There have been plenty ofscary movies featuring exorcisms. The idea of being a prisoner of your own body, not being able to control what you do and what is done with you, it’s one of the reasons why this element became so famous in horror stories. WhileThe Exorcistdidn’t show the first exorcism on the screen, it did make the trope extremely popular.
Many exorcism movies come out every year. Even if the central point of their narrative is not the exorcism per se, they are featured in them. One of the most chilling and intriguing movies about a real case isThe Exorcism of Emily Rose. Diving into the dichotomies of what has scientific reasoning and what could be religious is a court case drama about a dead girl, Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter), who suffered a lot before passing.
Here are all the scariest moments from the movie, ranked.
10The Tape Plays
Erin (Laura Linney) begins to experience weird things as she takes on the case to defend Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson), and most of them happen during the night after 3:00 AM. After receiving the tape recorder in which Father Moore used to tape the exorcism, she puts it in her living room.
She wakes up hours later, hearing weird sounds and voices coming from somewhere in her apartment. That’s when she finds the tape recorder playing the tape on its own.
9The Night at the Hospital
Emily spends a traumatic night at the hospital. There, she looks out the window into the night sky and sees a monstrous face looking back at her in the clouds. She also has physical attacks as she lies on the floor screaming in pain. It’s a scary scene that dictates the rest of the story: as everything begins to go downhill after it.
8On the Floor
Jason (Joshua Close), Emily’s boyfriend, stayed with her until the very end. He tried to help her however he could. One night, he laid down with her in bed, holding her until they both fell asleep.
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He wakes up, and she’s not there anymore. Scared, he begins to get up while searching for her. That’s when he finds her contorted on the floor with black eyes. She looks at him and screams.
7The Car Accident
In the final step of the case, Erin has a car up her sleeve: Dr. Cartwright (Duncan Fraser), a medical physician, will testify to what happened and that Father Moore wasn’t negligent with the girl. However, he doesn’t show up to take the stand.
Erin finds him near the parking lot of the court. There he says he can’t do it, and he praises Father Moore for being so brave against the dark forces. That’s when a car hits him, and he dies. What this meansfor the trial, and the impact this case has on other people, is terrifying — even if it’s not the usual jump scare.
6First Encounter with the Demon
Emily’s first encounter with the demon, or her first episode of hallucinations, sets the tone for the rest of the movie — and the other characters’ experiences. She wakes up smelling something burning, goes to the corridor, and finds a door smashing due to the wind.
She goes back to her room, and her pens move on their own. Then, her covers are pulled down, and an invisible entity climbs on top of her. It’s a slow burn filled with haunting moments.
5The Virgin Mary Calls Emily
Emily’s exorcism went wrong, and regardless of the reason why, she was in bad shape after it happened. In a letter to Father Moore, she tells him more about what happened the next morning when she heard a voice calling her.
Her physically bruised body stays on the floor, and Emily’s soul walks towards the voice. It was the Virgin Mary asking if she would prefer to end her suffering or stay and help teach people through her struggle about demons and evil forces. Emily chooses to stay.
4The Church Scene
Emily begins to see people’s faces become distortedas if they were demonic. She leaves her class and walks alone at night in the pouring rain, trying to escape them: but it happens everywhere she goes.
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Emily enters a small church, trying to find comfort and safety in a place she is familiar with, but the faces there also turn demonic. Her boyfriend follows her inside and finds her bending her body backward with black eyes. Not only is her physicality scary, but the idea that there is no safe space is terrifying.
Erin begins to experience things she can’t explain after taking on the case and becoming personally involved with Emily’s story, as well as with Padre Richard. The lawyer starts to wake up during the night, at exactly 3:00 AM. Her watch stopped working at the same time.
One night, she smells something burning and goes to investigate. She finds her front door opened. It’s a creepy moment that mimics exactly what Emily experienced.
2Scratches and Bugs
Emily goes back to her family home after becoming ill. There, they try to help her by calling Father Moore. He arrives there, and Emily is on the floor of her room, eating bugs.
She scratches the walls (something she did before as they are filled with markings). Speaks in tongues and then locks her limbs and stops talking. This scene is haunting and shows how bad her condition has become in a short time.
1The Exorcism
The movie builds up to the moment where the viewer will finally see the exorcism that is the reason why Father Moore is on trial. Up until this point, there were a few scary moments, so the exorcism had to be worse than the build-up to it.
It was the most haunting scene that had a lot to do with how committed Carpenter’s performance as the possessed Emily Rose was. It was innovative and incredibly scary, the climax being when Emily finally says that Lucifer himself is inside her, as well asthe other five demons.
