The Exorcism of Emily Rose

The Exorcism of Emily Rose is an unusual movie, tricky to quantify but nonetheless affecting, as it combines two old standbys — the exorcism thriller and the courtroom drama — into something new and interesting. The supernatural as police procedural. Whether you like the movie will really come down to whether you like those two genres and can stand to see them mixed.

“Based on a true story” (about which I know nothing, but is almost certainly vastly different than this movie), the narrative unfolds in an odd sort of reverse order, beginning right after the death of Emily Rose (a remarkable Jennifer Carpenter) in a failed exorcism and the arrest of her priest (Tom Wilkinson) for negligent homicide for his role in the brutal ordeal. His attorney (Laura Linney), a devout agnostic, takes the case mostly to raise her public profile but finds her own beliefs further challenged by what she discovers.

Plus, in the middle of all this, it’s still a horror movie, and director Scott Derrickson approaches the horror with a delicate touch, so that the creepiness and fear factor really kick you in the gut. One of the scariest moments is seeing Linney’s character hearing soft, undefinable voices in her house and trying to find the source — it’s classic “Don’t open the door!” stuff, well-executed. It’s only near the final exorcism scene, when it’s time for the full-blown special effects and wind and soaring music and satanic voices, that the chills really fall apart.

At the same time, the movie examines the conflict of faith versus reason and lays it all out in a manner that offers no easy answers. Every single supernatural thing we see on screen during the exorcism — speaking in tongues, spasms, horrible visions — is countered with an equally valid scientific reason, such as epilepsy and psychotic breaks. We are left to our own judgment. As Linney puts it in a ham-handed final speech, we aren’t being asked to believe demonic possession exists — only that it might be possible.

Unfortunately, after a while, the theme becomes a sledgehammer. It is a good film that wants to be an IMPORTANT film. I can’t give the film a thumbs-down, though. Despite being rather manipulative and cloying at times, it succeeded in both its intended purposes: On the way out the door, I was thinking quite a lot about faith, and when I went to bed that night, I made sure to keep a night light on.