OMM2024 - Night 13: The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

 Looks like during this year's #OctoberMovieMarathon it's easier to find time to watch movies during the week instead of the weekend. Interesting...

Night 13

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

6/10

Emily Rose dies after an exorcism. A lawyer is charged with defending the priest against negligent homicide in court.

I really like the set up here- it feels a bit like a good fanfiction, in that instead of seeing the main event (the exorcism) we see the fall out afterwards (the trial of the priest). Plenty of spooky scenes and some freaky moments, and there was a time when the clocks in the movie said 11:14pm and it was 11:14pm for me in real life! I think the movie did well to set up our lawyer character and give some growth for her. It did drag a bit at the end, it got a little monologue-y for my tastes. But a decent watch. It's a nice change of pace that still feels like a spooky movie.

SPOILERS BELOW THE POSTER!

SPOILERS START HERE!

I think my favorite part was the opening of the trial- where we see the flashback of Emily in her dorm room. I love that we get to see it as a demonic possession and then we see it shot as though it was a seizure. It put me in the same place as the jury- I don't know what happened and I'm trying to figure out the truth based on what I hear from the testimony. That's such a cool concept!

Sadly, we don't stay in this place of not-knowing. We get scenes where spooky things start to happen to our lawyer (shout out 3am) and we only get flashbacks that show what happened as an actual possession. Basically, the movie starts off as a mystery- then transitions into a "how will they get out of this one?" Which really cuts the stakes down a bit, as I couldn't see the movie taking the route of "proving demons are real in court" and then pulling the rug out with "the jury doesn't believe! we're doomed!"

Granted, we do end up with a guilty verdict- which surprised me, but I think it was handled well. Mostly because they didn't have the jury explain their decision. I was confused about what "time served" meant, as I didn't really have a firm grasp on how long ago the exorcism was. ("time served" means the court takes into account time already spent in custody into the sentence- i.e. if someone would be sentenced to 5 years in prison, but have been in prison for 3 years between arrest/trial/sentencing- "time served" means they only need to spend 2 years in prison)

As I said above, it drags a bit at the end. It almost feels like a secret "God's Not Dead" movie, which really took the drama away for me. It is spooky though, and I like how the scenes looked.