A Dvd Review: The Exorcism Of Emily Rose - Special Edition Widescreen Unrated Version [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

PDA

View Full Version : A Dvd Review: The Exorcism Of Emily Rose - Special Edition Widescreen Unrated Version



Lexmark3200
12-27-2005, 12:31 PM
BASED ON A TRUE STORY.
"AS SCARY AS THE EXORCIST, WITH A STRONG SPIRITUAL MESSAGE -- ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR."
-Phil Boatwright, The Movie Reporter

In an overwhelming slew of DVDs I received for this holiday season, this was amongst the throngs of titles as it was on my want list and I suppose Santa was aware of that. I will review each title as I view them, but let's begin with this creepy little "Law and Order-meets-the-occult" yarn that shocked audiences during its arrival because of the fact that this was supposedly based on a true incident of a college-aged young woman and her mysterious death...and the subsequent investigation afterwards, of which this film was based. With the Catholic Church being involved, as well as law enforcement officials and a prosecuting team that was hell-bent on proving young Emily's priest was directly responsible for her death, this film, although seemingly riding on its coattails, is in fact much different from its 1973 Exorcist brethren. Although that picture was also supposedly based on "real" events, where a young boy was afflicted by Devilish possession yet was changed to a girl for William Peter Blatty's novel adaptation, it too was said to be blown out of proportion, facts-wise. But how much of this was actually "blown out of proportion"? Why was the news of Emily Rose a hidden piece of fact until the release of this picture? What exactly did Ms. Rose suffer from? Was it epilepsy? Schizophrenia?

You know what bothers me almost as much as these aforementioned questions? Why did this film receive two DVD release versions -- an UNRATED cut in addition to the standard theatrical release -- when the UNRATED cut really didn’t seem to add anything to any scene? I wasn’t able to detect anything regarding extra fluff that would qualify as "bonus unrated material" on the DVD cut I received as a gift. With that in mind, let's take a look at the film without giving too much away for those of you who have yet to see it.

Indeed, the hoopla surrounding this film is accurate: The Exorcism of Emily Rose does play exactly like a Law and Order Halloween Special; it has a feel to it that is very unlike typical, glossed-over Hollywood blockbusters that are churned out today. While it does in fact deal with the occult on many levels, it is more a courtroom drama more so than anything else, yet the fashion in which director Scott Derrickson films the picture, what with the cutting back and forth between the exorcism sequences and the courtroom testimonies, is effective. The film opens with a shot of a farmhouse and the investigation of the death of a daughter in the Rose family by the medical examiner's office. The medical examiner tells Mr. Rose that he unfortunately cannot confirm that his daughter's death was by natural causes, setting the plot of the film up for us. After being told by an onscreen message that this film was "based on a true story," we meet our key players in the tale: Laura Linney (Primal Fear) plays a lawyer who is assigned the case of defending a Catholic priest (Tom Wilkinson, The Patriot) accused of actually causing the unintentional death of a college student named Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter, White Chicks). While Linney at first doesn’t want to take on the case, and Wilkinson doesn’t want her to represent him, the two finally come to an agreement to be able to tell Emily's story while also allowing Linney to win the case for Wilkinson in any way possible.

The film then develops into an investigation by Linney as to exactly what happened to this girl: supposedly, according to the story, she began suffering from seizures and wild gyrations and hallucinations in college, and was prescribed a certain medication to go on. When seemingly the drug didn’t work, the family called in their priest (Wilkinson) who concluded the only cure for Emily was the rite of exorcism -- because she was indeed possessed by "evil spirits" and not suffering from epilepsy or something else the medicine world tried to suggest. We, as the viewer, are taken into Emily's world during the length of the trial (which makes up the film's running time) through testimony from Emily's family and friends and Wilkinson himself; we see the first time she becomes "possessed" by what Wilkinson concludes are six demons plus Satan in her college dorm room, we watch as she walks around campus and notices people walking by whose eyes shockingly turn black and faces become demon-like, we witness demonic apparitions and faces form everywhere she looks. The confrontation sequences with the "demons" supposedly inside Emily are not along the lines of the shocking vulgarity exchanges as in The Exorcist, but more in line with the demonic activity portrayed in Constantine, meaning there are conversations between the priest and "demons" speaking in Latin overtones and foreign tongues -- they're not ramming crucifixes into the possessed victim's vagina and telling the witnessing parties to "lick them" or "f-k them." Those of you expecting this out of the occult/possession sequences in The Exorcism of Emily Rose will be disappointed.

