The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a 2005 horror/thriller film directed by Scott Derrickson. The film is based on the non-fictional story of Anneliese Michel, a young Catholic woman from Germany who died in 1976 after unsuccessful attempts to cure her from the alleged state of demonic possession with the use of psychotropic drugs. A church-approved exorcism was performed on her, according to her wish. According to the court, her death was caused by medical neglect of the priest watching over her. The screenplay was written by Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman; in honor of the contributions of Boardman and other collaborators on the film, Derrickson chose to forgo the traditional “film by” credit.
According to Derrickson’s DVD commentary, he chose Boardman as his co-writer because Derrickson sees himself as a believer and Boardman as a skeptic, and believed the pairing would provide the screenplay with two different perspectives, thus providing the film some ambiguity as to whether it supports a religious/ supernatural interpretation of the events depicted, or a more secular/ medical interpretation.
As of October 31, 2008 it had made $144,216,468 worldwide. In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association named The Exorcism of Emily Rose the 86th scariest film ever made. Jennifer Carpenter, whose “demonic” bodily contortions were often achieved without the aid of visual effects, won “Best Frightened Performance” at the MTV Movie Awards in 2006.
