Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Paul Schrader

Writers:

William Peter Blatty (movie The Exorcist)
William Wisher Jr. (written by) ...
(more)

Release Date:

10 August 2005 (Belgium)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Plot:

Years before Father Lancaster Merrin helped save Regan MacNeil's soul, he first encounters the demon Pazuzu in East Africa. Merrin's initial battle with Pazuzu leads to the rediscovery of his faith.

Plot Keywords:

Church | Faith | Africa | Demon | Nazi

US TV Schedule:

Tue. July 7

4:00 AM

HBO

Cast

Stellan Skarsgård	...	Father Lankester Merrin
Gabriel Mann	...	Father Francis
Clara Bellar	...	Rachel Lesno
Billy Crawford	...	Cheche
Ralph Brown	...	Sergeant Major
Israel Aduramo	...	Jomo
Andrew French	...	Chuma
Antonie Kamerling	...	Kessel
Julian Wadham	...	Major Granville
Eddie Osei	...	Emekwi
Ilario Bisi-Pedro	...	Sebituana
Niall Refoy	...	Corporal (Thief)
Lorenzo Camporese	...	Private (Thief)
Burt Caesar	...	Dr. Lamu
Marcello Santoni	...	Dutch Farmer
Griet van Damme	...	Teenage Dutch Girl
Simon McLinden	...	Corporal
Pet Chege	...	Sebituana's Wife
Hamadi Mwapachu	...	Convulsive Worker
Evelyn Duah	...	Mara
Rick Warden	...	Corporal Williams
Michele Mariotti	...	German Sergeant
Ben Meyjes	...	Soldier #2
Oliver Maltman	...	Soldier #3
Omari Carter	...	James
Adrian Black	...	Joseph
Nick Komornicki	...	Gun-Firing Soldier

Directed by
Paul Schrader

Writing credits
William Peter Blatty		(movie The Exorcist)
William Wisher Jr.		(written by) (as William Wisher) and
Caleb Carr		(written by)

Produced by
Guy McElwaine	....	executive producer
Wayne Morris	....	co-producer
David C. Robinson	....	executive producer
James G. Robinson	....	producer
Art Schaeffer	....	co-producer

Original Music by
Angelo Badalamenti
Dog Fashion Disco
Trevor Rabin

Cinematography by
Vittorio Storaro

Film Editing by
Tim Silano
William Yeh		(uncredited)

Casting by
Pam Dixon

Production Design by
John Graysmark

Art Direction by
Andy Nicholson
Stefano Maria Ortolani		(supervising art director) (as Stefano Ortolani)
Marco Trentini

Set Decoration by
Elli Griff

Costume Design by
Luke Reichle

Makeup Department
Hayat Ouled Dahhou	....	hair stylist (as Hayat Ouleddahhou)
Barbara De Leonardis	....	assistant hair stylist
Elisabetta De Leonardis	....	hair stylist
Giancarlo De Leonardis	....	hair designer
Jake Garber	....	prosthetics supervisor
Raffaella Iorio	....	makeup artist
Christopher Allen Nelson	....	makeup effects artist
Gregory Nicotero	....	special makeup effects designer (as Greg Nicotero)
Scott Patton	....	makeup designer
Alessandra Sampaolo	....	key makeup artist
Fabrizio Sforza	....	head makeup artist
Scott Stoddard	....	makeup effects artist

Production Management
Khadija Alami	....	production manager
Zakaria Alaoui	....	production supervisor
Wayne Morris	....	unit production manager
Tim Silano	....	post-production supervisor
Stefano Spadoni	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Aaron Barsky	....	first assistant director
Tarik Ait Ben Ali	....	third assistant director
Filippo Fassetta	....	second assistant director: Italy
Emma Horton	....	second assistant director
Catherine Olaya Salazar	....	second second assistant director

