BY LARRY CARROLL | In the first installment of the Exorcist: The Beginning set report, I spoke of my adventures in Rome and told you that what I glimpsed of the movie looked very, very promising. If you missed it (and if you did - what's wrong with you?!), click here.

View pictures from the set

Now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty - the Exorcist prequel was being filmed at the legendary Cinecitta Studios, about a half hour drive from Rome. Cinecitta, built in 1937 under the rule of Mussolini, has been the site of more than 3,000 films over the years, including some of Fellini's greatest, and it makes for a very impressive sight. When you pull onto the lot, something grabs your eye immediately - the immense, detailed sets that still remain from Gangs of New York. Extras congregate on them now, huddling on the "docks" and drinking coffee while they wait to be called for the next scene.

After I got off the bus with the rest of the journalists, we were allowed to roam freely a bit and check out the Gangs set. Opening up a door, I stumbled into the setting of the bare-knuckle brawl that got DiCaprio into the good graces of Day-Lewis. Looking up at the second-floor balconies, you can imagine the people leaning over, screaming at the combatants - only, now they'd be emphatically rooting on the tripods, rigging and collection of tarps that lay around on the floor.

Walking past the GONY sets, you can't help but notice the enormous...well, let's call it a shield...that is being held high off the ground by a crane. The shield is being used to block out the sun, and as soon as you walk onto the other side of it, the temperature drops some twenty-five degrees. Director Paul Schrader (Affliction) would later comment that this is the great thing about working with a studio budget - when Mother Nature doesn't go along with your shooting plans, you just bring in a crane.

The drop in temperature, and the accompanying darkness, is appropriate because Schrader is creating a blustery, cold, snowy day in a circa-1944 Dutch village. As the cold hits, you can feel yourself being transported there - cobblestone covers the grounds, framed by ravaged tenement buildings whose filthy windows contain X's in tape meant to hold them together during bombings. A battle-weathered Jeep is parked in the narrow alley off the central plaza, and posters in German strike a terror in you regardless of whether or not you can read the language.

Over in a corner, a small tent is set up - Schrader's command central. The director stands beneath the canopy, buried in a scarf, long winter coat and black beret. He stares intently at the screen in front of him, watching as the crew sets up the next shot. His star, the intense Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting), paces back and forth in the square, wearing a modern-day parka over his period vestments. As Skarsgard loses the jacket and blows into his hands, the crew goes through their calls to shoot an intense, early scene that has Father Lankester Merrin (the priest played by Max Von Sydow in the original film, now a younger version personified by Skarsgard) facing a life-altering moment that's being forced upon him by Nazi soldiers.

Skarsgard is a very affable man off camera, smiling and making small talk with the extras, the visiting reporters and even the most lowest-ranking production assistants. Once Schrader's A.D. shouts "action!", however - the curls in his lips disappear and his face becomes drenched in anguish. Remarkably, he does it again and again, as the camera crew switches angles and gets their coverage. This guy can turn on "brooding" so easily that you'd swear there was a light switch in the back of his head.

Between takes, the priest, the Nazi, and the villager who just died share a cup of coffee, laugh and make small talk. Schrader, through an interpreter, tells an Italian extra that the camera keeps catching him reacting to the violence before it actually occurs. The man nods his head, promising to not tip his hand again, and then the main actors come back into the town square and Skarsgard takes off his parka again, a sign that it's time to go back to work. A special effects man lights what looks like a flare and holds it against a giant ping-pong paddle, and the combination results in a white spray flitting through the air - let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! During the take, I tiptoed over and took a glance at one of the monitors - it looked great. There was so much cold on the screen - the snow, the stone, the expression on Merrin's face - it's as chilling as any special effect.

Suddenly we're yanked away, given an opportunity to visit Stage 13 (only slightly less appropriate than Exorcist was on stage 666), where the indoor sets are being stored. Art Director Stefano Ortolani, who only had to move next door from his work on Gangs, takes great pleasure in showing off the work of himself and the hundred or so artisans who toil beneath him. He shows us a small African hut that looks like Yoda's summer home (rumor has it that this is where the film's crucial "Satanic" event takes place), a decrepit mission hospital, and an underground tomb. We also saw a long, plain, gray hallway that will be used to portray Merrin's dream sequences. The hallway looks so blah by itself, but throw in some fog and a midget a la Living in Oblivion, and it could do the trick. Ortolani takes pride in all this work; he seems proudest, however, when he takes us into the church that took some fifty men to build - and is big enough for several dozen people to prowl about at once.

After checking out all the old churches in Rome, I was beginning to consider myself a bit of an expert, which made me even more thoroughly impressed by the look of this church - very classic, very eerie. Above the set is a giant gold dome, looking down at the church as it expands into six distinct areas. All over the walls are murals depicting angels battling demons. The central atrium is framed by four giant angelic statues, each with a different weapon for demon fighting, each aimed at the altar as if defending it. Tiny jewels sparkle when the light is shone on the walls in the right way. There are reflecting pools presumably for holding holy water, surrounded by tile. On the altar sits a large, simple, crude cross. On the two ends of the altar, steps lead up to eerie coffins. Large rocks indicate that some digging has been done, and the stone coffin in one of the areas marks the place where Merrin and his archeological group is able to descend into what they find below.

