This style of horror moviemaking is incongruous with a film that is grappling in a limited way with issues such as lapsed faith, Holocaust survival, and colonial occupation. So, you have this fundamental tug of war between the serious issues that are swept under the carpet and the horror sequences.
For the lack of scares in Dominion , it was at least going for something interesting, positing that human evil is as worse if not more so than the demonic evil we saw in the original film. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. He likes watching films and writes about them in great analytical detail.
Username or Email Address. Remember Me. To use social login you have to agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. Search Search for: Search. Switch skin Switch to the light mode that's kinder on your eyes at day time. This is why it is important, nay—the duty of new filmmakers to continue to confront us and make us uncomfortable. Horror, by its very definition, is something uncomfortable, something disturbing, something transgressive.
To be clear, I have nothing against comfort horror. There is nothing wrong with returning time and again to the movies we love. There is power in facing and overcoming these fears and finding comfort in that. The solace found in the familiar is good for us, but it also ceases to hold the same kind of power when we are lulled rather than disturbed.
Horror is a call to examination and to action. Comfort rarely stirs us to either. Wes Craven was particularly articulate on these points. He believed that the first thing the audience should be afraid of is the filmmaker. In other words, we should be uncertain of where they will take us and what dangers they will confront us with. It is a lesson he learned from Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho , who caught the audience off guard by killing off a star less than halfway through the film.
Craven recognized the power that the genre had to tell stories in an entertaining way that could tap into the conscience for social change. It has never bothered me that non-horror fans are critical of the genre. It is perfectly understandable to be repelled by violence and monsters. I find it funny when they are surprised by how well-adjusted, compassionate, and empathetic horror fans tend to be. The value of horror is an age-old argument dating back to debates between Plato and Aristotle.
Plato felt that the violence and horror on display in the amphitheaters of Athens were bad for society, while Aristotle argued for the value of catharsis. My concern now, however, is that all too often the Platonic argument is rising not only from outside the so-called horror community, but from within it.
This is my main reason for writing this article. In it, the Blind Man, the extreme villain from the first film, appeared to be presented as the hero of the sequel. The discourse was savage on both sides. It was instructive, however, in bringing to light an important question: is there a line to be crossed? A huge objection to The Last House on the Left is a scene in which Krug and company are humanized as they stare at themselves in disgust, picking grass from their bloody hands after a particularly brutal and inhuman act.
This is also the sequence that raises the film above others of its kind. Dominion also doesn't feel the need to shoehorn in an action-heavy final exorcism sequence, which is great, as the one in The Beginning reeked of studio interference in the plot, and also got surprisingly cheesy. Dominion remains an extremely flawed film, but it's the far superior Exorcist prequel.
Michael Kennedy is an avid movie and TV fan that's been working for Screen Rant in various capacities since In that time, Michael has written over articles for the site, first working solely as a news writer, then later as a senior writer and associate news editor.
Most recently, Michael helped launch Screen Rant's new horror section, and is now the lead staff writer when it comes to all things frightening. A FL native, Michael is passionate about pop culture, and earned an AS degree in film production in He also loves both Marvel and DC movies, and wishes every superhero fan could just get along.
Double Take: The Exorcist Prequels. A comparison of the Harlin and Schrader versions. By Jeff Otto Updated: 19 May am. With the recent onslaught of remakes, re-imaginings, retoolings, etc. The anomaly of two Exorcist films using the same lead actor, the same sets and a virtually identical script, is worthy of discussion in and of itself.
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