In 1973 movie fans were shocked beyond their wildest dreams when The Exorcist featured a young girl (Regan) with a rotating head that spewed green vile and was possessed by evil. Fans who voted the film as “one of the scariest horror films of all times” may be glad to know that the  recently released prequel, Exorcist: The Beginning, will never claim that honor.

After leaving a screening before the film’s opening night with a sense of another huge waste of Hollywood’s time and money, I wanted to make sure my thoughts were in line. So after returning home, I watched the original once again. I was right.

Exorcist: The Beginning, directed by Renny Harlin, takes place in 1949. Lankester Merrin (Stellan Skarsgard) is an ex-priest who heads to Africa to check out a report of a Christian church unearthed in an archeological dig. Merrin is sent to collect a rare object, but finds instead a beautiful woman (Sarah) he’s attracted to, a small African boy (Joseph) who seems possessed and an almost unlivable situation. While this scenario raises some interest, all these facts unravel at a snail’s pace. In addition, the threads of the story don’t connect, and there’s little bonding with any of the characters.

Contrast this beginning with The Exorcist, based on the 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty, which also begins in a foreign locale -- oddly enough -- Iraq. Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) is helping at an archeological dig and uncovers a peculiar piece of art. We learn the same about Merrin as in the prequel -- that’s he weak in spirit in that he loves his drink. In Harlin’s rendition (from Alexi Hawley's horribly written screenplay), there’s a long reoccurring subplot about Merrin’s involvement with the Nazis and being forced to choose people to be executed. This came from only one line in the original film mentioning the Nazis, and it does not work in the prequel. The contrivance aimed to justify Merrin’s reason for quitting the priesthood only muddles the plot further.

From the opening scene in The Exorcist, the film moves to Washington D.C., where Chris (Ellen Burstyn), a single mother and actress is temporarily on location. When her 12-year-old daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), begins to exhibit bizarre behavior, Chris takes her to many doctors who do all kinds of probes but find no answers. When Regan is believed to cause a family friend’s uncanny death, Chris becomes desperate.

At this point viewers have identified with this mother, her child and the peculiar problem they face. Yet by the same point in the new movie, the young Doctor Sarah (Izabella Scorupco) is such a fish out of water we don’t understand her or her actions.

Likewise, the young boy Joseph (played well by Remy Sweeney in his film debut), offers no logical connection to anything that’s happening. And, at the end of the film, the surprise element about him is a minus not a plus.

Father Francis (James D’Arcy) is a priest sent from Rome whose mission is as unclear as any of the actions he undertakes in the story. He and Merrin seem to be on different planes, while Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) in The Exorcist becomes an intricate part of the story. He feels guilty over the recent death of his mother and when the evil spirit inside Regan represents itself as his mother, Karras is deeply disturbed, and the viewers can feel his agony. Father Merrin tells him, “Satan wants us to see ourselves as ugly and to reject the possibility that God could love us.” Dialogue like this layered under every motivation builds a foundation for belief in this story, and is a much-missed attribute in the prequel.

When Satan comes full bore at Father Merrin in Exorcist: The Beginning and reminds him of his actions with the Nazis, I didn’t care because that link didn’t work in the first place. In The Exorcist we see many days of Father Karras as he tries to deal with his problem and find a way to help Regan --ultimately establishing the right to perform an exorcism. In the prequel, Father Merrin squirms a little and has his handy book of exorcism in his pocket in a cave. And why did he bring it with him if he knew nothing about the boy supposedly being possessed?

Fortunately, there’s little wrong with any of the acting in Exorcist: The Beginning, especially where Stellan Skarsgard’s strong performance is concerned. However, the script leaves little to work with.

In The Exorcist the filmography and set designs go a long way to paint a visual picture of the story. We move from homes, to hospitals, through the town and to churches. In Exorcist: The Beginning, filmed primarily on a sound stage -- we get about four sets that all feel and look like sets.

Nothing seems believable and the scares never come. No one during the prequel jumped or screamed, while one spine-tingling event after another in The Exorcist truly frightened viewers.

This is mostly due to the magnificent acting skills by the young Blair, who truly became a demonically possessed creature. Basically there's only one long scene of the possessed victim in Exorcist: The Beginning and it’s more a one-minute sound bite of demonic possession rather than  something on which to base an entire movie’s plot.  

One should take into consideration the strange journey this prequel took before weighing in on a final verdict. There were two sequels after The Exorcist, Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and The Exorcist III in 1990, and neither of those film’s stars (Richard Burton and George C. Scott) helped the films get much notice.

Announcement came in 2001 about casting for a prequel. John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) was attached to direct with Liam Neeson agreeing to play Father Merrin. William Wisher Jr. and Caleb Carr took a stab at the screenplay. After only three months of shooting Frankenheimer became ill and backed out, and Neeson had to quit because of other commitments.

Director Paul Schrader took over -- with Skarsgard stepping in for Neeson -- but when he turned over his final cut to Morgan Creek Productions, the powers that be didn’t like the result and fired Schrader. Renny Harlin (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) seemed a likely candidate to up the scare quotient and was hired as the new director. After more studio haggling he was eventually allowed to redo the script and the entire film.

Sadly, nothing good has arrived out of the studio’s nearly $90 million investment and years of hard work in this prequel. Schrader’s version is rumored to get a DVD release, and as quickly as Exorcist: The Beginning will probably leave theaters, it will most likely join it in DVD release.

The Exorcist garnered 10 Academy Award nominations, including best picture, and won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. Exorcist: The Beginning has accumulated complaints from the audience as well as negative reviews --  and that’s only the first day out of the gate. For a real fright --watch the original again.

(Released by Warner Bros. and rated "R" for strong violence and gore, disturbing images and rituals, and for language including some sexual dialogue.)