The blockbuster prequel to the legendary film series tells how the ancient demonic power was first unleashed on an unsuspecting twentieth-century world.
In the aftermath of World War 2, Father Lancaster Merrin finds himself in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. Haunted by memories of the war, he has taken a sabbatical from the priesthood and journeyed far from his native Holland. He has come to lead the archaeological excavation of a mysterious Bzyantine church, buried in pristine condition as if on the day it was built. Directly beneath the church Merrin finds a much more ancient crypt - and finds himself face-to-face with unspeakable Evil.