Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) is an American supernatural horror film directed by Renny Harlin from a screenplay by Alexi Hawley. It serves as the fourth installment in The Exorcist film series and a prequel to The Exorcist (1973). Set during the Crusades, an injured priest stumbles upon a dying soldier clutching a Pazuzu head pendant on a desolate battlefield. As he looks around, he witnesses hundreds of crucified Crusaders scattered across the desert. Flash forward to Cairo, Egypt in 1949 where young Father Lankester Merrin grapples with his shattered faith. He is plagued by memories of his time as a parish priest in occupied Netherlands during World War II, where he was forced to participate in arbitrary executions by a sadistic Nazi SS commander to spare an entire village from slaughter.

Merrin is approached by Semelier, a collector of antiquities, who invites him to join an excavation in Derati, a valley located in the Turkana region of British Kenya. The dig site is home to a Christian Byzantine-era church that was built around 500 A.D., long before Christianity had spread to this particular area of Africa. Semelier shares that there is believed to be an ancient relic of a demon hidden within the church, and he asks Merrin to retrieve it before the British team at the excavation can find it. After considering the request, Merrin agrees and makes his way to the dig site. Father Francis accompanies him on the journey. Upon their arrival with their guide and translator Chuma, Merrin meets Jefferies, the chief excavator who appears to have boils on his face, and Sarah Novak, a doctor.