L'Exorcisme

I am giving this film 10/10 because I was highly entertained. The background music score is OUTSTANDING! The acting, cinematography, SFX are professionally done.

The plot of the film is based on demonic possession. However this film differs from most exorcism films in the fact that in this film, the person himself performs a satanic rite that allows her body to be possessed.

Plot: Emma Hawkins finds herself doing uncontrollable acts. She often faints and goes into seizures. Her parents are concerned and she is taken to see some specialists. However they find nothing wrong with her.

Later on she has a seizure in front of her family in which she levitates.So Emma calls in the help of her uncle who is a priest to drive out the evil spirits.

Watch this film to see what happens next!

Verdict: this film is in a class of its own. If you enjoyed the Exorcist series of films, than this one is for you. If you decide to buy it, it will make a worthy addition to your DVD collection.

P.S. Doug Bradley(role of Pinhead in Hellraiser series of horror films) makes a cameo at the end of the film!

Wow... At first I thought this movie was brand new (cause of the title where i saw it) Looks like apparently it came out last year....Could have fooled me.. While watching I thought this was a continuation of the exorcist movies but guess not... I absolutely loved this film. Not a big horror buff..however doesn't seem like this movie focuses on the "horror" aspect as much as the do just keeping you on the edge of your seat !! Compared to all other possession films - The films I've seen usually come from the the Preacher's point of view... This firm lets you actually "feel" what the possessed is going through, ie.. her fears, her feeling, her need for help... It all there in this movie.

Emma is a home-schooled teen who one day cuts herself. It's thought that it's because she wants to be in school with her friends. One day she has a seizure and foams out of her mouth. Doctors don't find anything wrong with her. Her secular and modern parents send her to a psychologist who ends up dead. Emma knows that something is wrong with her and visits her uncle who is a priest. He recognizes that she's possessed. Emma is willing to undergo an exorcism. Her parents don't agree until she has another seizure and levitates.

The exorcism will take several session to be performed by the uncle who has been actually kicked out of the church for the death of his previous exorcism patient. Meanwhile, whenever the devil takes over and Emma is with someone else, that other person doesn't end up well. The priest recognizes the he alone won't be able to cast out the devil. He also films the sessions. The parents are still in disbelief until one day the father interrupts a session only to actually see for himself how possessed she is. Things get deadlier for the family and we learn some darker secrets about the priest and Emma.

Exorcismus was produced by Spanish production company Filmax which specializes in high quality, lower budget, good-natured, PG-13 horror movies, where the behavior of the characters is far less believable than the horror. This is their take on the exorcism genre, although the exorcisms aren't all that much at the center of the movie, "Possession" would be a more apt title. It follows the Filmax recipe, it won't offend anyone's sensibilities, is well directed, and has a European/Spanish feel to it.

The first third of the movie is very strong. It has its creepy moments, the hand-held camera-work is great and so is the digital sound. The heavily discolored look of the movie, however, is annoying. It doesn't manage to keep the interest or pace as things become less interesting during the second third for some reason, even though that's when stuff starts happening. The last third improves a bit as we learn why the girl really cut herself at the beginning of the movie. And we learn why the priest is so highly motivated to act. What I liked about it was that everything takes place during the day, even outdoors. This devil isn't scared of the sun or of public places. No lame night scenes, rain, thunder, lights going out and all the clichés that plague every single American horror movie. Exorcismus is enjoyable but it doesn't break any new ground, which is something that this type of movie needs at this point, although Sophie Vavasseur's understated performance is excellent.

Well what can I say. I bought it on a whim after seeing it was linked with REC which is a great film. I wasn't expecting much as it was fairly cheap for a newish release. What I got when I watched it however was a really unexpected surprise.

This film is good. The acting is very believable. The story has been around a while with some notable exceptions and the ending is a lot better than most I have seen in the last 10 years.

This film will be compared to The Exorcist (which I find overrated) but that is par for the course as they are both films about young girls being possessed by the Devil.

On the whole this film is an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

The Exorcist stands out as the definitive film about exorcism with priests battling it out with demons in possession of a young girl's body, and to date no film can surpass that brilliance, and I am of the opinion it will stand the tests of time and various interpretations of the horror sub-genre to knock it off its perch. Attempts will come and go and it's up to filmmakers to find certain spins to their stories so that they don't get drowned out. The Last Exorcism by director Daniel Stamm was quite an effort with its documentary styled narrative with those huge twists that came with it, and the Anthony Hopkins starrer The Rite will hit our shores quite soon.

Then there's Exorcismus right now by Spanish director Manuel Carballo, which tells of a young girl Emma (Sophie Vavasseur, the schoolgirl in Resident Evil: Apocalypse) whose family suspects she needs mental help for her recurring fits and behaviour, until an inexplicable levitation opened their minds to engage the services of their relative Christopher (Stephen Billington), a priest with a tainted record in exorcism no less, to try and save their kid from the clutches of whatever demon is possessing her. That's the basic crux of the story, but what the film is about comes from the manipulation that mankind is capable of, and the folly and greed of man's pride, wanting to prove oneself to peers for that one-upmanship, or to exact some unintentional vengeful hatred arising from petty, hissy fits.

As the saying goes, don't push your luck and tempt the devil, because you'll never know the true impact of such an unwarranted pact, that you'll probably live to regret it. The film opens with the persistently angry teenager Emma, whom we learn through the course of the narrative isn't quite the docile, demure girl disciplined through home-schooling and always under the watchful eyes of mom, but one who does not hesitate in dabbling with mushrooms, and oh, the ouija board. All these spell trouble, and trouble does come knocking. Half of the show went to Sophie Vavasseur's performance as Emma, and she plays her role quite well, continuing the legacy of fellow peers who have stepped into the shoes of characters possessed by demons, in providing a fitting rendition with what some may say is the same old usual bag of tricks with bile spewing and eye rolling.

On the other corner of the ring is Stephen Billington as the priest Christopher, who is as eager to assist his niece as he is to laying down some ground rules which are a bit peculiar even for horror fans, such as performing it outside of holy grounds, not engaging more spiritual help from fellow brothers of the cloth, and not arresting the problem on the spot, spreading the exorcism over a number of days, with vast periods of intervals as well. This raises alarm bells of course, but all will be addressed as the film wears on, leaving room for various dastardly deeds to be performed, as if a lesson to be learnt against the dabbling with the occult.

For an audience looking for cheap scares and thrills, this is not that film unfortunately, even though it is steeped in the horror sub-genre of possessions. You don't get to see much since the details of the exorcisms are kept under wraps by way of the narrative, although you do get glimpses of it in the final act that turn out to be nothing quite new from what's already been done, such as the trash talking, sexual come-hithers, and more levitations, together with the Lord's Prayer, use of holy water and other equipment in a priest's arsenal.

Like The Last Exorcism, this film also relied on the final act to differentiate itself in quite radical terms, so it's pretty much hit and miss, and more of the latter if you're expecting something to make you jump at your seat, or linger in your thoughts way after the end credits roll. I bought into the explanation so it didn't turn out too bad, but be warned, if you're not receptive to little creative sparks adopted by the filmmakers, then perhaps this may be quite frustrating to sit through given a number of plot conveniences you have to buy into, and having more talk than to show for it.