Continuity mistake: In the original film, several priests discuss who should do the exorcism. Merrin was chosen because he had experience (supposedly this film), and that the exorcism lasted a month and it nearly killed him. In this film, the exorcism appeared to have lasted only a few hours and, although I'm sure he was in very real danger, he didn't seem the worse for wear after it was over.
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
Plot summary
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Stellan Skarsgard, Izabella Scorupco, James D'Arcy, Remy Sweeney
Years before Father Lancaster Merrin helped Father Damien Karras save Regan MacNeil's soul, he first encounters the demon "Pazuzu" in East Africa. This is the tale of Father Merrin's initial battle with Pazuzu and the rediscovery of his faith.
Father Lankester Merrin thinks that he has glimpsed the face of Evil. In the years following World War II, Merrin is relentlessly haunted by memories of the unspeakable brutality perpetrated against the innocent people of his parish during the War. In the wake of all the horror he has seen, both his faith in his fellow man and his faith in the Almighty have deserted him, and he can no longer honestly call himself a man of God. Merrin has traveled far from his native Holland in a desperate attempt to try to forget and escape all the evil that he had witnessed there. While currently in Cairo, Egypt, he is approached by a collector of rare antiquities and asked to participate in a British archeological excavation in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. They have unearthed something extraordinary and unusual...a Christian Byzantine church dating from the 5th century, long before Christianity arrived in East Africa, and in inexplicably perfect condition--like it had been buried immediately after it was completed. The collector wants Merrin, an Oxford-educated archeologist, to find an ancient relic hidden within the church before the British do. Interested, Merrin agrees to take the job. But beneath the church, something much older and malevolent sleeps, waiting to be awoken. When the archeologists start excavating, strange things begin occuring, and the local Turkana tribesmen who were hired to work refuse to enter the site. Things only get worse and worse, ultimately resulting in madness and death. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are repeated against another innocent village--atrocities he had hoped and prayed never to see again. The blood of innocents flows freely on the East African plain, but the horror has only just begun. In the place where Evil was born, Merrin will finally see its true face.
andrejtu
More mistakes in Exorcist: The Beginning
Father Francis: You asked the question, now you listen to the answer.
Trivia: This film is actually the second version of "Exorcist: The Beginning" to be filmed and completed. But upon seeing the first version, the studio protested the film was based too much on the characters and wasn't the gore-fest they wanted, so they hired a new director and reshot the entire movie with a different script. The original version of the movie was recently released on video as "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist."
Question: When first entering the church, Father Francis wonders about the weapons depicted pointing down. What is the significance of where the weapons are pointing?
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Answer: Weapons on statues in conventional churches point upwards in veneration. The weapons here are pointing downwards in an offensive gesture.