The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Review by Clint Morris

What do you get when you mix a theatre full of film reviewers, a tot, a priest, an easily scared Mrs. and a quartet of Pagan worshippers?

Apparently no more than a speckled bunch of cinemagoers keen to check out Hollywood’s latest run-in with both the brighter and darker sides of creed. Still, makes for an opening first paragraph, hey?

If I’m awoken at 3.00am, it’s usually by a self-interested feline, deciding she wants to come home, knocking on the front door (with her head no less), or picking myself up from the ground, as my wife’s – once again – used her ballet storks to knock me off the cot again.

After seeing how 3.00am treats young Emily Rose, I’ll think myself lucky from here on...

Based on a true story about Anneliese Michel, a young German woman who suffered the same fate as the fictional character here in the '70s, this courtroom drama/creepfest centres on a renowned do-gooder, 19-year-old Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter), who’s suddenly awoken at 3.00am one morning only to be chillingly beleaguered by an unnoticed evil.

From the next day, she’ll be perpetually possessed by what Father Richard Moore (Tom Wilkinson) believes to be an evil spirit. That’s what he believes though – what about everybody else?

Thus begins the core of the story.

It seems Ms. Rose died after Father Moore tried to rid her of demons, and now he's up for negligence. Erin Bruner (Laura Linney) is the lawyer charged with defending him in a court of law, and my God (when you’re about to recommend a movie starring Satan it comes in handy to say it just once, right?) if her alarm clock’s not going to start going off at 3.00am, doors aren't going to crash around her, and voltage isn't going to flick-off before the music can creep back up... Thing is, can she get the guy off charges of negligence?

Much like the film's subject itself, you're either going to swallow the film or you're not. While I'm not unhooking alarm clock's from the bedside tables just yet I will say this is an intriguing movie. Being based on real events – though slightly fluffed by Hollywood, as you could imagine – it makes it even more spine tingling; in some respects, it’s scarier than The Exorcist, because you knew that was Movie Studio sausage-meat.

There's more at work here than your typical "he's behind you" scary film – there's a compelling courtroom drama interwoven in it too. And in many ways, it's a film that states that legal and moral issues seem just as foreboding as control and exorcism.

Acting-wise, newcomer Carpenter is the real star; channelling the great Linda Blair (of Exorcist fame – an obvious comparison) and then some, to play the long-gone Emily Rose. But Linney, Wilkinson and Campbell Scott, playing the prosecutor, are uniformly good. Those behind-the-scenes deserve to be listed under the VIP grouping too though – Scott Derrickson's direction is slick and artistic, Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman's script is intelligent and provocative, and Tom Stern's cinematography is as exquisite as it is astonishing.

Besides the slightly sluggish pacing, the only downfall of the film seems to be it's point. What's it trying to say? What's it purpose? Where's the big finale it built us up to believe was coming?

Still, they're minor injustices for such a commendable, creepy and first-rate film experience. Try going straight to sleep after this baby.

3.5 out of 5

The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Australian release: Thursday the 27th of October, 2005
Cast: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter, Colm Feore.
Director: Scott Derrickson.
Website: Click here.

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