The Exorcism of Emily Rose

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) is Scott Derrickson's courtroom horror, and you can watch online on iFILM. It draws on a documented case: a young German woman who died in 1976 after a religious rite, and the priest who was then charged over her death.

Here the woman is Emily (Jennifer Carpenter) and the man on trial is Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson). His defense falls to Erin Bruner (Laura Linney), an ambitious attorney with no faith of her own, against a churchgoing prosecutor who would rather pin everything on epilepsy and missed medication. The trial becomes an argument over what actually killed Emily: seizures and psychosis, or something the medical reports have no word for. Derrickson cuts to the rite itself in flashbacks that refuse to settle the question.

Built on the record of the Anneliese Michel case, the film keeps one foot in the courtroom and one in genuine dread. Carpenter's contorted, voice-cracking performance is the picture's raw nerve. Stream The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) online on iFILM.