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Lexmark3200
10-03-2005, 09:21 AM
I gotta yell you friends......I don't know what to make of this. Most of the film --- believe it or not --- takes place in a courtroom and there is very little demonic possession/exorcism overtones as the title would suggest.

Supposedly based on a "true" case (William Peter Blatty said the same thing about the later-proven-to-be-overhyped The Exorcist), this was the telling of a college freshman girl who supposedly got possessed by what we find out were SIX demons --- not necessarily the Devil himself; the film centers around the priest who performed an "exorcism" on Emily Rose (played by The Patriot's Tom Wilkinson) and how he was arrested and taken to trial for being accused of leading to the killing of this girl in real life because prior to the Catholic Church's involvement, Emily was being treated for metal diseases such as schizophrenia and seizure disorders, which are always commonly mistaken for "demonic possession." The state felt once the church was called in to do "exorcism rights" on Emily, and took her off her medication, it lead to her demise.

The film flashes back and forth between present-day courtroom hearings with doctors and Wilkinson taking the stand to testify, while inbetween, we see Emily's story being told --- how she was supposedly "possessed" one night in her college dorm room, and how her body began contorting into horrible shapes and she began speaking in strange tongues that are translated for us at the bottom of the screen. An exorcism is attempted by Wilkinson which fails after he demands that the demons inside Emily reveal their names to him -- that is when we learn there are actually SIX demons possessing this girl. The possession/exorcism sequences are pretty entertaining if you like these kind of films (which I do) but they're NOWHERE as shocking as William Friedkin's The Exorcist, and play more along the lines of possession scenes in say pictures such as Constantine. What gets me is this: how do we actually KNOW that this is what happened to Emily Rose during the Church's attempted "exorcism" of her? How do we KNOW that she gyrated and her eyes turned black and she began speaking in a language spoken in Palastine during the time of Christ and his deciples, as suggested in the film? Where's the evidence that this REALLY took place? The beginning of the film splashes the words THIS FILM IS BASED ON A TRUE STORY and the end sequence before the credits goes into even more "validity" of the case and what happened --- but I dont know if I buy it. Laura Linney does a good job as an aggressive, take-no-**** lawyer defending Wilkinson as the priest who performed the exorcism on Emily, but at the end, this just FELT like a made-for-TV film; something we're gonna wind up watching on Lifetime Network in a couple of years.

Still, I am contemplating a DVD purchase when it arrives because Im an absolute sucker for these possession/occult type films.........

Defshep
10-03-2005, 12:26 PM
Thanks for the review, Lex. I'm a little disappointed, though. I was really hoping this would be a return to the classic, supernatural suspense/horror film genre. Not a Halloween edition of Law & Order.

Lexmark3200
10-03-2005, 01:05 PM
Thanks for the review, Lex. I'm a little disappointed, though. I was really hoping this would be a return to the classic, supernatural suspense/horror film genre. Not a Halloween edition of Law & Order.

Hey Def,

Dont get me wrong----there ARE pretty shocking moments of demonic possession here; but the way you summed it up was perfect: it WAS a Halloween edition of Law and Order. So, you did see it, or were you basing it on my thread?

This was "supposedly" a true case, but I have yet to believe any of these demonic possession cases as I think it's an easy way to cover up a bad case of schizophrenia or other mental illness.

MomurdA
10-03-2005, 01:38 PM
'supposedly a true case' , you have to remember that nothing you have ever seen on tv is real. nothing, ever, in the history of tv or movies. Open Water was based on a true story? That movie was complete bull****. How can it be based on a true story if both people die at the end? How do they know how the two died. I saw that movie and i was thoroughly pissed off afterwards. **** Hollywood.

Lexmark3200
10-03-2005, 01:53 PM
"you have to remember that nothing you have ever seen on tv is real. nothing, ever, in the history of tv or movies."

While that's a wild, overtly blanketing statement to make about entertainment, there is some fundamental truth in that. But.....

"Open Water was based on a true story? That movie was complete bull****. How can it be based on a true story if both people die at the end?"

I actually enjoyed Open Waters BECAUSE it was not Hollywood-glazed Jaws material; why can't two people die and it be based on REAL happenings? What does two people dying have to do with it NOT being real?

"How do they know how the two died."

THATS where the discrepency lies --- as I said with The Exorcism of Emily Rose, how do they KNOW how certain things "went down" such as her eyes rolling to the back of her head and her speaking in Arameic languages----where did they VERIFY this for sure? It bothers me too.....

"I saw that movie and i was thoroughly pissed off afterwards. **** Hollywood."

I actually liked it because it was different.

MomurdA
10-03-2005, 02:45 PM
I hear your counterpoints. My 'overtly blanketing statement' was just that. I am just coming from the point of view that everything you see on tv(news, movies) has been edited to show you what will get you to buy whatever they are selling, whether its the Meatnormous sandwich from BK, or the newest crap cd release from Sony. People seem to forget that TV only exist to sell things, and if you couldnt sell an item on a commercial, then tv would not exist at all anywhere.

Except for maybe WGBH in Boston. If you arent laughing at that then i guess youve never watched pbs, or perhaps it wasnt funny.

Defshep
10-03-2005, 06:32 PM
I haven't seen Emily Rose, Lex. Guess I'll just wait for a rental. And MomurdA, It's true what you say, all the world is truly a stage. The lines between reality and entertainment have been blurred to an inconceiveable extent. But that's just my conspiratorial nature rearing it's ugly head...

shokhead
10-04-2005, 06:16 AM
The truest of true movies still has Hollywood inserted into it in places. Nothing is as it really happened.
I just sae flightplan. Abit slow starting but gets better as it goes. Sounds like a good movie for your sub.