Exorcist: The Beginning

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.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Nothing fails like bad horror. But it's not despicable. It is merely boring.

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.

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The new movie is a dusty piñata stuffed with omens and not much more.

LA Weekly Ron Stringer

The “surprise” ending, when it comes, is more of a hoot than a holler.

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.

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 original’s greatness.

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.

Empire Ian Nathan

It isn’t quite hell, but clambering to the end of this dusty remnant of an idea is certainly purgatory.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Congratulations, Renny Harlin. You've successfully exorcised all the horror out of The Exorcist.

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.

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.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The scariest thing about this film is how desperate the makers are to earn a scream.

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.

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").

Premiere Aaron Hillis

It’s terrible enough to torture the damned.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Pokey, blood-spattered, cheap-scare-larded prequel.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The serious Catholic themes that made the original film genuinely disturbing have been flattened out into a cartoonish backstory.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

This prequel has something to appall everybody.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Sloppy, confusing, and dull as a dented crucifix.