The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

While Satan is nothing if not a control freak (he's in the details, after all), he still likes to cut loose and have a good time. But there are too many lines like ''This case sounds like a quagmire. If I'm smart I'll leave it alone'' in The Exorcism of Emily Rose to do justice to the process of casting Old Horny out. Jennifer Carpenter contorts her way through a spine-tingling performance as the afflicted naïf, the sets are richly tricked-out, and the demonic visits are chilling. But for a smart film to become great, it's got to have, dare I say, soul.

EXTRAS In the ''Casting the Movie'' featurette, director/co-writer Scott Derrickson claims that Carpenter's chameleonic audition ''altered my entire approach to making the movie.'' In his commentary he says he sought the ''slow, dreadful feeling'' of an Ingmar Bergman film and that his obsessing moved cinematographer Tom Stern to quote Clint Eastwood's warning against the ''paralysis of analysis.''

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