Monday, September 11, 2006

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

Okay. Here were my thoughts, complicated as they are. This was an odd movie, somewhere between horror flick and courtroom drama, never quite reaching either one. (I don't watch a lot of horror flicks, but nearly everyone I've spoken to who does has said this wasn't up to par with what they were expecting.)

My main gripe with the movie, however, is the theology. It tried to be as realistic as possible about demonic possession, giving possible scientific reasons for the whole thing. I had someone tell me that this movie was ambiguous about whether or not demons were involved... It most definitely was not. I can't see any other way to interpret the ending of the Dr. Cartwright sideplot except to say that there were demons involved in at least some way. (Erm... in the movie.)

So. We've established that they are attributing Emily's illness to demons. Okay. Fair enough. I'm a Christian. I believe in demons. I believe demonic possession is possible. However, here's where I think they missed the entire point, and that is: The pinnacle of Christianity rests on the fact that God is bigger than everything. The pinnacle of this movie rests on the fact that God is sometimes bigger than some things as long as you use the right rituals and say the right words. One person claims the exorcism didn't work because of the medicine she was taking. I'm kind of thinking that if God can conquer a demon in the first place, he can handle medicine.

There were other problems I had with the movie, but that was the main one. Nearly every movie that involves demons does this - presents an evil dark force without presenting God's the promise of omnipotence. Even this movie, which claimed to have it from a Christian perspective, completely missed the boat.

As far as an actual artistic movie goes, I suppose it was done well enough. I was just distracted and bugged by the fact that they set the whole thing up to be a spiritual challenge from a Christian perspective when it only presented half the story. Far as I'm concerned, that means the "Christian perspective" was completely wasted.

Wow. This is a long rant. I'm done. 2 stars.

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