One thing I hadn't realized before was how long Schrader's film was. To reach the church conclusion where Satan awaits a great battle with Merrin, I guess what we get was rather underwhelming. I guess we are just conditioned to expect this great "fire and brimstone" spiritual combat where a mere mortal is up against a fallen angel with cunning and devious chicanery. The devil (in a fully formed Billy Crawford, who was more than a bit worse for wear when first seen, now having command of his arm and leg, looking fit and trim) will attack Merrin with psychological warfare. Sure some giant insects fly from his mouth, but Sarsgard no sells their effects. By that point, Merrin was no longer in a state to be effected by such nonsense.
I think Schrader going with the awful hardship of Merrin at the beginning of the film--a cruel Nazi general ordering the priest to tell him who among the Jews in the village had put a knife in the back of one of his soldiers, found slain in a ditch as the war is concluding, and if he doesn't do so, ten among the number would be shot--really sets up the message that is of serious significance to Schrader: how does a man of God continue telling others that their deity is a loving and caring father when so much horror exists that is hard to deny? That spiritual unrest and "bump in the road" (called a "sabbatical" in the film) holds Merrin back from truly being able to conquer a very real evil most certain to be a scourge if not culled.
I just wish this film had an evil that sent me chills like "Howdy" in The Exorcist
(1973). In Schrader's Dominion (2005), I was never truly unsettled or held in a firm grip of unease. I think it is because Schrader had the budget for the location, church, and cast, but not for special effects which could give form to Satan and make him a real menace. Crawford, to me, even with colored eye contacts and mangled teeth, just never truly left me bothered or unnerved. He just wasn't scary. I think I personally needed to feel that in order to seriously consider Merrin's adversary a major menace that gave me a throat gulp. And I think because of that the film never really resonates or remains with me.
I think Schrader going with the awful hardship of Merrin at the beginning of the film--a cruel Nazi general ordering the priest to tell him who among the Jews in the village had put a knife in the back of one of his soldiers, found slain in a ditch as the war is concluding, and if he doesn't do so, ten among the number would be shot--really sets up the message that is of serious significance to Schrader: how does a man of God continue telling others that their deity is a loving and caring father when so much horror exists that is hard to deny? That spiritual unrest and "bump in the road" (called a "sabbatical" in the film) holds Merrin back from truly being able to conquer a very real evil most certain to be a scourge if not culled.
I just wish this film had an evil that sent me chills like "Howdy" in The Exorcist
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