The Exorcism of Emily Rose

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

no

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Produced by Tom Rosenberg
Gary Lucchesi
Paul Harris Boardman
Tripp Vinson
Beau Flynn
Written by Scott Derrickson
Paul Harris Boardman
Starring Laura Linney
Tom Wilkinson
Campbell Scott
Colm Feore
Jennifer Carpenter
Mary Beth Hurt
Henry Czerny
Shohreh Aghdashloo
Music by Christopher Young
Cinematography Tom Stern
Edited by Jeff Betancourt
Production
company
Distributed by Screen Gems
Release dates
  • September 9, 2005 (2005-09-09)
Running time
 119 minutes
Country United States
Language English, Aramaic
Budget $19.3 million
Box office $144.2 million

The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a 2005 American courtroom drama horror film directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson. The film is loosely based on the story of Anneliese Michel and follows a self-proclaimed agnostic who acts as defense counsel (Linney) representing a parish priest (Wilkinson), accused by the state of negligent homicide after he performed an exorcism. The film, which largely takes place in a courtroom, depicts the events leading up to and including the exorcism through flashbacks.

Plot

A 19-year old girl named Emily Rose dies, attributed to self-inflicted wounds and malnutrition. After news of it spreads across town, a secular priest named Father Richard Moore is arrested and sent to court. The archdiocese wishes for Father Moore to plead guilty, in order for the incident to be covered up. A lawyer named Erin Bruner is provided to Father Moore to negotiate a plea deal, but Father Moore insists on pleading not guilty. Bruner takes the case, believing it will elevate her to senior partner at her law firm. Father Moore agrees to let her defend him only if he is allowed to tell Emily's story.

The trial begins with the calling of several medical experts by the prosecutor Ethan Thomas, and Judge Brewster presiding. One expert testifies that Emily was suffering from both epilepsy and psychosis. The defense contests that she may have actually been possessed but Bruner explains that Emily was suffering from something that neither medicine nor psychology could explain, and that Father Moore as well as her family realized this and tried to help in another way.

Several flashbacks reveal the story leading up to the exorcism. Emily gets a scholarship to a university to study for a bachelor's degree in education. After days pass, strange events occur. In her dorm room one night, at 3:00 AM, Emily smells a strange burning smell from the hallway. Attempting to investigate it, she sees a door open and shut itself several times. She then sees a writing material jar move by itself. Emily sees her bed covers roll themselves down, and a great weight pins her in bed along with a force which also proceeds to choke her and seemingly to possess her momentarily. Through these episodes Emily wonders if they are true or just a hallucination. She suffers more of these visions such as people's faces demonically distorting, and being unable to eat. She is hospitalized, and diagnosed with epilepsy. Anti-seizure medications and treatment fail to cure her.

A classmate named Jason brings her back home to her family upon her father's request after finding her contorted and catatonic. He as well as Emily's family become convinced she is not epileptic or mentally ill but is possessed by demons. Days follow where Emily attempting to fight back against the demons tries to sustain nourishment from eating bugs but to no avail. While possessed she starts to damage the house, and cause mutilations to herself. The visions continue, as do her severe bodily contortions. They ask for Father Moore to perform an exorcism, and the Church agrees. The prosecution counters that all this could be explained by a combination of epilepsy (the contortions) and psychosis (the visions).

Meanwhile, Bruner begins to experience strange occurrences in her apartment at 3:00 AM, including strange smells and sounds. Father Moore warns her that she may be targeted by demons for possibly exposing them. He also explains that 3:00 AM is the "witching hour" which evil spirits use to mock the Holy Trinity, being the opposite of 3:00 PM, the traditional hour of Christ's death. Moore then reveals that after the bishop gives him permission to do the exorcism, he also experiences the same strange occurrence on the night before the exorcism. He awakes to the scent of burning material and, after seeing religious imagery in the rectory bleeding, he encounters a black cloaked and hooded figure walking to the church, which he says is a manifestation of the demon possessing Emily.

Seeing that the prosecution is putting up a seemingly solid medical case, Bruner decides to try to show that Emily may have actually been possessed. She calls in an anthropologist, Dr. Sadira Adani, to testify about various cultures' beliefs about spiritual possession.

Dr. Graham Cartwright, a medical doctor present during the exorcism, reveals an audio tape made during the rite. The priest is then called to the stand to testify. The tape is played and the movie then flashes back to the exorcism. It is performed on Halloween night because Father Moore believes it might be easier to draw out the demons on that night. Father Moore, Jason, and her father gather in Emily's bedroom where she is tied to a bed while her family prays in the living room. As Father Moore begins the rite and sprinkles holy water while reading various words from the Rituale Romanum, Emily begins speaking in Latin, German, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. The family cats run around the room, agitated by demonic presence and attack everyone. Emily breaks her ties, jumps out the window, and into the barn, with everyone following except for Emily's family, who remain and pray. Inside the barn, they are subjected to more supernatural phenomena such as unnatural gusts of wind and demonic screams and voices. The demon inside Emily refuses to name itself after repeated demands from the Father Moore but finally reveals contemptuously that there are not one but six demons. With dual voices from Emily, they identify themselves in dramatic fashion as the demons that possessed Cain, Nero, Judas Iscariot, a member of the Legion,[1] Belial, and Lucifer, each speaking with its own language.

