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Exorcism of Emily Rose (The) (2005)
R1 - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (1st January 2006). |
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The Film
 A courtroom drama and a possessed woman. Can two so different subjects really work together? They can, if you are to ask director/writer Scott Derrickson, who does a good job with his film “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”. The film is based on a true story, which originated in Germany, 1968. There, a young girl named Anneliese Michel suddenly started having strong “epileptic fits” of some kind, unable to control her body. She soon started to see visions of demons, strongly believing she was possessed. Since the medical or psychological treatment didn´t help, her parents were seeking an exorcism, which was finally approved in 1975. These “exorcism rites” didn´t do any permanent change to Michel (her condition got eventually even worse, and she didn´t really eat), who died after one of the sessions in July 1st, 1976. Her death started a legal battle, which was seeking the answer to the big question: Who was responsible for her death? Over 40 audio tapes were recorded during those exorcism-sessions, and among a few of those, the court heard also different specialists, psychiatrists, and relatives and other people who were present during those dark sessions. Dr. Felicitas Goodman wrote a book “The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel” about the case, for which the movie is loosely based. The film starts when a young girl Emily Rose is pronounced dead in her family house. At this point you don´t see the girl, but the medical examiner, after coming out from her room, is implying that there´s no full proof that she died of “natural causes”. Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson) is being taken away by the police, ultimately accused of the death of Emily Rose. From the dark wooden house, we´ll move to the glassy martini-bar, where defense attorney Erin Bruner (Laura Linney) is enjoying her latest success, for winning the big case. Her boss Karl (Colm Feore) has recognized the potential that Erin has, so he´s offering a new big case for her; the case of Father Moore. Erin is not fully interested at first, but a promise of a “senior partnership” at the firm after successfully winning the case is enough to convince Erin to take it. After Erin has visited Emily Rose´s house and met Father Moore, the story moves to the court, where the real story of Emily Rose is told in the form of flashback-sequences. Films of exorcism and “demonic possession” have often been interesting and spooky, and among them are a few real classics; “The Exorcist (1973)” is of course one of the best films ever made, and films like “Rosemary's Baby (1968)”, “The Entity (1981)”, and even “The Omen (1976)” are part of the horror-movie history. Lately it has been more quiet, and only the hugely disappointing “Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)” and better, original version “Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)” have brought the demons back into the spotlight, at least from a Mainstream point of view (remake of “The Omen” is coming though). To me at least, films involving demons and dark forces possessing people have always been scary, since they often add that minor “what if”-message to them. This obviously doesn´t mean that people have to believe “demons” or “angels”, since we´re still talking movie entertainment here, but like in the case of “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”, the film is at least partly based on a “true story”, which adds that certain realism to the story. I could boldly state, that Derrickson has succeeded with his film, marring the two very different elements together; one that happened in the courtroom, and the nightmarish situations that happened to Emily Rose elsewhere. There are still some steps to go to call this a “classic”, but it reaches the goals by the filmmakers for being entertaining and scary, and in the end it also gives some thoughts about “spiritual issues”; God and demons, about how people see the “unknown”. Like it´s stated in the extras, it doesn´t say that you have to “believe” or “not believe”, but it gives you some food for the brain. To me the film´s message is that “there are things that sometimes cannot be explained”. Apart from the story, the driving motor of the film is its actors. Jennifer Carpenter as Emily Rose gives a haunting and highly talented performance, and Tom Wilkinson (recently seen in “Batman Begins (2005)” as “Carmine Falcone”) is also very convincing, as a priest with a heavy burden. Laura Linney is, well, Laura Linney, so she gives a solid performance, but she doesn´t rise to the same level as Carpenter and Wilkinson (her character doesn´t really have room for that). As her opponent, Campbell Scott (as Assistant District Attorney Ethan Thomas) also portrays a good picture of a