Beneath the church is the unearthed tomb, a dark and claustrophobic set most notable for an enormous statue of the devil that looms high above it all. The statue resembles the Pazuzu image from the earlier Exorcist films, but with a bit an exotic touch to it. It also has a giant pole that runs up between its legs and sticks out with the head of a snake, making the devil look not only terrifying but more than a bit like he's about to get his groove on - which actually makes him even scarier. On either side of the statue are dark stairs that lead up behind it, where you can see satanic faces carved into the walls. Very creepy...Indiana Jones type stuff.

Across from the Satan statue is a large metal structure that resembles a birdcage, but without a bottom and fifty times larger. Around the cage are walls with statues of snakes, coiled up and looking right at you. The walls would appear to be made from stone, but are actually Styrofoam. The art designer told us that the interior of these walls was made from rock molds taken off real rocks in Africa, a fact that adds to the realism of the set. When you see all this, you can't help but realize that the average filmgoer won't even notice most of these tiny details. But, as David O. Selznick once said, "Thousands and thousands of details go into the making of a film. It is the sum total that either makes a great picture or destroys it." These tiny details in the set could make the actors feel that much more in character, and you can see where the dominoes would fall from there. It all gives you a whole new appreciation for Art Directors.

We saw a lot of cool things that day, but none more so than a top-secret statue. It was so secret, in fact, that it couldn't be photographed - but nobody's stopping me from talking about it! The statue was very old looking and eerie - a demon with a dagger in his hand, preparing to stab a victim who was lying at his feet. The interesting thing about all this was that the "victim" was actually the demon face that Exorcist fans are so accustomed to seeing. Perhaps this is where Merrin first glimpses the image that haunts him for years to come, huh?

At this point, we were dismissed from the soundstages and worked our way back outside to interview the cast and crew. Those interviews will be appearing on CountingDown in the weeks to come as we prepare for what looks to be a return to the roots of what might very well be the greatest horror movie ever made.

That's it for now. Like a twelve-year old boy at Michael Jackson's house, I feel like I've been fully debriefed. I've given you just about every nugget of info I can pull out of my brain. There are, however, some random facts that I may not have covered, and in the interests of full disclosure, I now present the crumbs at the bottom of the bag...the last swig of milk from the carton...the random facts that might be of interest to you:

 The evil demon in the Exorcist movies has often been given a name - Pazuzu. In this film, however, no such name will be used - it will be said that Merrin is battling the Devil Himself.

 The Devil and Father Merrin are the only two Exorcist trilogy characters appearing in this film. So don't get your hopes up for any cameo appearances by Ellen Burstyn or Linda Blair - ain't gonna happen.

 Shooting on the film began in Morocco on November 11th, and moved to Rome on January 9th. The production has just recently wrapped and is still on track for a July 18th release date.

 The music has always been a major part of any Exorcist film, but as of the set visit they had not yet chosen a composer. They said they did have a very short list, however.

 William Peter Blatty, writer of the original novel and film and writer/director of Exorcist III, has nothing whatsoever with this film. Neither does William Friedkin, the director of The Exorcist (most recently seen helming The Hunted).

 This film will not be going by such previously rumored names as Exorcist: Dominion or Exorcist 4:1. Exorcist: The Beginning is the rock-solid title for the film.

 Top-notch cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Reds, The Last Emperor, 1900) is working with Schrader on this one. On the day I visited the set, however, he had taken ill and was at home.

 Schrader says that the Satan icon in his film is a variation on the Pazuzu statue found in real-life in Iraq and subsequently used in the Exorcist films. He also used demon faces from the original film and has incorporated them into a number of "dream" sequences for his film.

 The majority of the action will take place in 1947 in the Turkana region of Kenya. There will also be a substantial flashback to 1944 Holland, where Merrin suffers his crisis of faith.

 The exorcism in this film promises to be an epic battle, but it is not the battle that "lasted for months", referred to in the original Exorcist.

 The filmmakers say that this movie's horror will be rooted heavily in psychology - although the film will have more than 200 special effects, they are not going to be the driving force behind the terror.

 Mel Gibson's Jesus flick, The Passion, was also filming on the lot. That's gonna be a weird movie. And I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be sitting in a cafeteria eating lunch, surrounded by priests, Nazis, and Jesus' disciples.

 The demon in this film will have its own distinct voice - the filmmakers are not attempting to make it sound like Pazuzu did in The Exorcist.

Well, that's it for now, Exorcist fans. Excited yet? Keep checking back for the next part of our coverage - an interview with Stellan Skarsgard!