The film returns to the court room. The priest says that Emily refused another exorcism but also refused to take her anti-psychotic medication, having accepted her fate. She died a few weeks later. The prosecutor contends that her speaking in tongues can be explained by her having gone through Catholic Catechism, in which she could have learned the ancient languages, and that she had studied German in high school. The priest admits that it might be possible that she could have learned these languages in school.

Bruner then calls Dr. Cartwright as a witness, but he does not show. She walks outside and sees him on the street. Cartwright says he can no longer testify, but he does believe in demons. Before he can explain, he is killed by a passing car. Later that night Bruner's chief attorney threatens her with termination if she recalls the priest to the stand when he reveals that he heard of what happened.

Bruner calls the priest back to the stand the next day. Father Moore reads a letter that Emily wrote for him the day before her death. The letter describes another vision she had on the morning after the exorcism. She walks out of the house and sees the Virgin Mary, who tells her that although the demons will not leave her, she can leave her body and end her suffering. The apparition reveals that if she returns to her body, she will help to prove to the world that God and the Devil are real. After Emily chooses to return, she then receives stigmata, which Moore believes is a sign of God's love for her. The letter concludes with a statement saying "People say that God is dead, but how can they think that if I show them the Devil?", but the prosecution counters that she could have received the stigmata wounds from a barbed wire fence on her property.

When Judge Brewster pronounces Father Moore as guilty, the jury recommends a sentence of time served, to which she agrees. Bruner is offered a partnership at her firm for her success, but she declines and resigns. She goes with Father Moore to Emily's grave, where he has put a quote (which she recited to him the day before she died) from the second chapter twelfth verse of Philippians on her grave: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling". Father Moore goes on to live in seclusion stating he would not appeal as God will be the only one to judge him in the end.

Cast

Production

The screenplay was written by director Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman; in honor of the contributions of Boardman and other collaborators on the film, Derrickson chose to forgo the traditional "film by" credit. According to Derrickson's DVD commentary, he chose Boardman as his co-writer because Derrickson sees himself as a believer and Boardman as a skeptic, and believed the pairing would provide the screenplay with two different perspectives, thus providing the film some ambiguity as to whether it supports a religious/supernatural interpretation of the events depicted, or a more secular/medical interpretation.

The character of Emily Rose was inspired by the story of Anneliese Michel, a young German Catholic woman who died in 1976 after unsuccessful attempts to perform an exorcism upon her with psychotropic drugs. The court accepted the version according to which she was epileptic, refusing to accept the idea of supernatural involvement in this case. Two priests involved in the exorcism, as well as her parents, were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence and received prison time (which was suspended), generating controversy. Michel's grave has become a place of pilgrimage for many Catholics who believe she atoned for wayward priests and sinful youth, and honor her as an unofficial saint.[2] The film is based on Felicitas Goodman's book The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel.

German director Hans-Christian Schmid launched his own treatment of Michel's story, Requiem, around the same time in late 2006.

Reception

As of April 2012, The Exorcism of Emily Rose had made $144,216,468 worldwide.[3] In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association listed the film in their Top 100 Scariest Films Ever Made at #86.[4] Jennifer Carpenter, whose "demonic" bodily contortions were often achieved without the aid of visual effects, won "Best Frightened Performance" at the MTV Movie Awards in 2006;[5] however, according to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, critical reception to the film was overall mixed.[6] As emphasized by Roger Ebert, who described The Exorcism of Emily Rose as "intriguing and perplexing", the film "asks a secular institution, the court, to decide a question that hinges on matters the court cannot have an opinion on".[7] Ebert noted that "the screenplay is intelligent and open to occasional refreshing wit".[7] Paul Arendt from BBC outlined that "the flashback story... is high-octane schlock that occasionally works your nerves, thanks to a committed performance from Jennifer Carpenter".[8]

The general consensus between 150 critics was that "[the film] mixes compelling courtroom drama with generally gore-free scares in a ho-hum take on demonic cinema." It holds a 45% 'rotten' approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 150 reviews. On Metacritic, it has an overall score of 46 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ To clarify, the first four demons aren't given by name. Rather, the first one is denoted as a demon who possessed Cain, back when Cain was alive. The second one was a possessor of the Roman emperor Nero, and so on.
  2. ↑ What in God's Name?!
  3. ↑ The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
  4. ↑ http://www.filmspotting.net/top100.htm
  5. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1358539/awards
  6. ↑ http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/exorcism_of_emily_rose/
  7. 1 2 Roger Ebert (September 8, 2005). "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2010-12-20.
  8. ↑ Paul Arendt. "The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (2005)". BBC. Retrieved 2010-12-20.
  9. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/exorcismofemilyrose

External links

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