Exorcist Series Episode 4

After audiences were newly possessed by the rerelease of The Exorcist in 2000, Warner Bros. decided the time was right to revive the franchise. They hired director Paul Schrader (Cat People) to make Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, telling the story of Father Merrin’s first encounter with demonic evil. But when the finished film failed to satisfy the studio, it was shelved, and director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) was brought in to shoot an entirely new version from the same script. The result is one of the strangest production stories in horror history: two different films, based on the same premise, released just months apart. In this episode of Now Playing Podcast, Arnie, Stuart, and Brock examine Schrader’s original vision of Merrin’s early battle with the forces of darkness. Was Dominion unfairly buried by the studio, or was its fate deserved? Donate to Now Playing Podcast to hear the review and find out.