Is The Exorcism of Emily Rose Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It's a courtroom drama that cuts to possession flashbacks, and it has jump scares.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
You may find yourself checking the clock around 3 a.m. for a night or two.
DOG
Dog: fine
no dog dies, and the cats are fine too.
Ruling: It is mostly a courtroom drama with possession flashbacks, so it suits people who want more arguing and less gore.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose runs 122 minutes, and a lot of them take place in a courtroom. A priest is on trial after an exorcism on a 19-year-old student went wrong, and the ambitious lawyer defending him wants this case to get her made senior partner.
The premise, briefly
An ambitious lawyer defends a priest charged with negligent homicide after an exorcism on a 19-year-old student went wrong, and the trial replays what happened through flashbacks.
How much do you want to know?
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The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
The jury finds Moore guilty but asks for a sentence of time served, so he goes free. Bruner turns down a partnership, Moore never appeals, and Emily's grave becomes an unofficial shrine.
The scene you're dreading
Bruner's nights at home, where she keeps waking at 3 a.m. smelling smoke. It starts after Moore testifies in the middle of the movie and keeps happening. The trial also replays witness accounts as flashbacks.
The dog
No dog dies in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and the cats in it are fine too.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is mostly people arguing in court, with its scary parts in the flashbacks and the nights Bruner wakes up to a burning smell.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
The archdiocese would like Moore to plead guilty, quietly
Erin Bruner is a lawyer who wants to make senior partner, and she signs on to defend Father Richard Moore, a Catholic diocesan priest facing a negligent homicide charge. The case comes from a failed exorcism on Emily Rose, a 19-year-old student. The archdiocese asks Moore to plead guilty so the case gets less publicity, and he refuses and pleads not guilty. The trial replays witness testimony as flashbacks. Prosecutor Ethan Thomas calls doctors and neurologists to argue that Emily had epilepsy and schizophrenia. Emily had left college after delusions and muscle spasms that arrived at 3 a.m., and she was treated at home with epilepsy and psychosis medication. When she did not improve, Moore was consulted, and he decided she was possessed. With her parents' permission he performed an exorcism, which failed. He believes the medication kept the demon from leaving by dulling her brain.
Moore wants Emily's story told, so he testifies. Bruner soon begins waking up at 3 a.m. with a smell of burning in the room. This is the scare that happens to her, it begins after Moore testifies in the middle of the movie, and it repeats. Moore warns her she may be a target now, and says the same thing happened to him while he prepared the exorcism. Bruner calls an anthropologist, Sadira Adani, to describe beliefs about spiritual possession in different cultures, and Thomas waves it off as nonsense. Cartwright, a doctor who saw the exorcism, gives Bruner a recording of it. Moore submits the tape as evidence, but a car kills Cartwright before he can testify, so nobody can authenticate the tape or challenge the medical explanation. Bruner's boss threatens to fire her if Moore takes the stand again. She goes to see Moore in prison, and he talks her into letting him finish Emily's story anyway.
A letter from Emily that nobody can cross-examine
Moore returns to the witness stand, and Bruner lets him go on despite the threat to her career. He reads a letter Emily wrote before she died. She wrote that the Virgin Mary appeared to her in a field on the morning following the exorcism and offered her the choice of going to Heaven. Emily chose to stay and suffer, believing that if she proved the devil was real, people would come to believe in God. Stigmata later appeared on her hands. Thomas argues that she injured herself, and he does not accept the marks as a sign from God.
The ending, explained
The jury convicts Moore, then surprises everyone by asking Judge Brewster to sentence him to time served. Brewster is surprised at first and agrees, and Moore walks free. Her firm offers Bruner a partnership, and she says no. She and Moore visit Emily's grave, where Moore predicts she will be declared a saint someday. The epilogue says Moore never appealed and withdrew into seclusion, and that Emily's story reached the public anyway. Her grave turned into an unofficial shrine that people travel to see from all over the world.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether The Exorcism of Emily Rose has a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog dies, and the cats are fine too.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Exorcism of Emily Rose scary?
Yes. The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a 5 out of 10, with medium dread that lasts a night or two. It has jump scares, and most of the movie is a trial.
How does The Exorcism of Emily Rose end?
The jury finds Father Moore guilty but asks for time served, so he is released. Bruner turns down a partnership, and Moore tells her at Emily's grave that Emily will one day be declared a saint.
Does the dog die in The Exorcism of Emily Rose?
No dog dies in The Exorcism of Emily Rose. There are several cats in it, and nothing bad happens to them either.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Exorcism of Emily Rose?
Nobody has confirmed whether The Exorcism of Emily Rose has a post-credits scene, so stay through the credits if you want to be sure.
Does The Exorcism of Emily Rose say whether Emily was really possessed?
It presents both sides. The prosecution argues epilepsy and schizophrenia, while Moore says it was demonic possession and that medication got in the way of the exorcism. The jury convicts Moore but asks for time served.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of The Exorcism of Emily Rose is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can find out how the trial in The Exorcism of Emily Rose turns out without waiting up until 3 a.m. Install Scaredy Cat and the internet's horror gets blurred before you see it.
