This is a half-movie. Or a half-made movie, it's hard to say.
The first half is unbelievable. It's so well-done, it makes hard-edged, battle-worn horror fans flinch. The set-up is the single grandest set-up in horror genre history, I believe. It makes you crawl inside. You fear, and do not see. That is the height of suspense.
But then the let-down. After initial scares (and worthy ones at that) the film dives into a cornucopia of Catholic stand-bys and toys precociously with its audience. I'm all for the power of the unseen, used so well in the beginning of this film, but sooner or later, I ask myself what I paid to see. "Excorcism" ends by lapsing into a failed finale so adolescent, it appears to have been a rejected script from Lifetime television.
How did a film begin so well and fall so fast? My wife's theory is that perhaps the original ending planned for this film was ditched for testing poorly with audiences. Perhaps. But I think the pre-occupation with The Excorcist may be closer to the heart of the problem. "E of Emily" tries hard, so very hard, not to be The Excorcist that it forgets where its at and wanders around being purposefully vague. It never defines its intentions and does not attempt to retain its credibility when things get sentimental.
E for effort.
The first half is unbelievable. It's so well-done, it makes hard-edged, battle-worn horror fans flinch. The set-up is the single grandest set-up in horror genre history, I believe. It makes you crawl inside. You fear, and do not see. That is the height of suspense.
But then the let-down. After initial scares (and worthy ones at that) the film dives into a cornucopia of Catholic stand-bys and toys precociously with its audience. I'm all for the power of the unseen, used so well in the beginning of this film, but sooner or later, I ask myself what I paid to see. "Excorcism" ends by lapsing into a failed finale so adolescent, it appears to have been a rejected script from Lifetime television.
How did a film begin so well and fall so fast? My wife's theory is that perhaps the original ending planned for this film was ditched for testing poorly with audiences. Perhaps. But I think the pre-occupation with The Excorcist may be closer to the heart of the problem. "E of Emily" tries hard, so very hard, not to be The Excorcist that it forgets where its at and wanders around being purposefully vague. It never defines its intentions and does not attempt to retain its credibility when things get sentimental.
E for effort.