New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
xx Baby on Board
xx Bob Funk
62 Cherry Blossoms
38 Confessions of a Shopaholic
38 Crossing Over
38 Dark Streets
58 Defiance
45 Fanboys
31 Fired Up
37 Forever Strong
34 Friday the 13th
72 Gran Torino
47 He's Just Not That Into You
47 Inkheart
52 International, The
45 Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
50 Madea Goes to Jail
51 Morning Light
51 My Bloody Valentine 3-D
29 New in Town
28 Nobel Son
40 Outlander
39 Paul Blart: Mall Cop
56 Phoebe in Wonderland
36 Pink Panther 2
xx Powder Blue
69 Revolutionary Road
20 Spinning Into Butter
17 Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
64 Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
63 Tokyo!
74 Two Lovers
56 Valkyrie
91 Waltz with Bashir
22 What Goes Up

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Exorcism of Emily Rose, The
Screen Gems Inc.


6.4

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 56 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for thematic material, including intense/frightening sequences and disturbing images

Starring Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Colm Feore, and Jennifer Carpenter

In an extremely rare decision, the Catholic Church officially recognized the demonic possession of a 19 year-old college freshman. The Exorcism of Emily Rose chronicles the haunting trial of the priest accused of negligence resulting in the death of the young girl believed to be possessed. Inspired by true events, the film stars Laura Linney as the lawyer who takes on the task of defending the priest (Wiklinson) who performed the controversial exorcism. (Sony)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Horror \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Paul Harris Boardman Scott Derrickson
DIRECTED BY:	Scott Derrickson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 20, 2005 Theatrical: September 9, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	114 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.4 (out of 10) based on 56 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Vanessa L. gave it an8:
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Whoever said that this movie was not scary, must be on something because this scared the living daylights out of me. Granted, it's not anything like the original Excorsist, but it still is quite frightening. Besides, if people were expecting to be really freaked out and were disapointed, then they should have read its genre:drama, horror, and suspense/thriller. HELLO? It doesnt say only horror. It's a mixture of different aspects and they all come together quite nicely. Maybe people should stop having expectations of movies before they watch them so that way they will enjoy the movie rather then being so judgmetal of it.

Christopher W. gave it a4:
As much as I had hoped this story would captivate me, I simply never found the film adequately engaging. Most of the plot is conveyed through flashbacks that are distressingly deviant in tone and purpose from the present day scenes set in a courtroom. If the audience is meant to question the forces of evil that may exist in the world or is asked to feel sympathy and compassion for Emily's fate, we are never given a real sense of why any of this really matters. I fully dismiss all supernatural explanations, but I am still intrigued by the notion that there are people who don't. Emily Rose ultimately fails to meaningfully connect to its audience because the screenplay is never quite sure what it wants to do. Is it fright film? Is it allegory? Is it a tale of mental illness? Is it a tale of demonic possession? Is it a courtroom battle between reason and faith? Maybe the film is all of these things. Unfortunately all of these ambiguous angles eventually steal each other's thunder. The film is too cluttered with ideas, but the performances are no less than adequate. In any case, Emily Rose is a mixed bag. Proceed with caution!

frickinmedia gave it an8:
Since I read the bad reviews here before watching the movie, I was surprise how good it turned out. If you're a mature viewer don't believe the negative comments here. I think most people went into this movie hoping it be some "scary" teen movie. The concept of mixing courtroom drama and horror film flow together nicely. The excellent job done by the cast provided that realism feel which most movies in this genre lacks. My only complaint was that the director didn't edit out the shot where Emily looks up, as seen on the movie trailer. That part looks completely cheesy.

Zift K. gave it a1:
trash, avoid at all cost. The only reason this movie got a 1 was because it made me laugh a few times. The pathetic scenes of "acting" is just pathetic. Watch at your own risk.

Tyler C. gave it a0:
Laura Linney said in the commentry " movies are movies and they are entertaining and they should be entertaining." To me this is a way for her to say that it is ok to lie about a certain story as long as it is entertaining. There is no Emily Rose. There is, however, a story about Anneliesel Michel, which this horrible movie was based on, and believe me, is a far cry away from the truth.

Christy B gave it a2:
It had a few scenes that made me jump, which is important in a horror movie, but the movie wasn't any good. I was very disappointed.

Tony B. gave it a7:
In the wrong hands, a story like this can come across as just a lot of nonsense, an insult to anyone watching it. Such is not the case here, the result being an intelligent, well-balanced approach to a fascinating question. The acting by all concerned is top-notch, with special honors going to Laura Linney, one of the best actresses around.

Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Screen Gems Inc.

Exorcism of Emily Rose, The
Screen Gems Inc.