The Exorcism of Emily Rose

The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a movie with two storylines: the slow decline of Emily and the trial of Father Moore because of her death under his care. The movie’s present focuses on the trial but it is not really Father Moore that is under fire, but the clash between faith and science. Doctors want to attribute the phenomena Emily experiences to epilepsy, and when that diagnosis cannot explain everything, they find a doctor that believes epilepsy can cause hallucinations as well. The prosecuting attorneys are quick to discount the defenses medical expert who believes in possession and other spiritual things because they refuse to believe demons exist and can consume the human self.
But Emily believed.

Emily’s strong background in the church led her not to question what happened to her. She knew the attack in the dorm, the possession in the hospital, and the vision of the Virgin Mary to be real. And that was the key – she believed, and as a cognizant adult she made the decision to seek spiritual care instead of medical. This was her right, and Father Moore should never have been prosecuted for following out her wishes. The exorcism failed, but Emily understood why and she accepted her fate.

I know nothing about the truth behind this movie. I haven’t looked into what happened, but it would be interesting to get a look at the reality of the movie. Erin, the defense attorney’s, final speech about facts versus possibilities was moving. Our world is so focused on concrete facts. Spirituality and faith and even imagination take a back seat to the drive of advancing science and technology. I believe that despite finding Father Moore guilty, the jury allowed him to free because they believed he cared from Emily the way she desired.

Paranormal Activity

Warning: She bites!

I have enjoyed Paranormal Activity since its release. The low budget, the lack of script, and the minimal special effects helped this found footage movie stand out from the rest. I enjoyed this movie much more than the progenitor of the genre, The Blair Witch Project. I didn’t find anything about Blair Witch scary. In fact, I seriously questioned ever decision the group made, and maybe it’s just me, but a person standing over you as you sleep for hours is far scarier than a man standing in a corner. Perhaps I lean more to the actions in Paranormal Activity because my daughter does this. I’ll wake up with her standing over me, she’ll mumble something I can’t make out, and then go back to bed. I guess it’s sleep walking, but she doesn’t do it very often, but it is still frightening to wake up too the first few times.

One of the main reasons I enjoyed this movie was despite not having a script, only a series of notes of what the set up for the scene was, the characters of Katie and Micha stayed consistent. Micha made the bad decisions: let’s call out the demon and challenge it, let’s tape it and set out powder so we can see it; all of which gave the creature more power to reach out to Katie. The worst decision was the Ouija board. Seriously? He was doing all the research and nothing in anything he read told him what a horrible decision this was? But, that is most horror movies – a series of bad decisions that go from bad to worse to lethal.

And Micah’s bad decisions continued. He finds Katie sitting on the floor, holding a cross so tightly her hand is bleeding, and although he takes care of her, he lets it go. He doesn’t try to get her out of the house and in fact allows her to stay when her attitude on the whole affair changes completely. From the middle of the movie until the time the possession takes hold, she wants nothing more than to leave. Maybe it wouldn’t have saved her, but perhaps it would have weakened the demon enough for them to hold out for the demonologist. Though, considering the mythos developed in movies 2 and 3, I don’t think this would have saved them.

Grave’s End

When I first starting reading Grave’s End, I thought the story was familiar. When the story described the dirt room and the tiny wedding dress, I realized I’d watched an episode of Paranormal Witness ( Season 2, Episode 2: Brooklyn Haunting) that had followed these events. This left me with a basic understanding of the main events that were supposed to be happening: the paralyzing episodes, phantom smells, and the overall sense of foreboding the family suffered. Hearing it in Elaine’s own words, however, helped the nightmare of what they experienced become more real.

Even after reading the book, however, I’m a bit confused on the whole spiritual vortex, though as a writer, this intrigues me because I have used something similar in my thesis. The tragedy of the mine collapse and the slow deaths of those trapped if horrific enough an accident I can see it ripping a whole in the wall between realities and causing such a vortex to exist. However, I don’t think I understood what impact this had on the Mercados home. The miners had reason to be there, and so too the tiny bride whether she died of natural causes or suicide. The psychic indicated this allowed other spirits to come through, but I don’t think any of this was clarified in a way that made sense to me.

But, there are no concrete facts when it comes to the paranormal. We can gather EVPs and catch things moving on camera without anyone in the room or even get a glimpse of shadowy or misty figures that could be anything. I have to applaud the Elaine and her girls strength for staying in the home as long as they did. If the ghost I shared space with for 11 years had tried to suffocate me, I would not have stayed in the home.

Here is a still from Paranormal Witness of The Tiny Bride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNd-QKjHiv8&index=1&list=PLe-JS9Fl3gLrkMsd3uplxXXalzJ_ie5ho