Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Exorcist: The Beginning

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 35 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Horror | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Alexi Hawley
William Wisher Jr. (story)
Caleb Carr (story)
William Peter Blatty (movie The Exorcist)
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 20, 2004
DVD: March 1, 2005
Running Time: 115 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong violence and gore, disturbing images and rituals, and for language including some sexual dialogue
Starring Stellan SkarsgÄrd, Izabella Scorupco, James D'Arcy, Remy Sweeney, Julian Wadham, Andrew French, Ralph Brown, and Ben Cross
In the place where Evil was born, Father Merrin will finally see its true face. (Warner Bros.)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Cliffhanger Deep Blue Sea Driven Mindhunters The Covenant The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
Here's a popcorn movie with soul, welcoming the masses to consider how much can change in popular culture over 30 years, as the horrific becomes the familiar.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Nothing fails like bad horror. But it's not despicable. It is merely boring.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
The movie goes too far on too little motivation - and the middle section, with its maggoty villains, roiling skies and native revolts, seems almost barmy. Yet Exorcist: Beginning does score a small victory. It's not as bad as you'd think.
Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
A perfectly mediocre horror film. There is some hoot-inducing dialogue and cheesy effects, but the film's workmanlike narrative marches gamely forward, managing a handful of respectable scares along the way.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
While the fourth "Exorcist" movie may have unmitigated disaster written all over it, the finished product is somehow sort-of-kind-of not all that bad.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The new movie is a dusty piñata stuffed with omens and not much more.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ron Stringer
The surprise ending, when it comes, is more of a hoot than a holler.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
The gooseberry Harlin came up with will win no proselytizers, but it does have a pleasant matinee modesty, a cool sepia-period look, and an interesting flashback relationship with Nazis.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
A horror movie that starts off decently but quickly falls victim to cliché. It is, ultimately, a disappointing genre entry, and one that falls far short of the originals greatness.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
Earns points simply for not being bad enough to leave a stain on the screen. Unfortunately, this annoyingly disjointed shocker stumbles badly after promising early scenes, and quickly devolves into a chaotic blur of underdeveloped characters, illogical transitions and standard-issue scary-movie tropes.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Nathan
It isnt quite hell, but clambering to the end of this dusty remnant of an idea is certainly purgatory.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Congratulations, Renny Harlin. You've successfully exorcised all the horror out of The Exorcist.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The devil is back in Exorcist: The Beginning, and he is more disgusting than ever. Not more scary, just really yucky, in a kind of maggots-on-a-pizza-slice way.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
There's no pea soup, but sketchy effects, cheap jolts, swirling cameras, and buckets of blood surround Exorcist: The Beginning with the potent aroma of cheese.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The scariest thing about this film is how desperate the makers are to earn a scream.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
The risible dialogue, the bulging eyeballs, the heaving bosoms, the digitally rendered hyenas and squirming maggots, the movie fails to achieve the status of the instant camp classic. That's partly because the vibe of the film is too torpid.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
The acting is serviceable at best, the direction unfocused - and the special effects and makeup cheesy-looking. This is surely the most dreary-looking film ever shot by the great Vittorio Storaro ("Apocalypse Now").
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The serious Catholic themes that made the original film genuinely disturbing have been flattened out into a cartoonish backstory.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.5 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Alec B. gave it a7:
i actually really enjoyed this movie a lot.. . but it didn't really show how it all began now. Basically it was just a body count movie with tons of violence and gore and scary images. There wasn't even a exorcism in the movie except that cheap one at the end.
Marc D. gave it a6:
Lacks focus and any true sense of pace. It steers clear of the psychological themes and horror from the original, instead hoping to evoke some reactions by throwing as much ugly effects at us as possible. Unfortunately, fear doesn't work that way.
Mohammed R. gave it an8:
One has to judge a horror movie with a different yard stick that say a drama. In a horror movie it is 80% about the horror and around 20% about char development. This movie is not the most scary movie and being a sequel or a prequel does not help it being original. Is a total was of money. Absoultly not. It has a few good horror scenes and some char development. Is it all tied together well, not really, that is why I gave an 8. If you have not seen any other exorcist movie, this one is not bad to start, but it is somewhat different. Finally, the quality of the acting is not below average for a horror movie.
Tyler N. gave it a10:
Very under-rated. Next to Saw, this is the next best horror/suspense movieout on DVD. Definately for fans of the original. Its good.
harry m. gave it a10:
Just rating it in my own taste. I love the film. The critics are the worst. Thats all.
Kacey G. gave it a4:
A little better than the first Exorcist, but that isnt saying much.
Alberto R. gave it a6:
It was not that bad, i think the critics are being quick to label it horrible, it was not the best, but not the worst. A good tv movie to watch.