religious, but tough Attorney, who´s convinced that Father Moore is guilty. When it comes to the horror-elements of the film, Jennifer Carpenter is also the key to making them work. Her horrifying screams and “possessed” facial expressions feel shockingly real, and with a little help from the effects-department, this film has some genuinely scary moments - e.g. the first scene where the demons enter her life, and later on the scene where her twisted body is staring to the emptiness of the floor - only returning to reality with a loud scream, are very nicely executed. The latter is actually one of the best horror-movie moments for a long time for me. There are some spooks, though, that are a bit too obvious and a few effects looked too “CGI”, and I wasn´t that keen about the idea that many things happened at 3 AM (some people believe that it´s the “demonic witching hour”), since it feels a bit like demons are taking a nap around midnight, and “go to work” at 3 AM. Further more, it´s slightly unconvincing, that with some of the issues that Erin Bruner witnesses in the film gets slightly buried under the story (although Father Moore warns him in one scene), since I doubt that you can go back to sleep after demons have visited your kitchen. I also would´ve hoped for a bit more character development of Emily Rose as a “normal person”, since she is pretty much possessed during the whole film, apart from a few scenes. Also her parents don´t get very much screentime. Still, these are minor flaws at the film, and the movie keeps the tension pretty high throughout. Composer Christopher Young adds his own flavour with his moody score, and the sound design is very important with films like this (you have demonic voices, lead character is “speaking tongues”, doors are banging, etc). With this film sound design and music are in a high level, supporting the story. “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” is a surprisingly good movie, with a strong story and capable actors, and it also has some good old scary moments for the fans of the horror-genre. Besides its horror-elements, it´s a movie about “spiritual aspect” of our lives, about the unknown issues that have been documented throughout our history, but which are never truly explained. Just remember that it doesn´t matter if you believe in some of the issues or not, just enjoy the movie and be scared. First and foremost this film is solid entertainment.
Video
This R1-release of the film is presented in Anamorphic 2.40:1, and is the “Unrated”-version of the film. There´s some info, that the only difference between the theatrical (“PG-13”) and “Unrated”-versions would be just additional dialogue, but there seems to be more. Based on the director Derrickson in his audio commentary, the MPAA asked for some trims for certain "exorcism-scenes" of Emily, and he at least mentions the scene at approx. the 81:53 minute mark, where Emily´s facial expression of hatred had to be cut (that´s a great scene, and scared also the cameraman). They also wanted the photo of a dead Emily (seen in court) to be black & white. Like already pointed in other sources, the "Unrated"-version also contains a few extra minutes of courtroom material of Dr. Adani’s cross-examination (approx. 61 minutes in), which was cut simply for pacing, not due to graphic content. He also mentions, that the scene (approx. around the 95:25 minute mark) where actress Laura Linney is turning the clock around is colour corrected for the "Unrated"-version (it´s not in the theatrical -version or PG-13 -DVD). Originally that scene was one of the re-shoots, and Linney wore a wig in that scene (“her hair looked terrible”). As explained in the extras, a certain colour palette was intentional for the film (e.g. orange represents “terror”, green represents “captivity”, and white represents “hope”), and the film has somewhat muted and stripped colors (although they can be also strong in some of the scenes where the terror strikes). The sharp transfer does a good job of portraying these colours, and black levels seemed strong (there are many darker scenes in the film). Bitrate of the film is a bit lower than expected, but I didn´t see any compression problems. “Unrated”-version runs 121:38 minutes (NTSC), and “dual layer” disc is coded “R1”. There are 28 chapters.
Audio
The disc has only one audio track, English Dolby Digital 5.1. Optional English subtitles, and English Closed Captions are also included. Note, that the original version of the film included “burnt-in” English captions in the scenes where Emily is “speaking tongues”, and they´re included here. With newer films like this, it´s usually quite hard to find any real problems from the track, and that is the case here also. Several directional sounds are aggressive and dynamic, and the softer side of the soundtrack is also well balanced. This is a good, modern audio track, which will probably make you bounce from your seat a few times during the film. Too bad of course, that the DTS is this time missing.
