I saw The Exorcism of Emily Rose over the weekend. It really spooked me. Part of why it was so creepy was that it was based on the true story of the only (?) exorcism that the Catholic Church has recognized. I have since learned that the movie is only loosely based on the true story, a little like Fargo. But it still creeped me out. Enough to make me pick up my Bible to read about the End Days.
I was most impressed with Jennifer Carpenter’s performance as the 19-year-old girl who became possessed by demons. A very physical role, and she had me completely convinced that demons are real and that she was possessed.
The other performances were weak but good enough to keep the story moving. Laura Linney was annoyingly overzealous in her portrayal of the priest’s lawyer. She acted way over the top and had me feeling like I was watching a bad version of Law & Order during the court scenes. Tom Wilkinson, while likeable and for the most part believable, often came across as a little too chummy and he seemed more like an actor trying to play a priest than a real Catholic priest.
The court scenes were fairly well-scripted and I was happy to see that the lawyers always gave reason for their objections rather than the typical “Objection!” “Overruled!” quips that we see all too often on the television.
Now the movie itself… it walked that fine line between shocking the audience out of their seats with cheap scares and frightening the audience simply with its subject matter. There wasn’t any bloody gory stuff, but there was an omnipresent sense of danger for every character and Emily Rose’s suffering under the grips of possession was at times horrific and difficult to watch.
The movie made very good use of other languages to convey an other-worldliness to Emily’s possession. Lines that sound cheesy in English sound bone-chilling in Latin and the subtitles showed that the writers at least had some amount of Biblical knowledge. I feel inspired to learn more about the theology of angels and demons. The movie touched on some interesting Biblical issues — I found myself thinking about what defenses humans have against the supernatural and how the gift of freewill affects God’s role in protecting His children.
As I said, this movie had me convinced that demons exist. As I have learned more about the real story (apparently this happened in Germany about the same time as the original The Exorcist was released, and “Emily’s” parents were more hard-line fanatically religious than those in this movie), my usual skepticism has settled back in and I appreciate the devices used by the film makers to convince the audience.
That said, I am a little wary of the 03:00 hour.