Featured Film Review
'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' 2005 Sony Pictures starring Jennifer
Carpenter, Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson 117 minutes
I was expecting the sort of horror film that renders you afraid to drive
home from the cinema afterwards, but to its credit 'The Exorcism of Emily
Rose' wasn't like that. It played out more like a psychological drama
than a horror flick and raised more questions that it answered.
The opening credits state that it is based on a true story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Rose),
but I have not studied the original case so cannot judge how closely the
facts of the film
correspond to the reality of the Anneliese Michel story. Emily Rose is
a 19 year old student, who died in the days following an attempted
exorcism. The narrative follows a courtcase to determine whether the priest,
Father Moore, who carried out the aborted exorcism, was guilty of negligent
manslaughter. The People's lawyer argues that Emily Rose was both epileptic
and psychotic, but these were both conditions which could have been alleviated
with medication. Father Moore's defence responds that she was neither
of those things, but possibly possessed by six demons, and that the exorcism
failed because of the epilepsy medication she had been taking at the time.
The negligence charge was arrived at because Father Moore advised that
Emily Rose stop taking the medication.
Whilst the film does present the facts for each side of the debate, the
story largely follows the experiences of the defence lawyer, Erin
Bruner. She starts out agnostic but, following a few instances of
unexplained phenomena within her own life and having interviewed those
close to Emily Rose, she starts doubting her own spiritual ambivalence.
Through her, the audience too are led into favouring the possession conclusion
over the medical alternative.
It is a thought-provoking film, understated in part and very well acted.
I would watch it again, if only to experience the slightly disturbing
scenes, provided in flashback, without a gaggle of teenagers giggling
on the rows in front. Because it is a film, there's an expectation that
the viewer will leave the cinema knowing conclusively whether it was psychosis
and epilepsy or possession, yet finally, at the end, the choice is left
to each and their own thoughts on the matter. I began on the premise that
there probably were medical causes, but the magic of the cinema has opened
my mind in this instance. It has also left me wondering what I would have
done in Father Moore's shoes.
Reviewer: Mab
If you would like to join in on a discussion about this film, please go to the forum here: Exorcism of Emily Rose