Review: Exorcismus

           

               Emma Evans is a troubled teenager who begins to have seizures and violent outbursts. While her family is sure she is having a medical problem, Emma thinks the source is more devious in nature. As the episodes begin to worsen and she becomes more dangerous to those around her Emma seeks out her Uncle Christopher, a Catholic priest with a checkered past, for an exorcism. Her parents are against the idea until Emma has an episode in the family kitchen that ends with her levitating six feet above the floor. With this undeniable evidence the family ok’s the exorcism with some reservation. Christopher enters into a race against the clock in his fight with the devil as every second he resides inside Emma is another second that she could harm someone around her.

            The possession sub-genre is decidedly ruled by the film that first brought it to movie audiences, The Exorcist. It must be hard as a filmmaker to make a movie knowing that people will automatically consider their flick to be an “Exorcist knock-off”, which is really unfair. You don’t see this happen with every slasher flick, or even every boy meets girl romance even though they have similarities to another film in the genre. Exorcismus tries it’s damndest to set itself apart from other films in the genre and does a pretty good freaking job of it. Sure, the film is full of the possession staples…speaking in a raspy voice, face makeup, the demon ridiculing the priest with personal insults but it also goes in entirely new directions with its story. For one, there are real consequences to this story, everyone who comes into contact with Emma is at serious risk, people can and do die. Another point of note is that the story follows Emma’s point of view for the most part instead of the priest, or a family member, you get to feel the inner torment of this teenager who is a danger to her loved ones and can do nothing about it. I also enjoyed the way they presented the symptoms of possession, instead of building up slowly to the good stuff they hit you with some frightening situations, i.e., the aforementioned levitation, all throughout the movie instead of just the last 20 minutes. Lastly I have to give credit to the films twist, the conclusion is anything but formulaic. You honestly think that you know everything that will transpire and at just that moment, BOOM, they turn the tables.

            While the film is original in many ways, it also follows the formula to a certain extent. I don’t know that this is really a fault of the film, as there are simply some bullet points you have to hit if you’re telling a possession story. I think they could have done a better job in some areas, most notably the voice of the demon, instead of otherworldly Emma just sounds kind of comical. There also could have been more in terms of the lore behind the film, the story provides a good layout for some original story but they fail to thoroughly flesh it out. In terms of acting I think the cast does a sufficient job to get the story across but it does leave something to be desired. I also had a slight problem with Emma’s character. I think it would have been more interesting for her to have been a normal teenager rather than a secluded emo-chick who hates her parents.

            As a complete movie I would say Exorcismus puts one in the win column. While it’s not something completely original it does take enough steps of its own to be an enjoyable and new experience for fans of demonic possession movies. Far superior to its main competition, most recently in The Rite not to mention a hundred other films like it, Exorcismus comes the closest to knocking The Exorcist off its pedestal that I’ve seen to date. This flick is definitely worth a look and something that I feel confident in recommending to you for a late night scare that may just steal itself a few winks of your sleep.