Similar Text analysis: The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Introduction:
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a horror film that can be put under the subgenre of religious/supernatural thriller. The target audience is for 15 years and above.
The film is based on the true story of Anneliese Michel and follows a self-proclaimed Agnostic defense lawyer representing a parish priest named Father Moore who is accused by the state of negligent homicide after he performed an exorcism on Emily Rose who believed she was being possessed by six demons. A day after the exorcism, Emily dies. The film, which largely takes place in a courtroom, depicts the events leading up to and including the exorcism—and ultimately her death—through flashbacks. There is a battle between science and religion in the court.
This plot is conventional of a supernatural thriller in which we have a protagonist (Emily Rose) battling an evil paranormal force (The Devil himself).
The theme that occurs in the film is the power of evil in the sense that the demons within Emily battle to overpower her and possess her. She tries to gain power over them through the use of medication and an exorcism but she fails to win. This theme highlights the ideology of the film which is supernatural evil always finds a way. Although Emily (just a human being) tried to defeat the demons within her, they found a way to control her and eventually lead her to death because of their supernatural powers. Their powers were too great of a force to be reckoned with.
There is use of motifs to represent the suffering of Emily Rose. Especially in the opening sequence in which we hear the same agonnising screams every time the topic of her exorcism is mentioned. We don’t see her at the beginning of the film but hearing the cries and screams every time she is mentioned indicates that the cries ands screams belong to her.
The Catholic religion is held under a magnifying glass in this film and is the main reason to why the exorcism took place. The religion implies that illness can be cured by prayer which in this modern day and age would seem silly when there are medicines that are proven to work for mental health. Catholicism is also represented as evil because even though Emily is shown and represented as an innocent, obedient, devoted, young catholic girl, the demons still choose to possess her which can be perceived as unfair, unjust and plain evil. Also, because Emily dies at the end, it represents the religion as highly dangerous because even the good are punished.
Another take on how the religion is represented is by the scientists and doctors who believed that the supposed demons possessing Emily were all bogus and that proven test clearly diagnosed Emily as epileptic and psychopathic explaining all her outburst. This implies that the catholic religion is in some ways fictional and untrue as it’s symptoms for being possessed by demons is explained by science which says that the symptoms of being possessed are ones of being epileptic and psychopathic not being possessed.
This dispute about religion and the supernatural realm are typical of a Religious thriller which entails evils unleashed and ancient scriptures coming into play. At times they are quite controversial as they examine people's beliefs, not always in a flattering way.
Analysis:
The opening sequence of the film, we are given a typical title sequence with credits. To add a thriller/horror feel to the titles, they appear in a small font at corners of the screen for around 3 seconds and then fade away quickly creating a spooky effect, almost ghostly. With the titles we hear incidental music that is slow and sinister sounding with the use of string instruments such as violins. This music sets us up to be scared and builds tension. After the titles, the screen remains black to which we then hear the screams and cries of what sounds like a girl. We then hear a girl shouting with anguish and pain ‘Emily!’ Then we hear a manly, demonic laugh to which the screen then fades into white and we hear the girls high screams and cries again. These voices put together sound like a girl is being torn apart by an evil man. It creates tension in the audience and heightens our hearing as we cannot see what is going on except for hearing the screams making us imagine what disturbing thing could be making this girl scream like that. The white screen then fades into the main title of the film. ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ in a bold, gothic, crimson font typical of a thriller film. The girl named Emily is going to have her blood spilt as the colour red connotes danger, blood, and death. The title is also placed in-between barbed wires which also suggests danger and is somewhat of a sign saying ‘keep out’ as barbed wire is what we use in society to stop people going into designated areas, areas that are harmful and dangerous.
After the title, we are taken into the first scene of the film through cuts that first show dead crops moving in the wind and dead pumpkins frozen on the ground. This shows that the scene is set on a farm but also foreshadows the underlying theme of death because all the props are dead. The pumpkins also indicate that the film is taking place in Halloween as that is the time when pumpkins are grown.
We then get a bird’s eye view of the scene in which we see a house that looks like its derelict and abandoned and we see a man dressed in black walking up to the house.. The incidental music continues to play again. It plays in a major and minor key creating suspense, tension and a very saddening atmosphere. This shot establishes the scene but more importantly tells us what we can expect to come in the film. The derelict building suggests that it is unlivable in and the man dressed in black has probably something to do with death. The black clothing covers his whole body which represents him as maybe a bearer of bad news because black is a very dull, depressing colour that connotes death, evil and is the exact opposite of happiness. Throughout this shot we hear the heightened ambient sound of the gushing of wind which shows that it is clearly winter time. The house is also surrounded by fog which also shows its winter. The fog also adds to the spooky effect of the scene and gives a ghostly feel to the house as ghosts usually appear to be misty and white like fog.
