Synopsis:
Someone had a horrible fucking idea for a movie that should never have been greenlit.
Review:
Based on this story. Oddly enough, the movie drastically shortens the time frame over which these events occurred. The actual story is even more psychotic, with sixty-goddamn-seven exorcisms over the course of eleven fucking months, making it perhaps the least effective treatment that could've been applied.
The exorcisms are shown in flashbacks, other than that you're watching a "courtroom" drama with occasional hints of supernatural events. I put that last part in quotes because there is no court in this country that operates this way. There is no one in this movie that acts in a remotely logical fashion. No one. Not the defense attorney, not the prosecutor, not the priest, not the psychs, not the judge, not anyone. I guess everyone had massive, massive brain damage.
Roger Ebert liked this film. He called it "intriguing and perplexing." That serves as more evidence of how out of touch with things he was in his later years. His assertion that "the screenplay is intelligent and open to occasional refreshing wit" is only true when compared to dialog from Sesame Street.
There is no terror in here, no tension. You already know how it ends, and you don't have a lot of sympathy for the priest due to his aforementioned stupidity. The prosecutor is virtually foaming at the mouth by the end, so you're supposed to hate him, too. Maybe rural folk thought differently during the '70s.
I get the questions the flick is asking, but they're all retarded. This was a mentally disturbed girl with a messiah complex. Her family and parish priests all supported her delusion about being possessed. The priest spends all his time pleading to take the stand so he can "tell Emily's story" because she believed that if the world saw the devil, they'd have to believe in god. Priest should've showed up to the exorcisms with a tape recorder and a fucking camcorder. The only vaguely interesting question is where the line gets drawn between state and faith when faith goes off the fucking deep end.
Verdict:
This movie lets off the priests and family way too easily. Eleven months. Four dozen plus tries to drive out the daemons. Swing and a miss every time. A white washing of an act of sheer dumb-assery.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose - At 'Dem Flicks with Malcolm
Wow that's fucked. No wonder it scared me when I was like 7.Malcolm wrote:This. And not even close.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."