 Movie
Reviews
with Evelyn Gough
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (M)
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Emily had two choices - exorcism or a date with an Echo staff member...
There's evil aplenty in this world. The question is how much of it is the devil's handiwork? That's for you to decide - just like it's left to the audience to decide whether Emily Rose was really possessed by demons or was she suffering from epilepsy?
Writer-director Scott Derrickson has taken the true-life story of Annaliese Michel, a young Bavarian girl, as the basis for this courtroom drama-horror movie.
After winning a scholarship to study teaching at college, Emily (Jennifer Carpenter) a 19-year-old farm girl, believes she has been possessed by six demons. Terrified out of her wits by what she is seeing and experiencing, Emily seeks help from the medical profession only to be told she is suffering from an unusual form of epilepsy.
When the prescribed medication fails to help the extremely devout girl, priest Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson) is called in and in a very rare decision, the Catholic Church officially recognises that she has been demonically possessed and recommends an exorcism.
Unfortunately, this amalgamation of horror and courtroom drama didn't quite work and only serves to disappoint fans of both genres. Horror lovers in particular will be left wanting a lot more horror, especially after being spoilt by classics such as The Exorcist and The Omen and I'm betting they will find all the courtroom stuff slow and tedious.
There are a few scary moments and the attempted exorcism is a real chiller (don't try this at home kids). The performances are faultless, including those of Laura Linney as lawyer Erin Bruner and Campbell Scott as prosecutor Ethan Thomas.
And with Derrickson deliberately avoiding big CGI effects, Carpenter, daughter of director John Carpenter, reveals just what a flexible actress she is.
It's all very serious and earnest but as far as satisfying goes, The Exorcism of Emily Rose is hit and miss, seemingly plagued by a few devils of its own.
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