When the man is walking up to the house he looks at the barn/garage opposite it. We get a close up of his face to show that he is inquisitive and then the camera cuts to the barn/garage which has a moving compass on its roof. Just as the man in black looks at the garage, the compass makes a rusty, creaky sound that is heightened as it moves pointing into the direction of the house. This is very spooky as it moved instinctively almost to say that what ever made it move doesn’t want the man to enter the garage or wants the man to go into the house even though it looks abandoned. Once the man eventually is let into the house, we get a mid long shot from the man’s point of view of a woman at the door asking him if he is the medical examiner to which confirms that his profession is to do with dead bodies (death).
When the medical examiner walks in, he is directed into a room to which he greets a man saying ‘Mr. Rose’. Behind Mr. Rose is a wooden cross hanging on the wall suggesting that the people in the house are Christian and represents them as religious. There is a prolonged use silence after as the medical examiner is then lead up the stairs into a room to which we hear the diegetic sound of his footsteps heightened and the incidental music heightened. This creates a build up of tension and indicates that he is about to do something of an unpleasant nature. He is represented as the bearer of bad news. When he comes back down, we get a close up of a pendulum clock ticking and its tick is also heightened and stays emphasized through out the scene. This may indicate that the film has also something to do with time. It is very much an enigma. The camera then gets a close up of the medical examiners face to which he looks confused, puzzled, and scared. This shows that he what he has seen is something unusual and worrying. He even stutters when he says- ‘sorry Mr. rose, but I can not stay conclusive that the cause of death was natural…your daughter…’ The examiner implies that Mr. Rose’s daughter was either murdered or killed and does not finish his sentence emphasising that his daughter died tragically and painfully as he can’t bring himself to say the details of how or what made her die. The camera then cuts to a close up of Mr. Rose as he turns his face to look at the examiner and his is somewhat emotionless and slightly angry looking. This represents him as hard and manly and because he does not reply to the examiner it suggests that he is actually angry using silence to show it but also suggests that he probably knows the real reason why his daughter died such a horrible death.
The camera then cuts a to a man dressed as a priest. We get a close up of his face and as he turns his head to look out the window we get his point of view shot of the garage in the exterior of the house. The incidental music heightens again suggesting that he had something to do with the death of Mr. Rose’s daughter and also creating a mystery feel as to how and why the daughter was killed. To end the opening scene, while the camera still has the garage in frame, we hear the sound motif of the suffering of Emily, she is screaming in pain just like the screams we heard when the titles were being shown bringing the audience back to the remember that Emily was killed and in a lot of hurt and pain.
There is good use of continuity editing from the editor as each scene flows logically from the title sequence to the exterior of the house and then to the interior of the house. The editor also effectively creates tension right from the beginning of the film when the incidental music is played loudly and then fades under when we hear the agonizing screams of Emily rose in the title sequence and when other characters speak. The way the editor also chooses to consistently use the major key for the incidental music while randomly inserting a short play of minor key creates an eerie, scary atmosphere as the contrast between the way the major key and minor key very great.
The editor’s use of long takes along with the incidental music being played builds suspense at the beginning of the film. The long takes really establish the spooky setting of the house and allow the audience to analyse the scene and understand what exactly is going on in the film such as why the medical examiner is entering the house and why there is a priest in the house. The long takes also indicate the slow passing of time which creates mystery, emphasising all the little but significant action that takes place within that five minute scene.
The editor’s choice of cuts is also very premeditated, cutting to significant objects and props that indicate to the audience the importance of those objects in the film. There are significant cuts to the crop establishing the setting and in the interior of the house, there is a significant cut to cross telling the audience that this is a Christian household and there is cut to the pendulum clock which foreshadows that time is going to be an important element in the film. Further into the movie we find out that Emily would start displaying signs of being possessed at exactly 3:00 am in the morning.
Emily’s sisters who are seen in the first five minutes mourning Emily’s death are wearing very neutral light beige and peach colours, this maybe gives us an idea of how Emily would have dressed. These colours connote youth, femininity, and innocence which is what Emily would have been like before she became possessed.
Further on in the movie the Emily, who gets possessed, is, wearing a white gown, this stereotypically, represents purity but in this case she is getting possessed by the evil darkness of the devil which makes a striking difference between these colours.
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