The biggest challenge in writing this post has got to be how to title it. I pondered the need for the title to be representative of what message I got out of the movie, without giving in to the temptation of tacking on to the message the mainstream critic distilled from the 2 hour long drama. In the end, I decided that perhaps it was best to just adopt the movie’s title itself.

The movie’s two main characters also creates the prime dichotomy of the theme – faith and science. Father Richard Moore (Tom Wilkinson) is a devout priest who has an unshakeable belief in what he does. His lawyer Erin Bruner (Laura Linney) is a high-flying career woman who is only looking out for her own welfare. When confronted by things beyond her control, however, Bruner finds that there are some things in life that no amount of success and fame can overcome.

Both Wilkinson and Linney put in marvellous performances, Wilkinson giving empathic depth to the character of the faithful servant of God, while Linney shines as she grabs hold of her character’s pathos in discovering just how selfish human nature can be.

In the middle of these two powerful performers, comes a breathtakingly frightening Jennifer Carpenter, who plays the titular character Emily Rose. Despite her relative lack of screen experience, the Julliard graduate is an amazing presence, both creating a sense of despair and horror as she struggles between her normal self and her ‘possessed’ state.

The movie is also a wonderful study in cinematography. Director and Writer Scott Derrickson explained how he was trying to achieve a ‘marriage of beauty and terror’ in creating the visuals of the movie.

“I think the crucifix itself is like that. It’s a beautiful image that has a beautiful meaning and yet it’s a very violent and horrific image at the same time.”

The cinematographers succeed in creating the effects of horror and suspense without losing the realism of the visual – thus making it all the more frightening.

While most of the story focuses on whether Father Moore is superstitious or not in his unmovable belief in demonic possession causing Emily’s state of mind, I chose to take the opportunity to question my own beliefs and convictions. As a Catholic and as someone who has flirted with the idea of the priesthood, could I have come anywhere close to the character of Father Richard Moore?

After all, it’s hard to really say which scares me more – the fear of the devil and his minions, or the fear of human rejection, of secular cynicism, of sheer unbelief in the things beyond our reality. Father Richard Moore had to face both, and yet, throughout his whole ordeal, he stayed strong, his faith a source of comfort and strength.

It was important to me that the director not depict Father Moore as some religious superhero, and Derrickson avoided just that by including a scene where his fears overcome him and he later admits in court, “It scared the hell out of me”. Ironically, of course, by making him more human, the character of Father Moore challenges me, indeed all of us, towards the level of faith he examplified.

And that, is a faith I can only begin to desire for myself.