Movie · 2005 · Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller · 2h 2m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 2.0/10 (293.3K ratings)
One person's story of faith and possession.
Overview
When a younger girl called Emily Rose dies, everyone puts blame on the exorcism which was performed on her by Father Moore prior to her death. The priest is arrested on suspicion of murder. The trial begins with lawyer Erin Bruner representing Moore, but it is not going to be easy, as no one wants to believe what Father Moore says is true.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.0/10
IMDb: 6.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.08/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 46%
Metacritic: 46
TMDB: 6.6/10
Director
Scott Derrickson
Production
Lakeshore Entertainment, Firm Films, Screen Gems
Cast
Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter, Kenneth Welsh, Mary Beth Hurt, Colm Feore, Henry Czerny, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Duncan Fraser, Mary Black, Julian Christopher, Terence Kelly, Katie Keating, Marilyn Norry, Taylor Hill, John Innes, Iris Graham, Andrew Wheeler, JR Bourne
Curator Review
Verdict
A solid if uneven blend of courtroom drama and supernatural horror, with the legal framing giving the story more texture than a standard possession movie. It’s strongest when it leans into dread, ambiguity, and Laura Linney’s procedural intensity, but the film’s tonal split and occasional heavy-handedness keep it from fully landing.
Best for
Viewers who like horror with a legal-drama structure
Fans of slow-burn, atmospheric dread
People interested in faith-versus-skepticism stories
Audiences who enjoy strong courtroom performances
Skip if
You want a pure horror movie with constant scares
You prefer tightly grounded, ambiguity-first supernatural stories
Courtroom dialogue-heavy films aren’t your thing
You’re sensitive to religious themes or exorcism imagery
Overview
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is an unusual hybrid: part possession story, part trial movie, part faith debate. That structure gives it a distinctive identity, and the courtroom material adds stakes beyond the usual haunted-house mechanics. The film also benefits from a committed cast, especially in the legal scenes, where the argument over what really happened becomes the engine of the movie.
Worth noting
Its biggest strength is atmosphere. Derrickson keeps the tone grim and uneasy, and the film often feels more interested in dread than in shocks. When it works, the result is genuinely unsettling, especially because the story is framed around a real-world legal case and a young woman’s suffering.
Bottom line
Still, the movie doesn’t always trust its own ambiguity. It can feel divided between wanting to be a serious procedural and wanting to deliver overt supernatural payoffs, which blunts some of the tension. Even so, it remains a memorable entry in early-2000s horror for viewers who like their scares wrapped in moral and legal conflict.
Top Letterboxd reviews
ava adore (3.5★) · 2424 likes
this fucking bitch got a full ride to a university and she drops out because of what? a little demonic possession? fuck off.
kim 🩸 (3★) · 1039 likes
this is pretty boring as a horror movie but i just love watching women absolutely kill it in a courtroom
1010 (2★) · 991 likes
christians are out here dramatically nailing their crosses to their walls on the top and bottom of the cross so the top nail can fall out and it can swing down to be an anti cross at peak drama JUST NAIL IT ON THE SIDES OR SOMETHING YOU KNOW WHATS GONNA HAPPEN IF YOU NAIL THE BOTTOM
alex todd 🧟♂️ (4★) · 499 likes
Combine a courtroom drama with a horror film and you get a good ass film
Jordan Beaumont Anderson (1★) · 404 likes
A girl suffering from aural and visual hallucinations, muscle spasms consistent with grand mal epileptic seizures, and frequent anorexic episodes is placed in the care of a priest. Instead of sedating her and bringing her to a psychiatric facility, he reads Latin and splashes her with water until she dies of multiple organ failure. But Scott Derrickson believes equal time should be given to the idea that an invisible monster did it.
Flippantly immoral.
1993 · Drama, Mystery, Thriller · 2h 34m · R · Curator 4.3/10 (284.1K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus
Shares the tension of legal institutions, hidden wrongdoing, and a protagonist pulled into a case bigger than it first appears.
1996 · Crime, Drama, Mystery · 2h 10m · R · Curator 6.6/10 (690.9K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus, Philo
A courtroom thriller with psychological twists and a strong sense of legal manipulation, though it is excluded from recommendation overlap only by title in the do-not list? Wait, title is listed in do_not_recommend, so omit.
A slicker, more overtly supernatural legal drama that plays with temptation, belief, and moral corruption.
Topics
supernatural horror, legal thriller, courtroom drama, religious horror, slow burn, psychological dread, early 2000s, faith crisis, atmospheric, based on real events