The film dashes back and forth between testimony of doctors who claim Emily was suffering from a medical problem that was causing the bizarre hallucinations and spasms to these possession sequences where she would buck into wild, screaming fits of personality changes. Linney feels they have lost the case after multiple testimonies from medical personnel that distinctly felt Wilkinson, after being called in by the Rose family and doing an exorcism, was directly responsible for her death because he felt the girl should stop taking her prescribed medication and should succumb to the wishes of the Church. It was Emily, however, who agreed to the exorcism. At any rate, the only chance to possibly win this jury over by any long shot is, as Linney sees it, to put Wilkinson on the stand and let him tell his version of the Emily Rose story. A grueling cross-examination goes down by the prosecutor once Wilkinson is on the stand which leads to a surprising conclusion and decision by the jury on the case at the end of the film -- one which I am not going to give away for those of you who have never seen the film. The conclusion of the story was based on supposedly true events regarding the real priest involved in the case after Emily Rose's death and subsequent investigation. Before the final end credits roll, we are told, via messages on the screen, what happened to the real priest and Linney's character, and how Emily's real grave site is considered to be a holy place where people come to wish upon miracles and the like. It adds to the claims of a "true story" -- a story that according to the director Scott Derrickson is based on a true event of a college student somewhere in Germany if I am not mistaken that was supposedly possessed and received an exorcism before her death -- the real Emily Rose. The true aspects of the case are investigated nicely in the Special Features section of the DVD with an interview with Derrickson and the producers/writers who explain how much detail went into the research about the real case for the making of the film.

The acting isn't that memorable here, but I don’t believe you'll be renting or buying The Exorcism of Emily Rose for the dialogue exchanges; all the performances here are delivered in a toned-down, un-typical-for-Hollywood fashion which was refreshing, but some of the lines are delivered unnecessarily dramatic. Linney talks to Wilkinson at the end about how the case affected her personally and about a locket she discovered on the street after (or perhaps during) the case, but the dialogue here gets sappy and simply unnecessary to be honest. Probably anyone could have been called upon to play the role of the priest, played by Wilkinson; the performance was not that memorable even during the exorcism sequences. Actually, I enjoyed Wilkinson as "Lord Cornwallis" in Roland Emmerich's The Patriot better. From an outside perspective, the film really does play like an episode of Law and Order or perhaps even NYPD Blue with a Halloween/occult theme to it as most of the project takes place in a courtroom. The possession/exorcism scenes interject just enough to make this mildly entertaining -- nothing of what I can say about the last DVD I reviewed, the remake of House of Wax. That was a pile of clichés and horrendous amateur acting. This at least is watchable.

As I said earlier, I don’t know what constituted the UNRATED label for this DVD cut of the title; I didn’t see anything I didn’t see during the theatrical exhibition of the picture. There didn’t seem to be any added gore, added nudity, added language -- nothing really. The labeling confused me. But as I also said, I received this as a gift, so I'll be happy with it finding its way onto my shelf next to the Exorcist franchise titles.

Sony Home Entertainment, in conjunction with Screen Gems and Lakeshore Pictures, has released The Exorcism of Emily Rose in a single-disc package, keepcase-style with what is becoming the norm today: no chapter insert booklet and no inside artwork whatsoever, just a promotional bull**** flyer advertising other DVDs and video games. And again, we are subjected to coming attractions and previews before the disc's menu is even displayed -- another recent DVD trend that has to end. In order to bypass this, you need to press your DVD player's MENU button -- but at least this is better than those discs that wont even let you do that and you need to actually sit there and fast forward through the previews or do chapter skips. The typical Sony packaging is on the box, with the language and soundtrack information contained within the box-style grid -- as all the once MGM-owned titles Sony is taking over for DVD release are.

VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
2:40:1 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN PRESENTATION MASTERED IN HIGH DEFINITION

A gorgeous transfer from Sony here; really. While this may find its way into "Superbit" status one day, there really is no need for a remastering of any kind. The video quality does indeed look high-definition treated, as the marketing hoopla suggests, with colors that are rich, blacks that are solid and an overall very, very smooth looking transfer with no grain, defects, dirt, video noise -- nothing getting in the way of the presentation. Sony has been infamous for slapping "high definition" mastering labels on just about every one of their releases -- but to my eye, some of these have not lived up to those words. It seems this title does. Shot in the wider scope of 2:40:1, The Exorcism of Emily Rose exhibited slightly larger-than-usual letterboxing areas on a 16:9 set, but did appear accurate nonetheless. A very solid, colorful, blemish-free widescreen transfer here that I was happy with. Nice job by Sony.

AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
ENGLISH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1; SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH

My fear of lack of a DTS track on this -- and almost every -- title struck again once reading the rear of the keepcase and learning that a "mere" Dolby 5.1 mix was onboard for audio. But, I have to say, that fear was quickly melted away within the first couple of sequences of this DVD. This is a hot, aggressive, unusually loud Dolby Digital 5.1 surround affair with wallops of LFE that will have your room shaking if your volume is up high enough. The surrounds are not used nearly enough by normal judging standards upon first listen by your ear -- but that seemed absolutely fine as it fit the film perfectly in this case. The occasional rumble of thunder during storms makes its way into the rears during certain scenes, as well as accompanying score to support the exorcism and action sequences. And speaking of those scenes, that's when this 5.1 track really comes to life, bursting with very nice treble and highs through the main channels to enhance the action sequences where Emily (Carpenter) is speaking in possessed tongues to Wilkinson and the staff on hand for the exorcism; wind whips very realistically through the surrounds as well, and the whole track is just alive, active and crisp even though it's mainly a front-focused affair with very little use of the surrounds. Dialogue is uncharacteristically crisp and somewhat bright for a Dolby Digital soundtrack and the mix didn’t require me (as a refreshing relief) to raise the master volume of my system up to almost-maximum levels in order to get anything out of it, as I find most of the time with Dolby Digital encoded discs. Even during quiet sequences, there is an ever-present humming of LFE on the track which bursts into bass wallops when the action comes to life on the screen -- the track always lets you know it's there and ready to pounce, if that makes any sense. A very well done Dolby Digital track that fits the film perfectly and although it makes little use of the rear channels, it does so in a very appropriate manner, giving the mix an extremely well balanced flavor. One of the best Dolby Digital soundtracks of modern times, I would even go as far as saying. Not comparing DTS titles/releases here -- just Dolby Digital encoded discs.

Although only released in a single-disc package, Sony has labeled The Exorcism of Emily Rose a "Special Edition" for DVD launch, and the special features on the disc included:

-Director Commentary
-Deleted Scenes
-Genesis of the Story Featurette
-Casting the Film Featurette
-Visual Design Featurette

Nice package including well-done audio and video presentations; I can recommend this one if you enjoy these type of "possession/occult" films.

Thanks for reading, friends.

Defshep
12-28-2005, 05:17 AM
Nice review, Lex. Got around to seeing this last night. I liked it, although not in a scary, Exorcist/Rosemary's Baby way. It was, however, a good supernatural courtroom drama. Solidly acted and executed. I enjoyed the fact vs. faith theme, as I'm a bit of both.

Lexmark3200
12-28-2005, 11:04 AM
Nice review, Lex. Got around to seeing this last night. I liked it, although not in a scary, Exorcist/Rosemary's Baby way. It was, however, a good supernatural courtroom drama. Solidly acted and executed. I enjoyed the fact vs. faith theme, as I'm a bit of both.

Thanks so much for reading Def and for your kind words, man! I agree with just about everything you said regarding this film. Thanks again.