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THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (2005)
Director: Scott Derrickson Hacktors: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Jennifer Carpenter. Rating/5: 
The lowdown: Just when you thought there were more than enough movies on the block featuring exorcists, along comes another. This one's based on a true story of a supposed possession, which even the Catholic church officially recognised. At the movie's start, 19-year-old college freshman Emily Rose (Carpenter) is dead, and Father Richard Moore (Wilkinson) is accused of causing her death by attempting to exorcise her, rather than having her extreme symptoms treated medically. Hardened, ambitious lawyer Erin Bruner (Linney) takes Moore's defence and we see flashbacks to Emily's descent into hellish depravity. Or epileptic psychosis. Which is it? Oooh, the ambiguity. Good points: The acting is mostly fine, with Linney and Wilkinson attacking their roles with conviction. There are a couple of good jumps, mainly involving people's faces demonically distorting in a CGI fashion. Bad points: It's dull, dull, dull. I remember seeing the stylish poster and thinking, 'Well, that looks nice but also a little dull'. How right I was - The Exorcism Of Emily Rose is tedious nonsense for people who thought The Exorcist was a little too vulgar. Ambiguity can be fine in certain films, but here the film-makers sit on the fence to a painful degree, ensuring that every single 'demonic' thing that Emily does can be explained. So it's all up to the viewer to decide. Very clever, but not very scary at all. Carpenter overplays as Emily, which is partly why the titular casting-out-of-demons is no match for The Exorcist's prototype scenes. While Regan occasionally quietened down and became chillingly sly and sinister, Emily just bawls her head off. The flashback storytelling device means that we never really get to know the girl and so don't particularly care whether she gets possessed, flips out on epilepsy or gets hit by a bus. Father Moore is a more sympathetic character, but... blah. Whatever. I'm getting bored just writing about this over-long TV movie. Overall: Did I mention that it's dull? Release Date: Was released in US theaters on September 9, 2005. The UK doesn't have the pleasure until November 25. [Home] © Copyright Slasherama 2002-present |