Goofs for
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: Father Gionetti gives Father Merrin a copy of the Rituale Romanum (Roman Ritual). (The administration of exorcism is in Title X of the Rituale Romanum.) The title of the book embossed on its leather cover is "Roman Ritual", in English. Later in the film, Father Merrin asks Joseph to help him by reading passages of the book, and we are shown a couple of printed pages, the text of which is also in English. The Rituale Romanum would have been printed in Latin in 1949, when the film is set, because vulgar translations of liturgical texts were not authorized until the promulgation of the Sacrosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) by Pope Paul VI on 4 December 1963, as part of the Second Vatican Council.
  
  
• Continuity: Father Merrin cuts his hand lengthwise on a piece of glass. Later, Sarah cleans and bandages his hand. But when we see the bandage, it is going across, not up and down like the wound.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the Byzantine Knight/Priest crosses himself while standing among all of the bodies (in one of the early scenes) he does so in the Roman Catholic fashion (left to right). Any Byzantine of that era would adhere to the Eastern Orthodox variant (right to left).
  
  

• Continuity: When Merrin enters the church for the first time, his guide hands him a lantern when he steps off the ladder, but after Merrin walks forward, the guide is still holding a lantern. He may have had two, but later, when the second priest comes down, the guide no longer has a lantern.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In 1949, Kenya would have been pronounced "Keen-ya" instead of "Kehn-ya," as it is today. The pronunciation change came about in 1963 when Kenya became independent from British rule. Characters in the movie use the modern pronunciation instead of the old.
  
  
• Factual errors: The machine gun that the British Soldiers set up and use against the African tribe is a German MG42. Although the movie is set post WW2, it is very unlikely that the British Army would have recycled this weapon into their artillery.
  
  
• Continuity: When Merrin looks at Bession's drawing as he is walking into the church, he has it the right way up (with the cross inverted). A few moments later he looks at the hanging cross and realizes he's made a mistake in interpreting the drawing. He looks at the drawing again (now upside down, with the cross the right way up) and turns it around, giving him his epiphany about the hidden passage.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Sarah walks through the hospital with the candle, the light emitted by the candle varies extremely. Then when the light and radio go on, one can clearly see that the candle is just a replica made of plastic.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At the beginning of the film, Father Merrin is told that a church has been found in East Africa and that the church is from around 5 AD. He meant to say that it was from the "fifth century AD".
  
  
• Anachronisms: The book that Fr. Merrin uses, "Roman Rituals", was not published until 1950.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Father Merrin pushes Father Francis against the wall, it wobbles.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Sarah is giving Joseph a shot, she gives it in the wrong spot. The needle is the size for an adult intramuscular injection which would be given in the muscular part of the arm. She gave it just a little above the elbow, which is not a very muscular region. It is possible that she would have to use the over-sized needle because of a lack of supplies in the area she was in, but she would never have given the injection in that location if she were medically trained.
  
  
• Continuity: When Merrin meets with Jeffries for the first time, the amount of sweat on Merrin's shirt varies between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Sarah's hypodermic needle is a lot longer before she injects the boy than it is after she pulls it out. (A trick needle slides back into the chamber of the syringe, instead of into the patient's arm. If it doesn't work properly, then the needle will be shorter after the injection than before.)
  
  
• Factual errors: When the power is restored in the infirmary the lights and the radio go on simultaneously. In 1949 radios were tube-type and required a warm-up time.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Sarah is shown hanging upside down in front of Joseph in the church, you can see her hairline where the makeup ends and her real skin begins.
  
  
• Continuity: Sarah has three tarot cards laid out on the table when Father Merrin walks in. They are gone in the next shot, and reappear when he asks about them.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Father Francis takes Joseph into the church, he says "In nomine patris, et filii, et spiritus sanctu". The actual Latin is "In nomine patris, et filii, et spiritus sancti" - "In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost".
  
  
• Continuity: When Father Merrin is in the church removing the top of the secret passageway, he drops his hammer. In the next shot he is still holding the hammer.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Merrin remembers WWII German soldiers marching with their typical "Knobelbecher" boots, they can be seen having modern soles. This is probably due to the fact that many film productions use the almost identical East German "Knobelbecher" boots, which became available cheaply and in abundance after the fall of the German Democratic Republic in 1990.
  
  
• Continuity: (At 01:12:33) Immediately after major Granville shoots one of the tribes people, the camera cuts back to show Father Merrin shouting "No!". In couple of these shots, this character appears as if the weather is raining on him. Not everyone in the shot, just him (left hand side of frame). This occurs at least twice, and for everyone else it's a sunny day. (Freeze-framing confirms the streaks of water.)
  
  

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