
Reposting this because I'm actually using it this week. Tonight's film is The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Depending on your preferred taxonomy, it is either a courtroom drama with horror elements or a horror film that keeps interrupting itself to ask for legal precedent. Personally, I appreciate the efficiency. The story concerns the death of a young woman after an exorcism, and the subsequent trial of the priest involved. Rather than asking whether demons exist outright, the film chooses the more irritating question: how much evidence should reality require before we're willing to entertain the impossible? It's an interesting collision between medicine and faith, skepticism and conviction. Neither side is portrayed as entirely sufficient, which means everyone gets to be uncomfortable—a rare example of ideological parity. Whether you leave convinced of supernatural forces or simply persuaded that sleep deprivation is catastrophically underrated is largely your own affair. If nothing else, perhaps refrain from checking the clock at precisely 3:00 a.m. tonight. Confirmation bias is a remarkably creative collaborator. Major trigger warnings include: Body horror, self-harm, snakes, bugs, mental health, ableist language, and of course, jump scares.