Extras
The main extra on the disc is the audio commentary by director/writer Scott Derrickson. This is a very interesting commentary session, which doesn´t have many gaps. Derrickson is a genuine film buff, clearly knowing the film history and is very open to admit how he was inspired from many directors (such as Argento, Bergman, and Kurosawa). He even says that he listened to the audio commentary by director Sydney Lumet from the DVD-release of “The Verdict (1982)” when doing research for the courtroom-scenes. He also has done his homework of different visual issues of movie making, like e.g. camera movements, and explains how the camera is very steady at first in the courtroom, but starts moving more at the end. He tells a lot about the background of different scenes, and says that the colour palette was inspired by painter Francis Bacon (1909 - 1992). His style was also to shoot a lot of coverage of certain scenes, and at one point the producers said that he had to move on. He also reveals how the “car death”-scene (avoiding spoilers here) was done by the studio´s pressure, but in the end he was happy with that decision. Derrickson also praises Laura Linney, and says many nice things about the other actors too. He also tells interesting anecdotes about the MPAA, and how he didn´t fully like the first colour correction on the “Theatrical version”, and is now more happier on the “Unrated”-version. A very good audio commentary track for the very good film. Next there are 3 featurettes, and you can use “Play All”-option to watch them all: - “Genesis of the Story” runs 19:47 minutes, and focuses on the origins of the production. Director/writer Derrickson tells how they got the rights of the book “The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel” straight from the author, and Derrickson also describes how hard it was for him to do the research of these dark subjects (exorcisms and possession), and he´s not planning to do it again any time soon. He also listened to the actual “exorcism tape” from the Anneliese Michel-case, running approx. 1 minute, which was the important and scary source of inspiration. Lead actors also say a thing or two in this featurette. - “Casting the Movie” runs 12:23 minutes, and is getting deeper into the actors point of view and how they got involved in the project. Laura Linney was at first a bit skeptical towards the role (she probably isn´t that big a fan of “horror-films”), but director Derrickson did his best to convince her. An interesting anecdote, also, is that Linney was the person who recommended Jennifer Carpenter for the role of Emily Rose. Derrickson also tells how seeing Carpenter in her auditions basically changed his way to portray Emily Rose in the film, since Carpenter was so good for the part, both physically and when it comes to acting itself. In this featurette, there´s also some brief “behind the scenes”-footage. - “Visual Design” runs 18:57 minutes, and takes a closer look at the visual side of the movie, like the colour palette and visual effects, along with art direction and costumes. Director Derrickson mentions how he has always been influenced by Dario Argento, and seeing the film, I´m not that surprised. At least the use of light has some similarities. They also speak about the interiors and design of the courtroom, which is refreshingly different from many other similar locations, more “low key” in many ways. - One deleted scene is included, running 2:41 minutes. You can also watch it with optional audio commentary with director/writer Derrickson. The scene in question happens in two parts. First Erin, sitting in her favorite martini-bar, meets a man in a brief sequence. The scene continues, when Erin takes the man to her home. A romantic moment with music is quickly over, when the man makes it clear that romantic dancing is not something that he ultimately had in mind. Erin promptly asks the man to leave, and while being angry, he bangs the door on the way out. The end of the scene hints that something spooky could happen, so watch the scene for yourself to find out if that the case. The scene is not finished, so there´s no music and the “CGI- silhouette” is not finalized. - Several bonus trailers are included. First there´s two trailers before the “Main menu” (they can be skipped at any time); “Sueńo (2005)” (2:20 min), and "The Gospel" (1:48 min). These two, and loads of others can be also found from the extras. The rest of the trailers include "Boogeyman" (2:22 min), "Mirrormask" (1:09 min), "Open Season" (1:34 min), "The Cave" (2:32 min), "The Da Vinci Code" (2:04 min), "The Fog (2005)" (2:12 min), "The Grudge (2004)" (1:25 min), "The Pink Panther (2005)" (1:36 min), "The Amityville Horror (1979)" (1:06 min), "The Amityville Horror (2005)" (2:28 min), and "Into the Blue" (2:15 min). - Keep case comes with Slip case.
Overall
If you´re into good and atmospheric horror-films, that take a more serious and mature approach, then “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” is a good choice for you. R1-release is solid work in every way, offering goodies in both transfer/audio, and extras-departments. The only thing that would´ve been nice is the documentary of the real case. Do note, that the “R-rated”-version is also available, with the same features. This DVD is available at Loaded247, the UK based supplier of R1-releases.
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