EVIL DEMONS CAN'T CATCH ME... (The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (DVD))

Member Name: katestuartuk

Product:	The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (DVD)
Date:	21/01/07 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: CERTAINLY HAS THE THRILL FACTOR AND BY THE END IT'S MADE YOU THINK

Disadvantages: NOT AS SCARY AS IT'S BEEN BILLED AS!

A Tale of Angels and Demons

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

2005

Based on a True Story


I agreed to watch this film last night with quite a large amount of trepidation. Himself is very keen on scary, horror-type films while I am a rom-com girl through and through, so we often disagree about movie content. I think it was the fact that this film is based on true events that swayed me in the end, and I have to say (though please don’t let Himself know or I’ll never hear the end of it!) that I really did enjoy it. It was not a film produced simply to scare the pants off you, but had instead a real sense of intelligence and thought provoking mystery to it which I have to say made it different to any other film I have watched recently.

So what’s it all about. Well, Emily Rose is a good Catholic girl, who despite being very devout, and coming from a very devout family, is really quite normal. Until she goes away to college and experiences something sinister in her halls of residence. What follows is the, at times quite traumatic, tale of her possession by evil, demonic forces.
The very fact that before the film even starts, we know Emily Rose was real - the film is based on the story of Annaleise Michel, who was a German girl who suffered this terrible fate - is something that draws you in right from the start, but this is not a story told in the usual beginning, middle, end sort of way. It is told through the courtroom, where the priest who performed the exorcism that apparently killed this tormented young girl is standing on trial for her murder.

The characters in this film are highly believable, and as you go through the film, you become quite attached to them. Laura Linney plays Erin Bruner, the attorney who is defending Father Moore, Emily’s parish priest, who is on trial for her murder. Father Moore is played by Tom Wilkinson brilliantly, and I found myself unexpectedly warming to his plight throughout the film. Jennifer Carpenter plays Emily Rose and does it in such a believable way that you really believe she is possessed – the difference between Emily and the Possessed Emily are such complete opposites on the spectrum that you don’t even really doubt what is happening to her.

This is, however, a 15, and says on the back of the box that is contains strong supernatural horror, and it certainly does, but it is interspersed so well between the courtroom scenes, that it’s not too hard to bear, and certainly the courtroom scenes are a bit of light relief after the “possessed” parts.

For me, the best of this film was the undertones of “evil presence” that seems to haunt Erin and Father Moore, and how subtly they fit into the weave of the film. You might watch the film and not even notice their presence, but they add to the suspense and to the change in faith of some of the main characters.

I found myself, at the end of the film, thinking about good and bad, and the forces around us, in a way I may not have done before, so ultimately it was, in my book, a good film, though for all you hardened horror film watchers out there, I just don’t think it will cut the mustard for you. It wasn’t all that scary, but it was a very good story, written well, acted well and reeling the audience in.

Thank you for reading, Kate x

Summary: A GOOD FILM THAT REELS YOU IN AND GIVES YOU THE CREEPS FOR A FEW HOURS AFTER!