The Exorcism of Emily Rose
For those of you who have seen ‘The Exorcist’ (that came out in 1973), this movie won’t be much of a horror. Frankly speaking, it isn’t horror at all (a few excerpts being exceptional though).
The story is based upon the mysterious death of a girl named Emily Rose. The story is quite similar to its predecessor ‘The Exorcist’ (released in 1973). The story starts with a case against Father Moore (a local priest, played by Tom Wilkinson), who is charged of killing or rather misleading a girl (named Emily Rose) to Death. Emily Rose is a girl (played by Jennifer Carpenter) who succumbs to death after experiencing many hallucinating ‘mad’ visualizations. The defense lawyer to the priest in the court is Erin Brumer (played by Laura Linney in the movie), who carries a good reputation in her firm.
Early in the movie, a happy and completely normal Emily Rose is portrayed. Then comes THE most disturbing scene for all those who are/were not good at studies - Emily getting scholarship.
The real story starts when she starts experiencing wild visualizations. Seeing her condition, Emily’s parents consult various medicos. Observing Emily’s condition thereafter, they conclude that drugs that she was taking, aren’t working. Then they consult Father Moore. Father Moore, with the permission of Emily and her parents, tries to exorcize her body to expel the evil spirits. But at the end, Emily dies thereby bringing trouble to the priest. The whole movie moves along a sequence of alternate scenes from courtroom (where Erin Brumer defends Father Moore) and the ‘past-time’ scenes recreated as witnesses testify in the court.
The story is very pace-y and doesn’t bore you. The story is portrayed in such a way that you feel that something ‘horror’ will happen soon. Also, Jennifer Carpenter as Emily is too good (compare her face at the commencement of the movie to her face at the end of the movie and then you can rate her superb performance). Tom Wilkinson as Father Moore and Laura Linney as Erin Brumer have fantastically enacted their respective roles. However, there are some drawbacks in the movie. Firstly, some scenes are too ‘messy’ to watch e.g. when Emily eats spiders in dark corner of her room. Secondly, the movie lacks that horror content which you will find in the 1973 released ‘The Exorcist’, though the director (Scott Derrickson) could have made some scenes really horrifying to watch.
A faithful advice – plz watch in solitude (at midnight) if you really want to enjoy this one to the extreme.