Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 American supernatural horror film directed by Renny Harlin from a screenplay by Alexi Hawley.

The film follows Father Lankester Merrin, whose faith has been renounced after his experiences in World War II, as he works as an archeologist and discovers dark occurrences while excavating in Kenya.

The film was retooled from Paul Schrader's already completed Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, which Morgan Creek Productions executives feared would be unsuccessful.

He is haunted by an incident in a small village in the occupied Netherlands during World War II, where he served as parish priest: near the end of the war, a sadistic Nazi SS commander, in retaliation for the murder of a German trooper, forced Merrin to participate in arbitrary executions to save a full village from slaughter.

Upon arriving at the site with their translator and guide Chuma, Merrin meets the chief excavator, a British man named Jefferies with visible boils on his face, and Sarah Novak, a doctor.

In addition, Merrin learns that the diggers are disappearing or leaving in droves because the local tribesmen fear the church is cursed.

Merrin, Chuma, and Francis visit the dig site and find only the dome uncovered; the rest of the church is buried beneath the earth.

Father Gionetti, warden of the asylum, speculates that Bession was not possessed but rather "touched" by a demon, which drove him mad and eventually to suicide.

The local chief's wife gives birth to a stillborn baby who is covered in maggots, and Jefferies gets attacked in the bar.

Around the same time, Merrin discovers a passageway leading to a cave underneath the church that houses an ancient pagan temple with the statue of the demon Pazuzu.

When the lone surviving priest made it back, Emperor Justinian ordered a church be built over the site, and then buried to seal the evil force inside of it.

Only Father Merrin and the little boy are left as the British soldiers and the local tribes have annihilated each other after blaming each other for the strange occurrences.

Producer James G. Robinson first began development on an untitled prequel to The Exorcist (1973) in 1997, with the first draft of the screenplay penned by William Wisher Jr.[5] In October 1999, Morgan Creek Productions hired Tom McLoughlin to helm the film.

[7] In October 2001, numerous publications reported that John Frankenheimer was on board as director, with a new screenplay revised by Caleb Carr.

[8] After a July 2003 release date was slotted, Frankenheimer was forced to step down from the project due to his declining health and was replaced by Paul Schrader.

[9] Gabriel Mann joined the cast in April 2002, while shooting was expected to take place in the spring in the United Kingdom and Spain.

[10] The following month, the film was officially titled Exorcist: The Beginning and Stellan Skarsgård and Billy Crawford were added to the cast, the former of which replacing Neeson.

[11] Principal photography on Schrader's film began on November 11, 2002 in Morocco with Vittorio Storaro handling cinematography duties.

Schrader attested that he faithfully adapted Carr's screenplay on screen and that the studio went through "buyer's remorse" during production.

[19] Carr was expected for rewrites, but instead the studio opted to fire Schrader and scrap the film entirely in August 2003.

[22] Renny Harlin was among the directors who met with Robinson and suggested rewriting the script, casting new actors, and adding more action.