Art Department
Cristina Cecili	....	painter
Lisa Chugg	....	assistant set decorator
Jason Edward	....	lead technical artist
Mark Fruin	....	assistant property master
Tony Graysmark	....	construction manager: Morocco
Paul Herndon	....	storyboard artist
Glauco Isidori	....	painter
Sandra Jelmini	....	art department coordinator
Stuart Kearns	....	assistant art director
Michael King	....	production buyer
Bernadino Nardoni	....	construction manager: Italy
David Packard	....	scenic artist
Alessandra Querzola	....	set decorator: Italy
Rachid Quiat	....	assistant art director
Domenico Reordino	....	scenic
Saverio Sammali	....	assistant art director
Arthur Wicks	....	property master

Sound Department
Joe Barnett	....	sound re-recording mixer
Susan Cahill	....	assistant sound editor
Andrea Eliseyan	....	recordist
Cormac Funge	....	sound effects editor
Nerses Gezalyan	....	foley mixer
Paul Longstaffe	....	dialogue editor
Michael C. Moore	....	sound mixer
James Moriana	....	foley artist
Mathew Waters	....	sound re-recording mixer
Mathew Waters	....	supervising sound editor
Jeffrey Wilhoit	....	foley artist

Special Effects by
Danilo Bollettini	....	special effects supervisor
Massimo Cardajoli	....	special effects senior technician (as Massimo Cardaiolo)
Gregory Nicotero	....	special makeup effects designer (as Greg Nicotero)
Franco Simeone	....	special effects senior technician

Visual Effects by
David Beedon	....	digital effects artist: Morgan Creek
Beverly Bernacki	....	digital artist
Massimo Cipollina	....	computer graphics supervisor
Adriano Cirulli	....	assistant visual effects supervisor
Primo De Santis	....	digital effects artist
Emanuele Di Bacco	....	digital compositor
Lucio Farina	....	visual effects
John F. Gross	....	visual effects supervisor: Eden FX (as John Gross)
Giulia Infurna	....	digital compositor: Proxima
Koji Kuramura	....	digital artist: Eden FX
Fabio Leporelli	....	character shading lead
Fabio Luongo	....	digital compositor
Tom Mahoney	....	visual effects supervisor
Michael D. Most	....	on-set visual effects supervisor (as Michael Most)
Stephen W. Pugh	....	visual effects producer: Eden FX
Corrado Rizzo	....	visual effects
Gian Luca Rizzo	....	visual effects producer
Eddie Robison	....	digital artist: Eden FX
Salvo Severino	....	visual effects
Nicola Sganga	....	visual effects
Giuseppe Squillaci	....	pre-visualization: Proxima
Fabrizio Storaro	....	visual effects producer
John Teska	....	digital artist: Eden FX
Fabio Zaveti	....	digital compositor: Proxima
Paolo Zeccara	....	visual effects supervisor

Stunts
David Ambrosi	....	stunt coordinator
Massimiliano Bianchi	....	stunt actor: blacksmith

Camera and Electrical Department
Sergio Ambrosi	....	first grip
Alfredo Betrò	....	camera operator: "a" camera (as Alfredo Betró)
Fabio Cafolla	....	rigging gaffer
Filippo Cafolla	....	gaffer
Alessandro Chiodo	....	assistant camera
Alessandro Chiodo	....	camera loader: "b" camera
Marco Diamanti	....	key grip
Piernicola Di Muro	....	camera loader: "a" camera
Marco Gentili	....	focus puller: "b" camera
Roberto Gentili	....	focus puller: "a" camera
Marco Martelli	....	assistant camera
Valentin Monge	....	Steadicam operator
Valentin Monge	....	camera operator: "b" camera
Willy Murgolo	....	lightboard operator
Sergio Strizzi	....	still photographer

