I Watch 'Em So You Don't Have To

Oh Bloody Hell It's Another Exorcism Movie

Exorcismus

aka The Possession Of Emma Evans (2010) Spanish

Yes this is another Catholic movie about possession and exorcism. No I am not prejudiced, I merely write the films as I watch them and for some reason these have been popping up... So let's set a logical foundation here. Assuming one believes in the God of the Bible, one needs to acknowledge, taking the Bible for truth, that there is also Satan and his demons, that were cast out of heaven for their rebellion. The Bible says that for a little while God will allow them to mess with us, then they all will be removed. The Bible says this. I do not say 'I believe' because what I think, like what any others think is not the same as 'The Bible says'... it loses power and if you don't adhere to the Bible, what's the point? The Priest and others in this movie seem not to know this, and keep saying things like "I believe the Devil is a metaphor..." or "I don't believe the Devil is real..." That being said, seeing movies like this with their lack of logic and dumb rituals not even mentioned in the Bible makes it hard to take anything about them seriously. The Bible says that demons can mess with us. It does NOT say that there are rituals, tools, memorized prayers, etc. that can help or get rid of them. And mere men are no match for any demon and if they think they are, it's only because the demons lie. Period. And that's your theological discussion for today. On with this poor excuse of a movie.

It says it is a Spanish film, yet takes place somewhere in England. We have a lonely, 15 year old girl who is home-schooled and hates being isolated from people, only having her cousins as friends. Her younger brother Mark is also home schooled but does not seem to have her problems (and he's not a teenager yet). So there is constant conflict between her and her parents and she tries to get into trouble whenever possible as a kind of rebellion. In other words, a very typical, normal family. We get some small backstory about her Priest uncle being removed for 'killing' another teenage girl during an exorcism, although he swears if they had let him 'finish' she would have lived. Does this sound familiar? It all does? Hmm... maybe that's because as far as this subject is concerned, it has all been said and done many times before, and a whole lot better. Even if the whole thing is a huge pile of DUH. For Emma's 15th birthday her and her cousins play with a Ouija board. And her troubles start. In fact, absolutely nothing original happens for the first 2/3 of the movie. She starts acting funny, making faces and voices, seeing things, having seizures, etc. just like you've seen in every single movie of this type. It's only when she starts levitating (hmm, mildly interesting) that her parents ask her mom's brother to help her. Her mother doesn't believe in God although she still claims to be Catholic. Uh huh. Her Priest brother reassures Emma "God wouldn't let anything bad happen to you." Uh huh. He doesn't even look at a Bible through the whole movie, so we can't really blame him for not knowing what it says. He also tells the family "God never abandons anyone to evil." Okay do I really have to point out that God is not doing ANYTHING evil to begin with, and as for 'letting' anything happen - go back to the Bible.

So we have this going on interminably until something a little interesting is revealed: The experiment with the Ouija board had been a failure, and when Emma talked to her uncle about it he showed her the 'real' ritual for raising a demon. Now we have something a little interesting. He's also been taping their 'sessions' which she can never remember and when she sneaks a look at the tapes, she realizes that he has set her up. He's smarting from the failure of the other girl, and wants to 'show the world' that he's a real demon slayer or something and redeem himself (or be a hero, whatever). So all the bad stuff happening to her - the bad skin, her cousin slamming his car into a tree, her little brother getting killed, her mother going nuts - it's all the Priest's doing. Okay, now we're cooking. Let's get this finished. The 'demon' completely takes her over and threatens to expose what he's done after which he starts to choke Emma to shut her up. Her father comes in and attacks him so the Priest takes a knife and kills him. Hmmm. This act of evil makes it, I guess since it isn't made clear, possible for the demon to manifest itself totally separate from Emma, although looking just like her with really bad acne and Emo makeup. It tells Emma to avenge herself and kill the Priest for destroying her and her family. So of course, basically being a good girl under all that adolescent rebellion, instead she stabs herself. The end.

No, wait, not. She wakes in the hospital, devastated that she's not dead. But another Priest tells her the demon is gone. Why? She can hold a cross. Aaand we're back to the regular stuff and nonsense. Now Catholics supposedly believe that those who kill themselves are instantly damned, why is the Priest saying she is now free and clear? Never mind. Oh and her uncle? Couldn't take the heat and hung himself rather than face the cops (and the church too I suppose) with what he's done (but suicide is... never mind). So now it's just her and her insane mother. Isn't that a precious, happy ending? No? A waste of time? Yeah, pretty much. But you didn't have to watch it.