Starring: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter
Genre: Horror – but not quite

The plot of the movie is revealed in the title itself – but only a section of it.

Father Richard Moore (Tom Wilkinson) is accused of negligent homicide of Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) while performing exorcisms. The case is high profile and is given to Erin Bruner (Laura Linney), an ambitious lawyer who is fresh off a recent win and is looking to be promoted. The prosecutor’s stand is that Emily Rose was suffering from epilepsy and schizophrenia, and it was negligent homicide by Father Richard. The rest is a court room battle with people’s accounts of the events from the time things started going wrong with Emily till her unfortunate death, and is captured in flashbacks.

There is more to the movie than the plain horror – it is a court room drama. It questions the reality and the faith of the people giving multiple perspectives to the same situation. It is a different side to the possession trope, and explores the grey area between spirituality and science.

The beauty of the movie lies in pure subtlety. The prosecutor fighting for science is a devout Christian and the defense attorney is agnostic, bordering on atheist. Both fighting the opposite argument, challenging their own beliefs, making them question Science and religion, truth, fact and well, believes. Hence, this movie is not horror – only a court room drama where the case is horror. It is similar to, say, Law & Order with a gore case – it doesn’t make the series gore (hope this makes sense).

The whole story of everything which happened to Emily Rose unravels slowly as the movie moves and nowhere does it keep the viewer wondering what’s happening. All this is underscored with very subtle background score. It is no secret that Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson can act, and they both together fighting the good fight is a treat to watch.

Honestly, having the right perspective when watching something is so important. Sadly, even the creators messed up in the marketing of this movie. Maybe they wanted to compete with Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist? It will be interesting to see the reception if it is advertised as a court room drama.