Father Lankester Merrin thinks that he has glimpsed the face of Evil. In the years following World War II, Merrin is relentlessly haunted by memories of the unspeakable brutality perpetrated against the innocent people of his parish during the War. In the wake of all the horror he has seen, both his faith in his fellow man and his faith in the Almighty have deserted him, and he can no longer honestly call himself a man of God. Merrin has traveled far from his native Holland in a desperate attempt to try to forget and escape all the evil that he had witnessed there. While currently in Cairo, Egypt, he is approached by a collector of rare antiquities and asked to participate in a British archeological excavation in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. They have unearthed something extraordinary and unusual…a Christian Byzantine church dating from the 5th century, long before Christianity arrived in East Africa, and in inexplicably perfect condition–like it had been buried immediately after it was completed. The collector wants Merrin, an Oxford-educated archeologist, to find an ancient relic hidden within the church before the British do. Interested, Merrin agrees to take the job. But beneath the church, something much older and malevolent sleeps, waiting to be awoken. When the archeologists start excavating, strange things begin occuring, and the local Turkana tribesmen who were hired to work refuse to enter the site. Things only get worse and worse, ultimately resulting in madness and death. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are repeated against another innocent village–atrocities he had hoped and prayed never to see again. The blood of innocents flows freely on the East African plain, but the horror has only just begun. In the place where Evil was born, Merrin will finally see its true face.

Exorcist, The Beginning is an exceptional movie. It begins with a powerful scene of a battered 4th century priest walking through, and then finally viewing the massacre of a Christian army. Jump forward to 1949, the plot slows down for Merrin’s backstory and Sarah’s frustration with treating the mysterious illnesses that plague the village. These elements wove themselves into a great plot as history repeated itself in a gory and brutal fashion.

As the battle between the tribesmen and the British began, the ultimate battle between good and evil began in the bowels of the old church. While Sarah’s head didn’t spin around, her demon counterpart was just as terrifying and obscene as the 1973 classic. The cinematography was very good, as was the acting. Highly recommended.

Daniel Petru Corogeanu, a priest at the Holy Trinity convent in Tanacu village of Romania, has been jailed for 14 years for conducting an exorcism that led to the death of a nun who he believed was possessed by devils. Irina Cornici died from starvation while being chained to a cross at a secluded convent in the north-east. The botched ritual occurred in 2005, when Irina was 23 years old.

Corogeanu and the four nuns involved were convicted of manslaughter. The nuns got jail terms ranging from five to eight years, plus excommunication from the church. He is now banned from the priesthood.

This case has shocked Romania as well as the Orthodox Church, which plans to implement psychological screening tests for future monastery candidates. The Vatican issued its first new exorcism guidelines in 1999, urging priests to use modern psychiatry to evaluate those who wish to be exorcised.

All of the defendants plan to appeal their case.

Bob Larson, an evangelical minister and founder, of the Spiritual Freedom Church in Denver, claims that he has performed 10,000 exorcisms around the world over the past 30 years, including some famous people that he refuses to identify.

“I see it in (someone’s) eyes,” Larson said. “The demon looks at me. I’ve learned to recognize what it looks like. (At a ministry) when I see it, I go to a person. It’s a look that once you see it, you never forget it. It comes from another realm; an incredibly evil look, The eyes narrow and there’s darkness.”

Larson has written 30 books on exorcism, cults and spirituality, as well as hosted a syndicated radio show for over 20 years. During this time, he has managed to create quite a following, enough for him to establish an exorcism center in a $1.2 million facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The funding for his Scottsdale church comes from his worldwide ministry and people he calls Do What Jesus Did Spiritual Team members, who pay $199 annual to support his ministry. Nonmembers are required to pay $20 for exorcisms.

Synopsis

Or at least, if you believe the stories that have been told for the last fifty-odd years, a reasonable facsimile of him did. It is a story that has been told for three generations and has inspired books, films and documentaries. It is, without question, the greatest unsolved mystery of St. Louis and one of the most perplexing puzzles of the paranormal in American history. But is the story so mysterious because of the events that occurred — or because of the bizarre mixture of fact and fantasy that it has become? The story of the 1949 St. Louis Exorcism has become a confusing and convoluted mess over the years. There are so many theories, legends, tales and counter-stories that have been thrown into the mix that it’s become very hard to separate what it truth and what is fiction with this case.

Can this new book finally make sense of it all?

Get more information about the book at Prairie Ghosts