The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Scott Derrickson 2005

Unbelievably well behaved Emily Rose leaves her small town life behind and ventures into the big bad world attending college to study teaching or some such wholesome career. Suddenly plagued by nightmarish visions and awful physical symptoms she returns home where it is decided that this is more than something Lemsip can cure and opt for an exorcism.

As you will know this is based on the true story of young German woman Anneliese Michel who was believed to be possessed by a demon and died during her subsequent exorcism in the 1970's.

If like me, you saw the trailer with the creepy sounds and the scary looking faces with dark eyes then you were salivating with expectation at the thought of a decent horror film. Unfortunately, I felt it didn’t live up to my high hopes.

The director seems unsure whether this film is a compelling courtroom drama about the negligent behaviour of a misguided priest or a dark horror about demons and possession. And as for the scary bits…they gave those away in the trailer.

Tom Wilkinson is good but the film is beneath him, he can play these kinds of roles in his sleep. Laura Linney looked bored. Relative newcomer Jennifer Carpenter doesn’t get to say much and that is one of the biggest flaws of this film. Just because you base something on a true story, doesn’t mean you can ignore character development. So little is seen of Emily Rose as a normal girl that you are not allowed to truly engage with the character.

For me the film languished in a middle ground, I didn’t love it I didn’t hate it. At best, I managed to squeeze out some indifference towards it. Apparently another account of the Anneliese Michel story is to be filmed and I hope that raises itself above mediocre.