(Cert 15, 113 mins): Starring Stellan Skarsgard, Izabella Scorupco, James D'Arcy and Ben Cross. Directed by Renny Harlin.

Three directors (one sacked, one dead), numerous re-writes, recasting and an entirely new shoot - God-fearing types would have taken it as a sign from above that this film should never have been made.

And they were probably right.

Original director Paul Schrader was fired because studio executives thought his version lacked tension and scares.

His replacement John Frankenheimer sadly passed away and action maestro Renny Harlin was then drafted in and subsequently started again almost from scratch with a revised cast and a more scare-centric storyline.

Clearly ignoring all portents of doom, it comes as no surprise to discover that Exorcist: The Beginning is an exercise in preposterously bad movie-making. A prequel to the Seventies pant-filler, the fourth installment in the saga and another affront to the original classic, The Beginning chronicles the early years of Father Merrin (first played by Max Von Sydow) in post-World War II Africa.

Fleeing his native Holland to escape the horrors of Nazi brutality, Merrin (Skarsgard) is suffering a crisis of faith and so he seeks solace in archaeology.

During a trip through Cairo, the melancholy man of god is approached by mysterious antiquities collector Semelier (Cross) to join a British archeological dig in the remote Turkana region of Kenya.

The team has unearthed a Christian Byzantine church believed to contain a priceless ancient relic, which Semelier hopes to claim before the British learn of its existence.

Merrin duly accepts but when he arrives at the site, he is stunned to find the church in inexplicably pristine condition, almost as if it had been buried on the day it was completed.

Descending into the cavernous interior of the building with young Vatican priest Father Francis (D'Arcy), Merrin unwittingly wakes a terrifying force, which haunts the catacombs beneath the church.

Considering the major production problems, it's a wonder this film was ever made but that still doesn't forgive the messy and unintentionally hilarious plotting and acting.

Taking the tension of the original and wrapping it in cheap shocks and bad make-up, it is a lifeless attempt to wring yet more money out of what has been regularly voted the scariest movie of all time.

As such, this unclean spirit should be cast out and forgotten about.