The Secrets of Emily Blair

I must admit, I had zero expectations from this one. Another exorcism film, sadly (or better yet ridiculously) trying to live up to The Exorcism of Emily Rose (I mean come on, even her name). Many such attempts have failed in the past few years, and all I wanted was to enjoy an exorcism film I haven't yet seen, in hopes that it wouldn't bring the level down too much. I'm happy to say I've been very pleasantly surprised!

The film starts as one might have expected. Nothing remotely innovative, original, or impressive. A cookie cutter story of a kindhearted nurse becoming possessed. I was a little annoyed that they cast an eye-candy-and-nothing-more, and half-expected her to do very poorly. My sincere apologies to Hellen Hollman for that terrible misconception, as nothing could have been farther from the truth. After all the possessed women we've seen on screen, she still managed to be impressive, both as Emily and her "demon-self".

On that matter, while the story felt slightly forced and in no way compelling, the cast made everything right. First of all, seeing Colm Meaney as a priest about to perform his first exorcism in a Horror film? Nothing less than a treat! Not his best performance ever, but not at all below standards (and high ones for that matter). Will Kemp and Adrian Paul were excellent as well as concerned fiancée William and former priest Henry Roizman respectively.

In addition, while I didn't so much like the way they designed the demon itself, displaying the way Emily attempts to fight it is one of the two sole original features in this film (and a great idea). The second being, of course, the ending (which lacks any impressive or special characteristics, as Horror endings often do, but is original to some extent in its own way - you'll realize when you get to it).

All in all, surprisingly good and well-made, and another Horror film poorly judged by IMDb ratings. Honestly, take my word for it and never trust this site's ratings or reviews (present company in no way excluded). If the trailer and plot synopsis (or cover photo, or cast, or crew, or any manner by which you choose what to watch) appeal to you - watch it. If they don't - don't. However, I would certainly give The Secrets of Emily Blair a chance. I'm sure glad I did.

If this is a joke, it gets a solid six. If it's a thriller, it gets zero. If it's a horror, well, there's some nasty stuff, so 2 for horror. I enjoyed it. I really did. I just have no idea what it was supposed to be. If a twelve-year-old watched The Exorcist, Deep Space Nine and Rocky back-to-back, wrote a script in three hours and gave it to their 16- year-old sibling doing a movie studies course and SOMEHOW it got though to some movie exec... well, that's this movie.

You might think 'oh no, not another delve into the exorcism genre' when you read the synopsis to this movie. However, rein your demons, because "The Secrets of Emily Blair" actually turned out to be surprisingly entertaining, despite it being yet another exorcism movie.

And true, while "The Secrets of Emily Blair" wasn't outstanding, it was still a movie that proved to be entertaining and worthwhile to watch, especially if you enjoy horror and the exorcism sub-genre.

The story told in the movie is about a bride-to-be who becomes possessed by a wicked demonic entity, and the groom-to-be seeks assistance from his childhood priest to rid his fiancée of this otherworldly evil.

Right, fairly straight forward and generic, I will agree with you on that. Yes, what you see here is hardly new or innovating to the genre, but director Joseph P. Genier still managed to put together a rather enjoyable movie.

The acting in the movie was so-so, just don't except any grand Shakespearian thespian experience here, because that will leave you sorely disappointed. It was a nice surprise to see Larry Drake in the movie, mind you he has only a very small role. I haven't seen him in ages.

It is important for a horror / thriller movie to have proper special effects and CGI effects in order to be believable and entertaining, and "The Secrets of Emily Blair" does not fail to deliver. The effects were quite good here, and definitely served their purpose quite well. For a movie of this caliber, then I was more than pleased with what I saw on the screen.

However, I had expected more in the scare department from this movie, so that I was a little bit disappointed that there wasn't much of that around. But then again, this is labeled as a thriller, not as a horror movie.

If you enjoy a good supernatural possession and exorcism movie, then you should take the time to sit down and watch "The Secrets of Emily Blair". I did, and I was more than pleasantly surprised with it, and it certainly was an entertaining movie.

"The Secrets of Emily Blair" scores a solid six out of ten stars rating from me.

I am not ever sure why I gave this movie a shot—so many exorcism movies are just retreads of other, better movies. Perhaps it was the length (only about 90 minutes). Perhaps it was a few of the stars, like Colm Meaney, Adrain Paul and Tom Wright—all so very good. Whatever the reason it was a huge waste of time.

I try not to write bad reviews, but this film really was terrible. I kept falling asleep. It was full of action, lots and lots of the possessed star—Ellen Hollman as Emily Blair—acting like a demon and starling and hissing, and lots of gore too. But it was just silly, and despite all the stuff that was going on, I was bored to tears. Even the actors I mentioned above were sub-par, which is sad, because they are such good actors. Maybe it was the directing by Joseph P. Genier? Or was it simply that the script was so bad that no one, not director or stars, could do anything with it? So blasé. So stereotypical. So sensationalistic. Right down to the part where Meaney, as the priest, tells Emily Blair's husband that the church just doesn't do exorcisms anymore.

I wonder how they got Larry Drake—the John Doe of the film in a very small part—to be in this? To do his first film in years? He was actually kind of scary, but he is in and out of the film way too fast for our own good.

Please don't waste your time on this movie. Because it really is a waste of time. How sad.

I love exorcism movies but this one was truly awful. Even the talent of Colm Meaney, one of my favorite actors, is wasted in this film. Pretty good special effects, but that's about it. The demon vocalizations were over the top and sounded like a snarling pit bull. Didn't really care about the characters. Don't waste your time on this one.