THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (2005)

Good devil themed movies are extremely hard to come by. There is the obvious and only true movie masterpiece of the sub genre in the form of The Exorcist, but others have been released with varying success including The Omen, The Devil's Advocate, Angel Heart, and Rosemary's Baby to name but a few. However, amongst these superior titles lie a whole heap of awful ones such as Exorcist II: The Heretic, the whole Warlock series, most of the Omen sequels, and countless others. The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, I'm happy to say, is memorable for all the right reasons and while it isn't anyway near the class of The Exorcist, it does manage to be one of the best demonic possession movies to come out in a quite some time.
This somewhat true story centers around Father Moore, a priest charged with negligent homicide for his part in an exorcism that went horribly wrong. Tom Wilkinson plays Father Moore with the quiet, yet firm dignity that he usually brings to his roles. Laura Linney, in another rock solid performance, plays Erin Bruner, the lawyer who must defend Father Moore, which is no easy task considering that Moore refuses to take a plea deal for admitting to guilt of a lesser offense. Moore believes he did what was right and claims that the demonic possession along with some other things are responsible for Emily's death. He also feels that his main purpose is to tell the true story about Emily Rose. The immensely talented Campbell Scott delivers another fine performance as Ethan Thomas, an extremely confident prosecutor out to put Father Moore away for a long time. As good as those 3 fine actors are in the film, relative newcomer Jennifer Carpenter steals the show as the films titled victim. She was simply fantastic and easily deserves an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The demonic possession parts of the story actually rely more on Carpenter's talent than on special effects and, although there are some effects (and good ones at that), Jennifer pulls off most of the films scarier moments thanks to some fine acting.

The movie has an interesting dynamic in the way it approaches it's story. When I watched the trailer, I liked what I saw. I felt that Emily Rose would be a combination of The Exorcist along with the well made and aptly placed scares of films like The Others and The Ring. When I sat in the theatre and a courtroom melodrama started to unfold before my misty eyes, I was ready to let out my inner demon and start tearing the seats out of the theatre. It wasn't at all what I expected and the dialogue in the early opening scenes was very weak. Things pick up pretty quickly after that and everything gets much better. The story is told from two vastly different perspectives that try to explain the same outcome. There is the medical version of what happened to Emily and then there's the demon possession account of what happened. In the medical version, the prosecutors have experts testify that Emily wasn't possessed, and that she had seizures and some mental condition that were making her act this way. And the demon version is, as you guessed, Emily possessed by a malevolent spirit that makes her do all sorts of evil actions. Flashbacks of both explanations are shown with the demon version obviously receiving more of an emphasis and rightfully so. It just makes for, not only a better horror movie, but a better film in general.
Scott Derrickson's direction is very concise and to the point. It's effective and he especially shines in the demon aspects of the story. The special effects in the film are perfectly placed and are never overused. They definitely help to make for some extremely creepy scenes. As previously stated though, the films greatest effect isn't it's flashy CGI, it's Jennifer Carpenter. Her guttural screaming along with her twisted faces and poses are far more chilling than any SFX supervisor could ever hope to achieveand she simple steals the show as a result.

The Exorcism Of Emily Rose is a very good horror film and the second best demonic possession movie behind you know what. There are some excellent scares in the film along with an exceptional cast. My only gripes are some overlong courtroom sequences and a little bit of tameness with the demonic aspects. If you look up what happened in the real life case of Anneliese Michel, whom this film is based upon, you'll find out some detail that is extremely disturbing to say the least, and things that would have made the film scarier and more graphically repulsive. This is an R rated story told for the masses in a profit friendly PG-13 format, but it's still a very good and very frightening movie.