The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2006)

2005
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Starring Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Colm Feore and Jennifer Carpenter

How did this movie escape my radar until now?  If memory serves me correctly, I was in college in 2005, doing my best to concentrate on doing anything but going to class and spending a lot of that time catching almost every horror movie that hit the multiplexes.  I remember the buzz about The Exorcism of Emily Rose at the time.  More than a few people that I knew even TOLD me that I needed to see the movie.  Yet here we are ten years later and I'm watching it on a rainy Friday morning. 

That really is a shame.  This movie is pretty damn good; it's the kind of character-centric horror flick that I've come to appreciate like an aged wine over the years in the wake of so many movies these days that don't inspire an ounce of sympathy for anyone in it.  Anymore, almost ALL characters in a given horror movie are vaguely hateable high-school kids/twenty-somethings, or they're just oblivious parents in the "ghost movies" that dot the landscape.  They're not like the characters in this movie, three-dimensional people with MOTIVATIONS (gasp) and EMOTIONAL RESONANCE (more gasp).  It's that aspect of the movie that actually kept me awake during my zombie state after getting off work at the glorious time of 8:00 a.m. 

That, and I'm a sucker for religious-themed horror movies, particularly ones that boast intermittent creepy moments like this one does. 

The framing device for The Exorcism of Emily Rose is fairly unique among horror movies.  It starts with the death of the titular main character, a 19-year-old girl who believes herself to be possessed by demons.  This revelation is followed up by the second revelation that the Priest who performed a recent exorcism may be complicit in her death.  That's your setup, folks, as Father Moore (Wilkinson) finds himself locked behind bars with his own church pretty much disowning him so as to avoid the bad publicity that the death entails.  Considering that she died of self-inflicted wounds combined with severe malnutrition, it seems like a sound move on paper.

The movie's main character is lawyer Erin Bruener.  Played by Laura Linney, an Oscar nominee and certifiable hottie if you've ever seen the otherwise godawful film Maze, she's a lawyer who finds herself defending Moore with the promise of a partner spot.  I think you know where we're going from here, as the skeptical lawyer gradually finds herself believing more and more in the claims of possession.  It's a plot device that isn't noted for its minty freshness (Lick Ness Monster cliche favorite phrase there, kids), but I've rarely seen it played out with as much emotion as it is here.  The acting here by both Linney and Wilkinson is top notch.  The relationship that they create starts out rocky, but by the time Erin's closing argument is heard, we buy every ounce of the emotion.

And yes, folks, what we have in this movie is a courtroom procedural.  I actually enjoyed this aspect of the movie a great deal, although this is where we get the movie's one flaw.  The prosecuting attorney is pretty much a cartoon character, with Campbell Scott standing out as the weak link in the movie's fantastic cast.  That bit of bitching aside, this is where we get the story of Emily Rose told in flashbacks.  The entire history of her possession is laid out for us in this manner, with Scott delivering a douchy opening statement provided by his endless array of doctors who all testify to the belief that Emily was not possessed by demons but rather a victim of epilepsy.  Because that diagnosis is always spot on in these movies.  This is followed by Erin Bruener attempting to prove that Emily WAS possessed, with a key piece of audiotape evidence being the real shining star of this sequence.  It also provides us with some of our best shock material.

The horror of this movie comes in the form of snippets; we don't get the whole truth, and after watching two Exorcist prequels, it's a move that is much appreciated.  Jennifer Carpenter is simply fantastic Emily, a young college student who is the perfect picture of innocence before a group of no less than SIX hellspawns make it their mission to mess the hell out of her world invade her body.  According to the ever-accurate Wikipedia, she performed almost all of her bodily contortions herself.  Get this woman a special Takako Fuji mention in the international horror hall of fame.  With her suffering family looking on, this woman will unnerve you every time she appears onscreen from a certain point on.  When the courtroom drama makes its way up to the eventual exorcism, she's evil incarnate buried underneath that innocent shell.

Advance word of warning: this is a movie primarily concerned with spirituality, or lack thereof.  As such, it might turn off some viewers.  If it doesn't, however, I can't recommend a better way to spend a couple hours than with this flick.  Linney and Carpenter are both great, and Wilkinson manages to put tons of genuine soul into Father Moore to the point that by the time that verdict comes in you're holding your breath.  Correct use of the words "you're" and "your" FTW in that previous sentence.

*** 1/2 out of ****.  A great movie in a great horror subgenre, and Carpenter's performance is up there with the greats in any horror movie I've seen.  Check it out.