In the late ’90s, producer James G. Robinson and screenwriter William Wisher Jr. started developing a prequel to the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist – and no one could have predicted just how messy this project would get. Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI director Tom McLoughlin was hired to take the helm, but then dropped out due to issues with the script. John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) took the helm, with author Caleb Carr handling rewrites… then Frankenheimer left because his health was declining (he passed away soon after) and was replaced by Paul Schrader. Schrader was known for writing films like Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ, and he had also directed several films: Blue Collar, Hardcore, American Gigolo, Cat People, and others. During a recent interview with MovieWeb, Schrader admitted that he shouldn’t have taken on the job of directing Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
When the subject came up, Schrader told MovieWeb, “I shouldn’t have done it. It was not something I was really suited for. I thought I could pull it off, but if I had that opportunity again, I would say, ‘I think I will stick to what I do best.’“
The script for Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist ended up being the cobbled together work of six different writers – and when Warner Bros. saw the first cut of Schrader’s film in 2003, they immediately called for more rewrites, reshoots, and re-edits. After butting heads with Schrader for a while, they ended up firing him and hiring Renny Harlin to direct the reshoots – resulting in the film Exorcist: The Beginning, which was given a theatrical release in 2004.
Exorcist: The Beginning underperformed at the box office and was a critical failure. The following month, Morgan Creek Productions started working with Schrader on getting a cut of his movie, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, out into the world. It received a limited theatrical release in 2005 and reached home video later that year.
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and Exorcist: The Beginning both rank low in the Exorcist franchise, and a lot of horror fans would probably say that neither Schrader nor Harlin should have made their Exorcist movies. MovieWeb does point out that Roger Ebert was a fan of Schrader’s Dominion. He wrote that the film “does something risky and daring in this time of jaded horror movies: It takes evil seriously. There really are dark satanic forces in the Schrader version, which takes a priest forever scarred by the Holocaust and asks if he can ever again believe in the grace of God. The movie is drenched in atmosphere and dread, as we’d expect from Schrader, but it also has spiritual weight and texture, boldly confronting the possibility that Satan may be active in the world. Instead of cheap thrills, Schrader gives us a frightening vision of a good priest who fears goodness may not be enough.“
What do you think of Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist? Should Paul Schrader have passed on the chance to make an Exorcist movie? Let us know by leaving a comment below.