- Directed by Scott Derrickson
- Written by Paul Harris Boardman, Scott Derrickson
- Stars Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Shoreh Aghdashloo
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 59 Minutes
- Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Told in flashbacks heavily as a courtroom drama, this one combines moral questions with uncertainty about what really happened. Was it a supernatural possession, mental problems, or a combination of the two? The acting is very good from everyone, and this one is well done.
Synopsis
The Medical Examiner arrives at the old farmhouse. The family is all depressed, but the M.E. goes upstairs to find Father Moore leaving Emily Rose’s bedroom. Inside, he looks over the body. Afterwards, he refuses to state conclusively that the girl died of natural causes. The sheriff arrests Father Moore, who performed a fatal exorcism on Emily Rose.
Erin Bruner is asked to defend Father Moore. The prosecutor offered the priest a sweet deal, but the priest refused. She goes to visit Moore in jail, but all Moore cares about is telling the story about what really happened.
The prosecutor sends Ethan Thomas to run the case. He’s very religious, but he has no problem sending a priest to prison.
The trial begins. Ethan says that Emily had a medical condition that led to her death, and Father Moore neglected her. Moore convinced her to undergo an exorcism rather than medical treatment.
Emily had gone away to college, which was a new thing for her family. One night, she woke up and something invisible came into her room and attacked her. The university doctor did some tests on her and found her drug free, but with some unusual electrical activity in the brain. He thought she was having epileptic seizures. He put her on epilepsy medication. She stopped taking the drugs since she believed her condition was spiritual, not medical. Father Moore suggested she stopped taking the drug.
Father Moore warns Erin about being attacked herself, even though she doesn’t believe any of this stuff. Soon after, Erin gets the bad news that the defendant she got off last year has killed again. That doesn’t make her look good. And for some reason, her clocks all stop at three a.m. each night.
We flash back to more stuff with Emily having terrifying hallucinations, or maybe visions. She went to boyfriend Jason for help, who also talks to Erin about the trial. The psychologist suggests that Emily may have also been psychotic on top of the epilepsy. The prosecution rests.
For the defense, Erin argues that Emily was actually possessed, and that Emily didn’t have any medical condition. Boyfriend Jason testifies about finding Emily asleep in a weird twisted-up position. He drove her back to the family home, and they contacted Father Moore shortly after that. He has no problem being convinced of possession.
Erin brings in an expert on the scientific study of possession cases. She thinks that Emily was “hypersensitive” to the supernatural world. She thinks the exorcism failed because she was under the influence of the psychological drugs from the doctor. She thinks the drug locked Emily into a possessed state of mind.
Dr. Cartwright contacts Erin. He’s a doctor that Father Moore called in to watch over Emily during the exorcism. He said Emily was perfectly healthy during the procedure.
Father Moore finally gets to testify and tell his story. He explains some spooky stuff he saw the night after he decided to do the exorcism. A demonic entity appeared to him to intimidate him from proceeding. He made an audio recording of the actual rite. We then get a flashback to the exorcism ritual itself, which goes badly. The tape shows two voices at the same time, both coming from Emily.
Dr. Cartwright refuses to testify at the trial; he says the demons are real right before he’s hit by a car. Something got to him. Moore does an interview with the newspaper, which really riles up Erin’s boss. Moore has a letter from Emily written the day she died. She believed the whole thing happened because she was touched by God personally and that she had accepted her fate. The defense rests.
Father Moore is found guilty and sentenced to time served, so he’s free to go.
Erin sleeps through the night for the first time since this all began.
Commentary
The main focus on the court trial makes this one much more interesting than just another story about an exorcism. It’s more of a courtroom drama than a horror movie, but of course, the horror elements are all over this in flashbacks and testimony. The thing is, there’s testimony and evidence on both sides, and you are left to wonder if Emily was really possessed or if there was simply something wrong with her mind. It’s filmed in such a way that it could go either way really. Nothing we see affects anyone other than Emily personally, but enough other oddness goes on that there could be supernatural forces at work. It’s up to us to decide.
This was based on an actual true story of a similar case involving a German woman in the 1970s. In that case, the priests were found guilty and sentenced to jail with a suspended sentence.
It drags a bit in the middle, surprisingly in the part where we see the possession. Still, it’s a unique spin on a fairly tired trope, so it’s definitely worth a watch.