ContinuityNod: In Merrin's dream, the demon Pazuzu has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tedi1oCixaA the same appearance]] as in the ''Film/TheExorcist''. A demon represented in a statue at the Church has the same face.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Major Granville shoots himself in the head after killing a Turkana girl in the same way.]]

%%* HealingFactor
%%* HiddenDepths
%%* HistoryRepeats
%%* HolyBurnsEvil
%%* ItsAllMyFault

%%* MedicalHorror

%%* BoomHeadshot
%%* ContinuityNod

%%* DemonicPossession

%%* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Major Granville.]]

%%* EvilSoundsDeep

%%* BaldOfEvil

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: While the main characters investigate a tomb in the Church, the Turkana chief's wife gives birth to an already dead, rotten son.

* ChekhovsGun: When Merrin visits Bession in Nairobi, Father Gionetti gives him a copy of the Roman Ritual in case he has to exorcize somebody. Merrin says he won't need it... but of course he does, because this is an ''Exorcist'' sequel.

* AdaptationalNationality: This film introduces Father Lankester Merrin as half British and half Dutch, explaining this way how he went from a priest in the Netherlands to an archeologist in a British colony. In the original novel, Merrin was Irish, and his name is fully English.

%%* EasilyForgiven

%%* PreventTheWar

%%* DecompositeCharacter

%%* BigLippedAlligatorMoment
%%* BirthDeathJuxtaposition
%%* CanonDiscontinuity

** Though the church's 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.

* ChurchMilitant: The Vatican has sent at least three expeditions headed by priests to the site, the last one consisting of [[spoiler:Father Francis]]. The first one in the 6th century was outright army.

** Granville combines his character in ''Dominion'' with his AdaptedOut second-in-command, who was the racist one.

* CutCharacter: The Turkana chief and Granville's second in command don't appear in this version.
* TheDarknessGazesBack: In one scene, Merrin is stopped on his tracks by the reflection of several hyenas eyes peering out from the darkness.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Despite being main characters, [[spoiler:Father Francis]] and [[spoiler:Sarah]] are dispatched in such sudden and simple manners that would have been avoided or survived if they were in any other movie.[[note]]Francis is stabbed with a spear by Possessed!Sarah and left hanging to be found by Merrin; Sarah has a brain hemorrhage after hiting the cave's floor at the end of her exorcism.[[/note]] In fact, the counterparts of both in ''Dominion'' did survive the film.

** [[spoiler:Granville]] shoots himself in the head after seeing his butterfly collection come to life.

* ForegoneConclusion: Merrin will survive and become a Catholic priest again so he will face Pazuzu again 30 years later.

* HollywoodDarkness: Merrin's single gas lamp is enough to light the whole interior of the church and the caverns beneath it.