Casting Department
Carolyn McLeod	....	additional casting: UK
Rebecca Rian	....	casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Tim Aslam	....	assistant costume supervisor
Alma Barbieri	....	head cutter
Stefania Corsetti	....	key wardrobe (as Stefania Angela Corsetti)
Annalisa Schmid	....	costume coordinator
Giovanni Scotti	....	wardrobe master
Marco Scotti	....	costume supervisor

Editorial Department
Andrew Drapkin	....	color timer
Andrew Drapkin	....	colorist
Jayme Wing	....	on-line editor
Dwight Raymond	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Dog Fashion Disco	....	composer: additional music
Thomas S. Drescher	....	music editor (as Thomas Drescher)
Drew Lamond	....	assistant score engineer
Chase Lapp	....	composer: additional music
Philip Mann	....	music programmer
Philip Mann	....	orchestrator
Mike McAree	....	music engineer
Mike Oliver	....	composer: additional music
Jeff Siegel	....	composer: additional music
Todd Smith	....	composer: additional music
Jasan Stepp	....	composer: additional music
Steve Wright	....	music engineer

Transportation Department
Edmondo Amati	....	transportation coordinator: Italy
Gerry Gore	....	transportation coordinator: Morocco

Other crew
Youssef Abagourram	....	location manager
Mohamed Benhmamane	....	location manager
Paul Cadiou	....	accountant
Gianfranco De Rosa	....	unit production supervisor
Andy Fraser	....	production executive
Nick Komornicki	....	armorer (as Nick Kormornicki)
Khadja Koulla	....	production coordinator
Marc Manser	....	assistant: Mr. Schrader
Giusy Mercuri	....	third accountant
Mario Mercuri	....	accountant
Mario Mercuri	....	accountant
Sanaz Missaghian	....	travel coordinator
Leslie S. Stevens	....	production coordinator
Francesco Tató	....	production assistant
Kathryn Waters	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Morgan Creek Productions

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (2005) (USA) (theatrical)
• Morgan Creek International (2005) (non-USA) (theatrical)
• Benelux Film Distribution (2005) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2006) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Inspire Pictures (2005) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video Española S.A. (2005) (Spain) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Eden FX (visual effects)
• K.N.B. Effects Group (special makeup effects)
• Proxima (visual effects)

Other Companies

• Cinecittá Studios  production services: Italy
• Dolby Laboratories  sound post-production
• European Film Commission  production services: Italy
• Iride S.r.l.  lighting and grip equipment
• Magic Film and Video Works  negative cutting
• NT Audio Services  optical sound negative (as NT Audio)
• Technovision France  camera equipment
• Technovision  cranes and grip equipment (as Technovision Italia)
• Todd-AO Studios (West)  re-recorded at
• Wrightway Studios  additional music recorded and mixed at
• Zak Productions  production services: Morocco

Also Known As:

Exorcist: The Original Prequel (USA) (pre-release title)
Paul Schrader's Exorcist: The Beginning (USA) (pre-release title)
Paul Schrader's Exorcist: The Original Prequel (USA) (complete title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and disturbing images.

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15 | Ireland:18 | Germany:16 | USA:R (certificate #41536) | Spain:18 | Netherlands:16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Morgan Creek Productions

Trivia:

Average Shot Length = ~5.9 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~6.4 seconds.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the scene where the flag is being taken down and folded, "Taps" plays in the background. "Taps" is an American military song, and is not played by the British Army. "Last Post" would have been the appropriate music.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Kessel: I am Oberston führer Ralph Kessel from the S.S., and this is one of my men. We found him in a ditch with a kitchen knife in his back, murdered by one of you. You see the German army retreating, and it makes you feel hope. It should not. So, who is responsible for this?

Movie Connections:

Edited from Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Soundtrack:

Satan's March

"God isn't here today."

