Is anyone anxious to see Exorcist: The Beginning

Jim Shields · August 23rd, 2004, 01:39 PM

Saw it at free screening last thursday night, with the voluminous Harry Knowles in attendance, sitting right behind me. I actually pretty much agree with his review over on aint it cool.

the CG was pathetic; there was a CG butterfly in a jar towards the beginning of the movie, and one of it's wings was in front of a jar that was in front of the jar it was supposed to be in. They plopped it on top of the frame, not in the frame. The mattes were horrible, and all the CG wildlife looked horrifically fake.

It had potential to be pretty cool; Merrin's character was pretty interesting, and he definitely had a profound character arc. The idea of the excavation site is pretty interesting, too. The basic ingredients were there for a great scary movie.

My biggest problem with it was it's reliance on cheap scares. There were probably 3 too many points where the strings screeched and there was a loud sound effect to make the crowd jump. Then there were gory bits, like a compound fracture, crows eating crows, etc. It didn't have the creepy tension of the original.

There was a straight-up Evil Dead/Army of Darkness ripoff shot, too. There's one part towards the end where the posessed person is running down a hallway, backlit, limbs and hair flailing wildly, wind and wailing sound effects... I swear I saw that shot at least twice in Army of Darkness. Only, Army of Darkness meant for it to be funny.

August 23rd, 2004, 01:39 PM	#16
Jim Shields New Boot Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Austin Posts: 19	Saw it at free screening last thursday night, with the voluminous Harry Knowles in attendance, sitting right behind me. I actually pretty much agree with his review over on aint it cool. the CG was pathetic; there was a CG butterfly in a jar towards the beginning of the movie, and one of it's wings was in front of a jar that was in front of the jar it was supposed to be in. They plopped it on top of the frame, not in the frame. The mattes were horrible, and all the CG wildlife looked horrifically fake. It had potential to be pretty cool; Merrin's character was pretty interesting, and he definitely had a profound character arc. The idea of the excavation site is pretty interesting, too. The basic ingredients were there for a great scary movie. My biggest problem with it was it's reliance on cheap scares. There were probably 3 too many points where the strings screeched and there was a loud sound effect to make the crowd jump. Then there were gory bits, like a compound fracture, crows eating crows, etc. It didn't have the creepy tension of the original. There was a straight-up Evil Dead/Army of Darkness ripoff shot, too. There's one part towards the end where the posessed person is running down a hallway, backlit, limbs and hair flailing wildly, wind and wailing sound effects... I swear I saw that shot at least twice in Army of Darkness. Only, Army of Darkness meant for it to be funny.