Rating:4/10
This version of the Exorcist was made because the studio didn't like the original version of this story made by Paul Schrader.  So they hired Renny Harlin.  Whenever I hear the name Renny Harlin, I cringe.  He is an overrated director who makes every movie almost cartoonish.  But I was still looking forward to the early years of Father Merrin.  The opeing of the film seemed very promising and I was hooked.  But they couldn't reel me in.  There was some pretty poor acting, but there was also some very good acting, especially in the form of Stellan Skarsgard.  But there wasn't that much to work with though.  This wasn's a scary movie.  But they tried to make it that way using disturbing images, especially the birth scene which was very disgusting.  A lot of bad CGI effects also made me roll my eyes back.  Too much of something like that can be annoying.  The only thing I liked was when the girl was on a perch in demon form going down to scare the kid and then folding hersulf back up to look across to Father Merrin.  There just was just not a lot to like in this movie.  They thought they could try to capture the essence of the original Exorcist with some shocking scenes, but those were not needed.  Instead of coming up with scenes that were shocking, maybe they could have just stuck to a better storyline and better effects.  And get rid of Renny Harlin.