The Exorcism of Emily Rose Year: 2005 Director: Scott Derrickson Written by: Scott Derrickson, Paul Harris Boardman Threat: Demons Weapon of Choice: Possession Based upon: novel - "The Exorcism of Annelise Michel" - Felictas D. Goodman IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

Rish's Reviews
I was lucky enough to be in the first group to see this 2005 Sony Pictures film. I've reviewed one or two test screenings on this site, but I've never gone back and watched the official, polished release to tell you how they improved it. I wonder if that's annoying.
Based on a true story, The Exorcism of Emily Rose tells the story of a hotshot young attorney (Laura Linney), defending a priest (Tom Wilkensen) in a criminal case involving a dead teenage girl, who he and the family claims was possessed at the time of her death. Through flashbacks and courtroom testimony, we find out what happened, or may have happened in the events that led to her death.
This was the rare combination of Courtroom Drama and religious horror movie. It split pretty much straight down the middle, although the Horror aspect tended to taint the rest of the proceedings. And man, was it scary. Throughout the film, an obnoxious Sony employee would hold up a video camera armed with a night-vision lense to gauge our reactions during the scary parts.
Laura Linney is quite good, coming across both tough and vulnerable. Tom Wilkensen gives a stirring, and believable performance as Father Moore. Poor Emily Rose, played with believable zeal, terror, and twisted gusto by Jennifer Carpenter, was incredibly tragic, grunting out animalistic sounds, twisting in awful positions, and witnessing horrors pretty much beyond belief. Campbell Scott played the somewhat unbelievable prosecuting attorney, who at one point suggests, "Who cares what [the witness] thinks?" and raises an objection on grounds of "Silliness."
Linney's character is an agnostic. Part of the film is the opening of her awareness that there are forces beyond those of the factual or tangible. Emily Rose undergoes a wide range of frightening and disturbing behaviours, probably the least of which is eating spiders. While the film examines both the defence's and the prosecution's angles, it certainly focuses more on the supernatural side of Father Moore's story, leaving you with no doubt, whether you're a believer or not, that he believes it.
I saw it with a friend of mine who is an atheist, thinking it would inspire interesting conversation afterward, but he was struck down by the Lord about halfway through the movie and we didn't get to talk about it.
That was a joke. A drunk driver struck him down.
Since what I saw was an early cut of the film, some of the special effects were not yet complete, and a couple of times there was no sound where something awful was supposed to be heard. It's a testament to the film that I was still as scared as I was, even seeing the wire that lifted Emily off the floor and such. After a certain point, the question of the night ceased to be the regular "Will I have nightmares?" and became "How bad will my nightmares be?"
Except for a few minor pacing issues and lame music that will surely be replaced by more appropriate sounds, the only real weakness of the film was the ending, and if it was an honest retelling of the actual events, that can't be helped. While the film is not released in America until September, I'll go ahead and post this review now, since it's a positive one.
Aww, who am I kidding? I'd still post this if it were a negative review.
Oh, and I always knew cats were servants of the devil.
Best Scare: This was a very frightening film, but the biggest scare for me had to be when Emily is taking a test, and looks over to see the student next to her staring with black blood flowing from his eyes. My armhairs dance just typing about it.
I'd Recommend It To: A lot of people are really bothered by demonic possession and devil-related movies. While I've always had a weaker spot for ghosts, I can completely understand the tendency many (mostly religious, usually Hispanic) have to flee screaming from movies with exorcisms or Satanic overtones. If you're one of those, or if you were bothered by the opening scene of Constantine, I'd steer clear of this movie.
Posted: April 19, 2005

Total Skulls: 15

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?