During the trial for his events, a lawyer tries to help her client, a priest, seek the truth about what happened to the young woman who died under his care while performing an exorcism to cure her of a demonic possession and eventually lets the truth about it be known.

This wasn't anywhere as bad as it could've been. The film is really split into two halves here with this one being basically helped greatly by its really good possession and shock scenes. The opening scene that sets her up to becoming possessed is one of it's best sequences, as the long hallway and the unearthly voices floating around give it an unearthly feel while the first scene in the classroom where she sees a demonic face appearing in the window through a cloud of mist and turns around to see a student's face turn into a distorted demon's face giving off an unearthly roar makes it quite shocking. Running out into the rain and seeing more demonic faces give off the same unearthly roar is a bit clichéd, but it still helps to sell the mood while the finale in the church giving this a quite creepy conclusion. The different manners of how she’s become afflicted are quite memorable moments with the frenzied bug-eating, speaking in tongues or just contorting her body into such impossible positions that it really becomes obvious something is wrong with her, and the long, suspenseful and chilling exorcism is the film's selling point, coming off with any number of creepy ideas and scenes in such a drawn-out style is one of the best scenes in the film. Otherwise, beyond the shocks and the exorcism, there isn't much else to like about it. Therefore, everything else in it doesn't really work which is only relegated to the courtroom battle drama. It's marketed as being a supernatural possession film, and the best moments come from those scenes, but the fact that the majority of the film is a courtroom battle with the supernatural elements coming in the form of flashbacks is a real misstep and is likely to confuse those coming in expecting the other kind of film. It's not that they're boring or anything, it's just that it's out of nowhere that it becomes that way, and it can be a disappointment. The fact that these are slow and really long don't help matters, extending this out far longer than it should. This could've easily been an hour and a half, or maybe a little longer, but the two hours running time forces it to keep the courtroom antics going for no reason other than to extend the running time. A few extraneous scenes could've been snipped as well, including the introductory scenes at the bar that repeat information we already know and also keep the running time going, and most of the time simply elicit a feeling of wanting to move along and get to the good scenes. These really harm the film.

Rated PG-13: Language, Mild Violence and intense demonic and spiritual themes.

>"Work out your own salvation, with fear and tremble."

I remember seeing commercials of _The Exorcism of Emily Rose_ on TV, and the marketing for it seemed like it would be as terrifying as the next _The Exorcist_. Images of faces melting with long black shadows oozing out the eyes and mouths were the kind of special effects we began to see in this post-_The Ring_ era of PG-13 horror flicks, so I was a bit intrigued. It's one of those films you'd see the DVD lying in all your friend's living rooms that you visit whether or not they're into horror. It had been on my watchlist for years after its theatrical release, and it wasn't until around 2008 when I decided to finally watch it when looking for something spooky. It turned out pretty well; slow paced, not as terrifying as I had hoped it to be, but was worth a look. Now it's playing again on FLIX channel, so I'm letting it play while I write this up. Most of it is about court drama with some small simple spoops thrown in. I just remember the hospital scene the most, and feeling sorry about what Emily Rose had to suffer through; excellent acting on the actress who played her. The exorcism doesn't show up until somewhere 3/4 of the film. I read up a little bit on the actual story that the film was based on, and it took place in Germany in the late 70s, just after _The Exorcist_ (1973) had released to the world, with a girl named Anneliese Michel in whose case suffered the same things Emily Rose did as portrayed in the film.
It's a slow, dark, and dreary one, so make sure you're ready for something this heavy before seeing it.

It may well be marketed as a straight horror film, but this is much more than that. It pretty much ticks every plot point you would expect from a film about possession, yet this still stands out from the pack. Part of this is down to the structure of the film, with a self contained story that doesn't pander to the possibility of sequels or final twists and presents both supernatural and medical reasons for the titular character's condition. This conceit is very effective with the flashback sequences suitably creepy and then turned on their head moments later. It is to the film's strength that the audience is largely left to make up their own mind regarding Emily's condition (this being ostensibly a horror film, it can't quite commit to not favouring the supernatural). The central two leads of Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson lend some gravitas and credibility to the film, building on the themes of faith and belief within that are perhaps best summed up by a final courtroom speech from Linney. Jennifer Carpenter is also fantastic in a dual role which requires her to earn the audience's sympathy and fear. Well worth the time to seek this one out!