As I mentioned in my review of the original Exorcist, HERE, I had never gotten around to seeing the second prequel that was made and went straight to video. That's all changed now, because I found a dirt cheap copy of it on DVD, and have already watched it a good three times, maybe four. Though it didn't see a release until 2005, the director, Paul Schrader, was approached to tackle the project in 2001. From the jump, I respected this picture more than the dreadful Renny Harlin movie, Exorcist: The Beginning, because unlike Harlin, Schrader didn't try and mock or imitate the original Friedkin movie in any way. In fact, Schrader said, "the feeling was [that] you had to get away from the Friedkin Exorcist, because it was such a classic. And one of the ways to do that was to switch the possessed person from a girl to a boy, but even more importantly, to switch the very nature of a possession". It's no secret that a pet peeve of mine is when directors try to make prequels to outdo an original, rather than just let it flow naturally and be its own movie. So, my hat's off to Paul Schrader for both being respectful of the 1973 Exorcist, and for making a stand alone effort. The story is more about Father Merrin's journey than trying to be a horror flick.
