Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a look at an upcoming flick that's definitely caught my attention, especially after reading this extremely positive review, called THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE coming out in September from Screen Gems. Tom Wilkinson is one of my favorite character actors working today and Laura Linney ain't no slouch, either. It seems that the filmmakers are really hitting the nail on the head with this odd genre of the horror/drama... Horrama? Draorror?... I know Wilkinson and Linney and Shohreh Aghdashloo (who was amazing in THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG) will bring a level of class to this story, so if the script is up to snuff then we can expect a geniunely unique genre flick. Here's the relatively spoiler-free review! Enjoy!
Hey Harry -
Just wanted to send off a quick review here of Sony/Lakeshore's upcoming flick "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". I was invited by a film school friend of mine to the first screening of an early cut of the film on the Sony lot tonight. I've been to a couple of these things before, and I've honestly never been compelled to write a review but this film was something special. Things were obviously rough because it was such an early cut (I think we were watching a somewhat compressed output from an Avid machine). Not all the vis. effects were done and a few of the scenes drew on a bit long -- but looking past the expected lack of polish, this film really blew me away.
The film is about the trial following the botched exorcism of 19 year old college student Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter). Emily dies shortly after the exorcism and the girl's priest, Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson), is arrested and put on trial for negligent manslaughter. Rising-star lawyer Erin Bruner (Laura Linney) is assigned to the case. She has the difficult task of defending a man who absolutely believes Emily's death to be a result of demon possession. The story unfolds Rashomon style with flashbacks from the various perspectives of witnesses for both sides. As things play out the jurors and the audience are left with one question which becomes the central grappling point of the film: was Emily's death a result of a spiritual battle or was it a result of improperly treated psychosis and epilepsy? -- To state it more clearly, the question becomes whether we can say without doubt there is no supernatural realm that ever touches mankind or whether the supernatural is reasonably within the realm of possibility.
This is a movie I never thought I would see in theatres -- a film that deals intelligently and fairly with supernatural questions all while retaining the ability to absolutely scare the piss out of you.
Even as the film starts off a bit slowly for my tastes, it's a small price to pay for the shear joy, terror and suspense of watching the story of Emily's possession unfold.
This is an intelligent, subtle, terrifying, suspense film, with rich characters and brilliantly nuanced performances by both Linney and Wilkinson. I'd love to see Hollywood pull off ten more of these this year, but I'm not going to breath.
Anyways, that's an early word. I heard the film is slated for a September release.
Use this if you can,
Thanks for running such a great sight all these years,
Don
