The Exorcism of Emily Rose

This wannabe horror show, based on a true story, spends too much time in the courtroom and not enough time scaring our pants off. Laura Linney, who is often reliable, is just terrible as a lawyer assigned to the case of a priest (the normally reliable but just so terrible Tom Wilkinson). It seems the priest performed a failed exorcism on one Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter), who died shortly afterward. There’s a bunch of psychobabble about the legitimacy of exorcisms and the existence of demons, and none of it is remotely interesting. Bruce Campbell, who usually does a great job picking his roles, totally flames out as the opposing lawyer who thinks exorcisms are bullshit. The picture has moments that look fairly decent, but that doesn’t make up for the dreary pacing and lame demon possession scenes.