Last night’s movie was The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which appears to be getting the lion’s share of this weekend’s box office. Despite the trailers, this film turns out to largely be a courtroom drama which follows the trial of Father Moore, parish priest to the Moore family who was asked to perform an exorcism to rid young Emily of the demons which possess her. This is an adaptation of the story of Annaliese Michel, a girl born in 1952 who died in 1976 of malnutrition. Her parents as well as the two exorcists were charged and convicted of negligent homicide in the incident.

This story is a modern adaptation of this true story. Laura Linney plays Erin Bruner, a defenese attorney charged with defending Father Bruner (Tom Wilkinson) against the charge of negligent homicide in the death of young Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter). Attorney Bruner uses an unusual tactic: that the idea that young Emily could have been possessed by demons might in fact be true.

Unfortunately, despite some good performances, I think this movie is a bit of a non-starter. In trying to walk a fine line between a courtroom drama and a horror film, it actually doesn’t really work as either. If it were to work as a horror film, it would need to convince you that demon possession were really possible, at least for an hour and a half. It doesn’t. The family in particular come across as rubes who don’t know enough to adequately understand the epilepsy and psychosis which was destroying their daughter. The real life nature of the case bleeds through, and ultimately, you just feel pity for the individuals in that they contributed to the death of their daughter in some horribly misguided attempt to save her from demons.

This film isn’t bad, but I didn’t find it has much to recommend it either.

Addendum: We also saw the trailer for the new Doom movie. Oh my, does it just scream “rental!”.