Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 American supernatural horror film serving as a prequel to The Exorcist (1973), and the fourth installment in The Exorcist film series. Directed by Renny Harlin, the film stars Stellan Skarsgård, Izabella Scorupco and James D'Arcy. The film follows Father Lankester Merrin, whose faith has been renounced after his experiences in World War II, as he works as an archeologist and discovers dark occurrences while excavating in Kenya.

The film was retooled from Paul Schrader's nearly-completed Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, which Morgan Creek Productions executives feared would be unsuccessful. Morgan Creek commissioned The Beginning with the emphasis of featuring more scares and gore. In addition to Harlin replacing Schrader, Hawley rewrote William Wisher and Caleb Carr's original script, while Mark Goldblatt and Todd E. Miller replaced Tim Silano as editors.

Exorcist: The Beginning was released in the United States on August 20, 2004, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received negative reviews from critics and grossed over $78 million against a $50 million production budget. Dominion was released the following year to slightly more favorable reviews.

In the age of the Byzantine Empire, an injured priest wanders through the aftermath of a bloody and desolate battlefield. He comes across an impaled priest in his death throes holding a Pazuzu head pendant. The priest looks around him and sees hundreds of Byzantine soldiers crucified upside down across the desert.

In Cairo, Egypt in 1949, a young Father Lankester Merrin struggles with his shattered faith. He is haunted by an incident in a small village in the occupied Netherlands during World War II, where he served as parish priest: near the end of the war, sadistic Nazi SS Lieutenant Kessel, in retaliation for the murder of a German trooper, forced Merrin to participate in arbitrary executions to save a full village from slaughter.

Merrin is approached by a collector of antiquities named Semelier who invites him to come to a British excavation in a valley called Derati in the Turkana region of British Kenya. The dig excavates a Christian Byzantine-era church built circa 500 A.D. — long before Christianity had reached that region of Africa. Semelier asks Merrin to recover an ancient relic of a demon thought to be in the church, before the British can find it. Merrin agrees and travels to the dig site. Father Francis joins him.

Upon arriving at the site with their translator and guide Chuma, Merrin meets the chief excavator, a British man named Jefferies with visible boils on his face, and Sarah Novak, a doctor. In addition, Merrin learns that the diggers are disappearing or leaving in droves because the local tribesmen fear the church is cursed. Merrin witnesses a digger inexplicably experience a seizure.

Merrin, Chuma and Francis visit the dig site and find only the dome uncovered; the rest of the church is buried beneath the earth. Merrin discovers that the church is in perfect condition, as though it had been buried immediately after its construction. The three enter the church through the dome and find the place in near-pristine condition, but note two disturbing oddities; the statues of the angels holding weapons point their spears downward instead of triumphantly toward heaven and someone has vandalized and desecrated the church, placing the cross in an upside-down position. Merrin and Francis deduce that the sculptors were trying to depict the angels restraining something beneath the church.