Sometimes one ends up in one's local DVD shop determined, despite the slim pickings on offer, to rent a film no matter what. Such was the situation we found ourselves in last night as we scoured shelves barren of anything to get too excited about. In the end we settled for the kind of thing one only reaches for in times of desperation - The Exorcism of Emily Rose.¹

As far as most contemporary horror is concerned, my expectations are so low that I sometimes run the risk of confusing the "not terrible" with the "good". While I wouldn’t go as far as to call Emily Rose good, it's not offensively bad either…and one often finds oneself grateful for such small mercies.

Its chief failing is a rather surprising one in a film that deals with the juicy subject of demonic possession - its simply rather tepid and bland, with effective shocks/scares at a definite premium. While it's eschewal of rotating head/projectile vomiting theatrics in favour of something more restrained/'realistic' initially feels quite refreshing, its sporadic attempts at supernatural creepiness fail to offer a remotely satisfying alternative (at least in horror terms).

The general air of gentle tedium is compounded by lengthy, "Movie of the Week", courtroom scenes that might have served as interesting counterpoints to the horror flashbacks if the flashbacks themselves hadn’t been almost equally timid and mild. Thus what we're left with is the closest thing to a "Family-friendly" exorcism movie one is likely to get - an ambling, rambling tale of teenage possession, heavy on cries of "Sustained" and notably light on shrieks of "Your mother sucks cocks in hell!"

With the current trend for remakes of visceral 70s horror films² (The Hills Have Eyes etc.) continuing apace, attempts to buck the trend and produce original, intelligent, low-gore horrors that rely on lingering dread, uneasiness, eeriness etc., would certainly be welcome. Emily Rose skips the gore and the teen-horror conventions but…that's pretty much all it has to offer. It leaves familiar ingredients out, but neglects to add anything else back into the mix.

It's been a long, long time since I saw anything I could confidently describe as (that most elusive of things) an effective 'adult horror'³ - the search continues…

1. Very, very loosely based on the case of Anneliese Michel, a "German woman who believed she was possessed by six or more demons". [back]
2. Or films that share a certain 70s aesthetic - a la Wolf Creek [back]
3. I am not, of course, referring to the porno appropriation of the word ‘adult’ here. [back]