Customer Reviews
The best horror film I've seen in years - By: T. SMEDLEY, 26 Aug 2008 
I like to think of myself as a bit of a horror fan, but can say quite honestly that I haven't seen a really good scary filmin quite a few years. To sum up, this is the first film madein the last 20 years or so to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. And more than once! I agree with the reviewer who said it makes you check mirrors, wonder why the door's creaking & peek out of the curtains...
It has something of the late 70's/early 80's horror classics, the Biblical & supernatural elements being what's missingin most modern horror films (the gore of the Saw & Hostel films, mutant in-bred locals of films like Wolf Creek & strange creatures of films like The Descent, Jeepers Creepers & Creep do little for mein this respect). This film puts mein mind of the Omen trilogy, the first 2 Amityville films & not surprisingly the original Exorcist. You can imagine this happening, it's a universal horror & that's it's power.
I'm not saying the film is perfect; there's a little too much courtroom & not enough of the flashbacks, or indeed what may be happening to Erin at 3am every morning, I feel thisin particular could have been developed a little further. It'sin these scenes where the scary stuff is & what made this film rivetting for me. Overall, a nice surprise & I'm wondering why it took me a few years to get round to seeing it. I just wish my daughter wasn't called Emily Rose...
Do you believe? - By: Mr. T. A. Maurice, 05 Aug 2008 
I could not disagree more with the most recent review,as I found the film to be neither mind numbingly boring nor dull.
In fact I found the film to be absorbing,with an intelligent script,first class acting,and one that challenges the viewer to consider the possibility that there may be more to life than the scientifically/medically verifiable.
mind numbingly dull and boring - By: A. Qureshi, 31 Jul 2008 
This movie has to be the stupidest movie ever made. What was the point? the whole movie isin a court room & you only actually get to see emily rose a handful of times. i hate this movie so much that i might kill somebody. dont bother buying it
Intriguing mix of Court Room and chiller - By: Mr. Stephen Kennedy, 20 Jun 2008 With such a recent plethora of movies based on torture & gore to achieve their chills, it is refreshing to find a movie that retains some intelligence & still manages to get a few spine-chilling moments, with barely a speck of blood or guts to be seen.
First & foremost, this is a court room drama. And yet there is an interesting twist, because the subject is one based on belief, not on facts.. & it makes for some interesting moral questions. The movie starts at the tail end of events as the priest is taken into custody. A young woman, Emily Rose, has diedin his care following an exorcism. Was it neglect on his part keeping her from medical care for a psychotic epilepsy condition, or were his efforts justified &in fact medical intervention nullified the effects of the exorcism? We are led through the eventsin flashback throughout the course of the trial, sometimes to eery effect, as the priest refuses to cut a deal & insists on telling Emily's story to a jury.
At the centre of the movie is the relationship between Laura Linney's jaded & agnostic defence counsel & her client the priest played by Tom Wilkinson. The two leads play with conviction, but Jennifer Carpenter's physically demanding role of Emily Rose should not be overlooked.
Admirably, the tone is not one of full on shocks & scares - there is a neutrality which gives you space to make your own mind up, & yet allow you to see events as the Father Moore & Emily saw them. It's this intelligence towards the subject which sets this apart from most other recent horror movies & makes this worth watching.
Good thought provoking film based very loosely on true-life events - By: LK, 04 Mar 2008 
I did some research on the true story behind 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' after watching the film. The possession was on a German girl & shokingly I found that the true events were much worse than the film's version. The girl suffered for something like 8 years & during that time she refused to eat because the spirits wouldnt allow it, beat & bit members of her family, began eating spiders & flies & even began drinking her own urine. It was also mentioned that she was infact possesed by several demons including Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Cain, Hitler, & Fleischmann, a disgraced Frankish Priest from the 16th century, & some other damned souls which had manifested through her. By the time of her death she was suffering from pneumonia, a high fever & was also totally emaciated. It started at the age of 16 & finished when she was 24. The exorcisms were recorded & aparentlyin the real court, the tapes were played - one of them seemed to be demons fighting over who would leave her body first. The parents & exorsists were sentenced with man-slaughter & sent to prison for 6 months.
Compare this to the films version, the film actually looks quite mild. I have a few problems with the film.
A) There is too much of this film that is basedin the court room for this to be a horror (although there are some disturbing scenes). In the end this film is more a very thought provokative drama
B) I don't believe that this should claim to be based on true events. The real events werein Germany with a girl named Anneliese. And since the whole film is about the court case after her death, & the outcome was the complete opposite to what happenedin the film.
What suprises me most about this film is that the films events were softened for the big screen compared to the real-life events. Usually I would have thought that Hollywood would if anything exaggerate the horror of what happened to make the story more exciting.
However saying all that, after the initial disappointment of realising this wasn't a gruesom horror film, I was still kept interested throughout the film & obviously touched as it is a very sad story. So much so that I went internet surfing to find the true story behind it all.
I would recommend to all those who like sad stories or court dramas. I would not recommend to anyone who is looking for a horror or anything like the Exorcist.
