THE DEVIL YOU DON'T KNOW 'THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE' AIMS TO GET PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT FAITH, NOT PEA SOUP.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Make a movie with a variation of the word ``exorcist'' in the title and you're inviting a host of head-spinning associations that would scare the bejesus out of most first-time directors.

``Pea soup. That's the first thing you think of,'' says Scott Derrickson. ``That and the other things - the language - that came out of little Linda Blair's mouth.''

There's nothing that shocking in Derrickson's ``The Exorcism of Emily Rose,'' which he directed and co-wrote with writing partner Paul Harris Boardman. And that's the point. Though they're ostensibly both horror movies, the two films approach the subject of demonic possession with entirely different objectives in mind. ``Emily Rose'' is, at times, terrifying, but at its heart, it asks some big questions about the existence of demons and angels and, by extension, Satan and God.

And as great a piece of horror as ``The Exorcist'' is, director William Friedkin and writer William Peter Blatty didn't seem overtly concerned with the spiritual implications of their film. The demonic possession of the movie's 12-year-old girl (memorably played by Blair) was as much about exploiting parents' fears and frustrations over their children's burgeoning adolescence as it was about the reality of the spiritual realm. The film was a full-frontal assault on the senses, not necessarily the intellect.

``Emily Rose'' counters the raw escapism of ``The Exorcist'' with a dogged determination to get to the heart of the spiritual matter. A hybrid thriller that mixes courtroom arguments with psychological terror, ``Emily Rose'' follows the case of a priest (Tom Wilkinson) who stands accused of negligence in the death of a young woman he believed to be possessed. As his agnostic lawyer (Laura Linney) argues his case, we see through flashbacks the horrific story of the title character.

Could Emily's symptoms be explained through medical science? Or was there something else at work? The film offers no answers, arguing both sides passionately, methodically.

``I certainly wasn't interested in inserting my own point of view,'' Derrickson says. ``The questions themselves are interesting. There are very intelligent people who come down on both sides of the argument about the existence of angels and demons. For me, it's impossible to live without reckoning - honestly and deeply - with those questions, because how you answer them is going to affect how you live, how you think.''

``Emily Rose'' is based on the true story of a German girl, Anneliese Michel, who, in 1968 at the age of 16, was diagnosed with grand mal epilepsy, characterized by seizures that at first turn the body rigid and then progress to uncontrolled jerking. Michel believed she was possessed by demons and, when medical treatment failed, her family searched for a priest to perform an exorcism.

Two years later, following repeated episodes where Michel beat, bit and hurled abuse at her family members and refused meals because, she said, the demons would not allow it, a bishop assigned two priests to perform an exorcism per church ritual. The priests did their job, but the attacks did not stop and Michel eventually succumbed to years of malnutrition and pneumonia in 1976.

Around the same time, ``The Exorcist'' was released in Germany, fueling an intense fascination with demon possession and the paranormal. Demons were everywhere - you couldn't go into a town or village and not find someone claiming to be possessed. In this frenetic, circuslike atmosphere, prosecutors indicted the two priests who had performed the exorcism on Michel, charging them with negligent homicide.

``I'm on the side of the prosecution,'' says Tom Wilkinson, who plays the accused priest in ``Emily Rose.'' Wilkinson is referring to the movie, not the real case, but it doesn't really matter since the film sticks pretty close to the essential facts of the girl's condition.

``This is a girl that's sadly schizophrenic,'' Wilkinson says. ``She should have been cared for with drugs as opposed to exorcism - but that's just my opinion, and my opinion isn't worth a damn. I'm not religious, and I don't believe it.''

Neither does Linney, though she remains a bit more open to the possibility.

``We're living in a time when everyone is so certain ... to me, it's OK not to have the answers,'' Linney says. ``The argument of the movie is, 'Is it possible?' And I did a lot of reading about these things and I don't know the answer. What do you do with objects moving in rooms? People speaking languages that they don't know? Animals appearing out of nowhere?''

Linney, the linchpin of the cast, was initially reluctant to make the movie, fearful that Derrickson had an agenda that could turn the film into what she calls ``religious propaganda.'' Derrickson convinced her otherwise during a three-hour meeting at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood.

``The last thing I want to be in is a movie that's identified with some kind of religious filmmaking movement,'' Linney says. ``But what intrigued me about Scott and this film is that it's not trying to champion one cause or another. It's saying, 'Look at your beliefs, whether they be scientific, religious or political. How much room have you left for possibility?' ''

``If this movie threatens or challenges you, then there's something else you should look at,'' Linney adds. ``People are so scared to touch on these issues. The good thing about this movie is that it forces you to do that.''

Derrickson, who graduated from the Christian liberal arts college Biola University and, later, from USC with a masters degree in film production, has done his share of thinking on the issues. But he isn't eager to share any of his conclusions, preferring that ``Emily Rose'' unravel with a shifting, ``Rashomon''-style perspective that offers little in the way of black- and-white certainty.

``It's not that I don't have strong opinions about the subject matter,'' Derrickson says. ``It's just that when you're dealing with politics and religious subject matter, you are typically better off posing the proper questions than trying to propose the answers to them. I know when I'm watching a movie and I feel the filmmaker's point of view coming across too distinctly, even if it's one I agree with, I find myself resisting.

``It's the difference between art and propaganda or quality entertainment and propaganda,'' Derrickson adds. ``I'm not interested in convincing. The pulpit in churches is for that purpose. The pulpit for politicians is for that purpose. It doesn't belong in movies.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

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5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) ANGELS & DEMONS

`The Exorcism of Emily Rose' asks the big question: What about God?

(2 -- 4) Counterclockwise from left: Tom Wilkinson as Father Richard Moore, Jennifer Carpenter as Emily and Laura as defense attorney Erin Bruner.

(5) Linda Blair plays a girl possessed by Satan, with Max von Sydow, center, and Jason Miller as the priests who attempt to cast out the demons, in the 1973 film ``The Exorcist.''