The story’s about a priest (Tom Wilkinson) accused of negligent homicide in the death of poor Emily, who was either possessed by the devil or had some wicked type of epilepsy, depending on which side you believe. Emily (Jennifer Carpenter) spends most of the movie with the same hyper-terrified look on her face. We don’t get to see what she was like before Satan got to her. The movie’s half courtroom drama and half horror movie. The courtroom scenes feature some shortcuts in legal procedure but not too many surprises, and the horror is stuff is okay, but nothing unfamiliar from The Exorcist, or even Constantine.
The story, based on a 1976 German case, aims to put you in the place of the jury trying to evaluate the priest’s claim. (As the priest's agnostic lawyer, Laura Linney is the audience stand-in.) To some extent it succeeds, but the script is often hokey. (“Spare me your law-school pieties!") For the record, the friend I saw this with also thought this was a two-star movie, but her husband and his mother, bigger horror fans, thought it “well done.”
IMDB link
viewed 9/17/05 at Moorestown and reviewed 9/20/05
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