The devil made them do it. When Morgan Creek hired Paul Schrader to direct a prequel to William Friedkin's seminal `70s shocker, the Auto Focus auteur promised a slow-burn psychological thriller examining the African origins of the battle between child-possessing demon beast Pazuzu and scowling Scandinavian saviour Father Merrin (Max von Sydow in 1973; Stellan Skarsgård now). He delivered. They fired him. "Too subtle" was the complaint against the finished product, so Renny Harlin was hired for the reshoot. Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. Yes, as expected, the man who blew up water in Cutthroat Island hasn't exactly delivered the most understated exploration of the struggle between good and evil. Although it may be the dullest.
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