Religion on trial

My tolerance for horror movies is probably like many of you in that it has increased with age. Not sure if it’s because we believe less in any type of fantasy worlds or if our real-life experiences supercede anything Freddy Krueger could put out there. Though Poltergeist frightened me when I was eight, I now watch it with amusement.

Eventually, I could watch the Nightmare on Elm Streets and even Silence of the Lambs and still go to bed peacefully at night. The one exception was satanic movies because for some reason – for lack of a more accurate phrase – they scared the ever loving shit out of me. I watched The Exorcist earlier this year and was fine with it, so I felt okay with the decision to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose this past Sunday; despite the fact I was by MYSELF in the theatre.

It was definitely an interesting film, for it was based on a true story of a German girl who was reportedly possessed in the 1970s, and because her priest advised her to stop taking her medication, and she eventually died, he went on trial for negligent homicide. The movie changes the girl’s name, moves her to the U.S. and revolves around the court case, as Laura Linney defends the priest played by Tom Wilkinson. You see Emily’s story through flashbacks and narratives.

The primary debate came down to science versus religion. The medical doctors said she was psychotically epileptic, while the priest, Emily and even her family felt she was possessed by demons – six to be exact. Emily eventually died because she refused to eat (she said the demons kept her from doing so) and the bodily harm that the demons caused to her, like throwing her against walls and breaking bones/injuring internal organs. An exorcism was attempted and failed, with one theory being that the epileptic meds anesthetized Emily’s brain to respond to the ritual.

I was telling my pal Brook about the movie and she asked if I believed in the possibility of demonic possession, and I told her that I just didn’t know because there seems to be many things that we can’t rationally explain. I could see how one who feels strongly either way may not like the movie as much as I did, but I found it intriguing to examine both sides of the case because I found both to be plausible.

We all hear about miracles and the good things that strangely happen, so wouldn’t it make sense that there would be evil occurrences as well? To appreciate and value the good, don’t we also have to have the wicked? In other words, if you believe in angels, don't you have to believe in demons?