Dominion is a genuinely interesting and ambitious film that doesn't quite make it despite being superior to Harlin's enjoyably unambitious schlocky remake. More a drama about faith than a horror film, it's not even remotely chilling and in the hands of the director of the awful Cat People remake it's attempts to throw in a few shocks (or "trying to make the cow look like a horse" as he puts it on his heavily vetted audio commentary) simply don't work any more than the crude dream imagery straight out of a 40s noir – he's just not interested in that sort of thing. He's much better at more human acts of violence: the suicide scene is a vast improvement on the terrible version in Harlin's film without the unnecessary supernatural trappings, while a pair of apparently arbitrary murders are all the more jolting for their human origin and the rationale behind them. For all its failings, the film is far from unsalvageable, and the decision to junk it and completely reshoot it with a new script, director and, in many cases, supporting cast seems a major over-reaction.

It's also surprising just how little crossover there is between the two films – not just the respective scripts and the themes, but how little footage was pressed into service on the remake (barely two minutes, most of it establishing shots and a brief deleted scene). It's also clear that the film is still uncompleted. The cgi is terrible and all too obviously unfinished and the score suffers from being performed on synths rather than by an orchestra, which gives it a demo/temp track effect that doesn't always help the film, but the biggest problem remains the direction. While co-writer Caleb Carr's complaints about Schrader having no visual sense are frankly bizarre – it's by far his best looking movie and certainly his most cinematic – he's unable to rack up much tension, particularly in the finale. Much of this seems to be due to his inability to inspire his cast: with much of the film played in long takes, many of the supporting players aren't up to the script and clearly aren't getting enough help (the wildly inadequate Clara Bellar suffering more than most in the role taken by Isabella Scorupco in the remake). While there isn't a performance as bad as Alan Ford's in the Harlin version, and a couple – particularly Julian Wadham and a superb Ralph Brown – are actually considerably better than the remake, the moral escalation of the very well-written prologue loses much of its power due to a flat performance from Antonie Kamerling's German officer. In Schrader's hands, it doesn't matter because we don't care because the performances don't convince us that it's real. Curiously, the sequence is much better handled in the Harlin version, where it's both better staged and more effectively utilised as a recurring flashback.

On the plus side, he has a much better sense of time and place than Harlin. Whereas the remake looked like a glossy modern studio picture, this does have an old National Geographic visual quality that makes it look like it was actually shot in post-war Africa. The British troops, so cartoonish second time round, are much more convincingly of their time here, adding a surprising note of authenticity.

The script is fairly intelligent and ambitious on the big themes but does drop the ball on the clumsily sketched relationship between Merrin and Rachel, with the audience having to take too much on faith with no real grounds: at times it feels like the actors are still waiting for another emotional scene to be written but are completely in the dark about its content. Similarly, it doesn't always deal with the issues it raises and, as with all the Exorcist follow-ups, it falls badly in the "we need an exorcism" finale. For once the film really does need to end with an exorcism, but when it strays outside the temple the shoddy cgi Northern Lights and Bellar's looney face just render the footage laughable. However, the substance of the Satanic threat is more interesting than conjuring tricks here, emphasising the great deceiver's nature as the father of lies, tempting not by offering future riches but by erasing the mistakes of the past that cause such torment.

The catalyst is once again a possessed youth, in this case a crippled albino outcast who finds himself being cured by the demon. Naturally, the young missionary immediately mistakes it for a miracle and the boy as proof of God's love, before painfully learning the error of his ways, leaving Stellan Skarsgard's disillusioned Father Merrin to exorcise the boy and confront his own more personal demons. Schrader makes less of the battleground – an elaborate ancient church deliberately buried in Africa hundreds of years ago – without ever making it enough of an intimate story to compensate. But when it works, it works well, and it constantly holds your interest. Not quite a failure, not quite a success but certainly worth digging up.

Even if you feel like giving up on it, make sure you watch the ending, where Schrader takes his obsession with The Searchers to new heights, lifting its final shot for a wonderfully outrageous homage as Skarsgard walks out of the door in a perfect imitation of Wayne's body motion to wander forever between the winds…