Review – The Exorcism of Emily Rose

This might have been a better movie if only its creators had stuck with the horror angle rather than trying to turn the thing into a theology debate. Early on some of the effects are kinda spooky, and if the film-makers had just relied on this strong point they might have come up with something worth watching. But the story swiftly gets bogged down in courtroom drama that plays like the Scopes trial in reverse. The legal wrangling is filled with a legion of holes, but those are easy to ignore compared to the inadequate handling of the alleged battle between facts and faith. Indeed, once the priest is attacked by cats in the middle of the exorcism, the movie has lost any chance of being taken seriously. Later it turns out that poor Emily is possessed by not one but six different demons, including one that was once inside Nero and one that was once inside Judas. In the words of Father Karras from a considerably better exorcism movie, “that’s like claiming you’re Napoleon.” If that’s the best these folks could do, they should have stuck with simple shocks and left more profound thinking to minds that were up to the task. See if desperate