By Stephen Pytak 

     It's been criticized for being more of a court 
drama. 
     But at least it's not a bad "Exorcist" rip off.
     "The Exorcist of Emily Rose" is a great chilling
drama which works because of a grain or two of
reality.
     First it's based on what became known as "The 
Klingenburg Case," the trial of clergy who performed
exorcisms on German college student Anneliese Michel,
who died on July 1, 1976 at age 23.
     Second, the girl in the lead is really good.
     Jennifer Carpenter doesn't really need heavy make-
up effects to make you believe she's possessed by 
something or other. And aside from some contact
lenses which make her pupils bigger, I don't think
she employed any.
     The film follows the trial of the priest, Father 
Moore (Tom Wilkinson), and the struggle his 
lawyer, Erin Bruner (Laura Linney), in defending her
client, and obviously herself from the forces of evil.
     In a jail cell interview, Moore warns Erin they're
everywhere and have no interest in seeing the truth
about the case come out.
     When strange things start happening in her 
apartment every time 3 a.m. rolls around, from weird
sounds to the tape recording of the exorcism suddenly
clicking on for no apparent reason, Erin starts to 
believe him.
     That's the witching hour, Moore tells her. It was
also the time, we as viewers are informed, that Emily
was first visited by the six demons who made her life
pure torture.
     During the trail, we get flashbacks taking us 
through Emily's story and building us up to the
exorcism itself, a hellish ordeal which, by Moore's
request, was performed on Halloween night.
     I didn't like this film as much as William Friedkin's
"The Exorcist." But I liked it much more than "The
Exorcist" sequels and prequels. While I find those
follow-up entertaining for one reason or other, they
didn't have the performances, the story or the direction
to sell me.
     While viewing this picture, I recalled that Laura
Linney was in similiar type of movie, a chilling drama
based on a true story, "The Mothman Prophecies 
(2001)," a film I also very much enjoyed.
     Some night down the road, when "Emily" comes
out on DVD, maybe I'll pop a lot of popcorn and 
run a double feature.