The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

Director: Scott Derrickson

Cast: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo

Synopsis: A lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl.

Have you ever noticed how, in the movies, it’s always kids or wholesome young women who get possessed by demons? It’s never a middle-aged librarian or an overweight truck driver. These demons are no fools, you know. They don’t want to spend all day sitting inside a slobby, sweaty, malodorous piece of meat as it traverses endless miles of motorway…

Anyway, putting facetiousness to one side, this strange based-on-fact hybrid of legal and horror movie, fails in both genres due to a generally unfocused script, and too many stereotypical situations. The horror elements aren’t really horrific at all. They’re perhaps a little spooky, but unless you’re ten-years-old you’re not going to be scared. The legal elements are badly thought out, with hotshot lawyer Laura Linney blundering into legal booby traps like a blind woman in a minefield. It’s clear that, despite hiding behind the based-on-fact tag, the writer or writers have simply thrown twists and turns at the screen purely to keep things moving.

Linney is OK in the part, although the role could have been filled by any thirty/forty-something actress working in Hollywood at the time. British actor Tom Wilkinson (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Batman Begins) would barely register was it not for a dodgy American accent that causes him to speak in a higher tone than he normally does. Nobody else really makes any kind of impression.

(Reviewed 5th March 2012)