Exorcism of Emily Rose, The

Variety Derek Elley

Some genuine shocks punctuate The Exorcism of Emily Rose, an unusually intelligent genre item that manages to mix full-bore horror with courtroom drama.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

With a cast like this, The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a superior performance vehicle and on that count alone is never less than riveting.

Premiere Peter Debruge

Plays like a modern-day inversion of "Inherit the Wind," highlighting an astonishing shift in the American legal system over the last 80 years.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Fans expecting horror won't want a thought-provoking, well-acted courtroom drama about the intersection of religious belief and the law.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Emily Rose is the thinking person's demon possession movie, which presents a chilling case history that's hard to explain away.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Somehow the movie really never takes off into the riveting fascination we expect in the opening scenes. Maybe it cannot; maybe it is too faithful to the issues it raises to exploit them.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Part "Law & Order," part "The Omen," the movie doesn't trust the audience to follow serious theological and legal discussion without a spook hook.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Take away the performances, and all that would be left is a cheapish B-grade motion picture.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Fashioning a hybrid of a courtroom drama and a horror film that is suspenseful and scary requires a clear vision and directorial finesse. Rose lacks both. But the performances are topnotch.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Could have been both a gripping courtroom drama and a chilling "is she or isn’t she?" horror tale. What we have instead is a movie that drifts, almost unmanned, from plot point to plot point.

Empire Olly Richards

Ror all its cleverness, Emily Rose does have its hokey moments.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's a pretense of even-handedness. The true story has been reduced to a case for faith. It merely sacrifices all reason to get there.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The script is a lifeless succession of attorney-client debates and stormy horror flashbacks, though I had a good time watching Jennifer Carpenter, a comic Buffy type in "White Chicks" and "D.E.B.S.," hurl herself around as the title character.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

While not especially good - judged strictly on its cinematic merits, it ranges from O.K. to god-awful - it is still a fascinating cultural document in the age of intelligent design.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Muddled tale of faith and reason.

The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis

Derrickson's characters are reduced to ciphers in a theological debate. Long wedges of the film are simply a discussion about the relative merits of science and superstition. Carpenter, as the sick girl, puts in the best performance.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Part courtroom drama, part otherworldly shocker, the film basically restages the Scopes Monkey Trial and comes out once more against Mr. Darrow, and it's got the spine-twisting, tongues-speaking, devil-channeling hellion to prove it.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It's hard to get riled up one way or the other by a film about an exorcist who is forced, cruelly and relentlessly, to introduce one flashback after another.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

This windy courtroom drama is punctuated by cheesy flashbacks.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) David Gilmour

Positively hops with jolts and frights but they're the cheap kind.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Allegedly it's based on a true story, which is believable only because the outcome is so unsatisfying it carries the dull metallic tang of real-life ambiguity. And that's neither scary nor stimulating.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

I'm all for hearty theological debate. But this is intellectual suicide. Even worse, it's boring intellectual suicide.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Creepy enough at first, this relatively gore-free film gradually becomes a stifling talk-fest in which superb actors drone on for so long about the nature of belief that one longs for a juror to spew a little pea soup.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Derrickson's flick can sour your stomach with piety, which is a shame -- its moments of jolt wattage rate with many J-horrors.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Simultaneously sober and silly horror picture.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The dullest exorcist movie ever made.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Unfortunately, nothing in it rings with the faintest tinkle of truth.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Derrickson's staid direction, coupled with Wilkinson’s sad-sack priest and a general air of dreariness make for a courtroom thriller that’s somewhat less apocalyptic than the "L.A. Law" episode involving the death of Benny's mom.

Slate David Edelstein

The acting in this movie is unusually bad--atrocious, even.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

It has but one thing going for it: a cast filled with Oscar nominees.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Oh, how good actors can trap themselves in drivel.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The fun of these movies is that Linney often seems too refined for such greasy junk, but there she is anyway, hamming it down as it were.