The Exorcism of Emma Evans - DVD

Film: Actually, 15-year-old Emma Evans (Sophie Vavasseur) is a normal teenager. She argues with her parents Lucy (Jo Anne Stockham) and John (Richard Felix), experiments with alcohol and boys, and likes to hang out with her best friend Rose (Ismaya French). But when she suffers a violent seizure after an argument with her mother, the girl begins a nightmare that is not at all normal. Although the doctors can't find any physical symptoms in Emma, Lucy is convinced that her daughter needs help. And so she sends Emma to a psychologist who uses hypnosis to find out what is wrong with the girl. But during the session, the man dies and Emma, who recorded the whole thing with the help of Rose, is now quite sure: she is possessed by a demon. Her uncle, the priest Christopher (Stephen Bellington) is supposed to help her with an exorcism. But since he's been blamed for the death of another girl who was allegedly possessed, Christopher isn't actually allowed to perform exorcisms. But as signs mount that a demon does indeed reside within Emma, the girl pushes harder for her uncle's help, unaware of what his actual goals are...

The Exorcism of Emma Evans admittedly doesn't reinvent the genre. There are hardly any aspects of the story and its staging that the inclined viewer will not be familiar with from films such as The Last Exorcism, The Rite, The Exorcism of Emily Rose or, of course, the mother of all exorcism films, The Exorcist. It almost seems as if the manual for exorcism movies is strictly followed here and that no cliché, no matter how worn out, may be missing. Of course, this leads to a certain lack of surprises, which the thriller definitely has to suffer from. But director Manuel Carballo manages to cleverly combine the known elements and to include little surprises, so that in the end a thrilling film with some effective goosebumps moments has come out.

The actors perform absolutely solidly. Admittedly, Sophie Vavasseur is trying a little too obviously, especially at the beginning, to deliver a scary performance. And that might seem rather unintentionally funny to some from time to time. But this impression soon disappears and gives way to some intense moments, which also don't really offer anything new and really impressive, but definitely allow the viewer to be captivated by the story.

This is also achieved by the almost documentary-like staging in some moments and the atmospheric color scheme. While even all this is not enough for The Exorcism of Emma Evans to leave a truly lasting impression and become a classic of the genre. Exciting entertainment with a decent goosebump factor is offered to fans of exorcism films, however. And for this there is then also a: worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The partly almost documentary look of the film is a little at the expense of image sharpness, but overall the image with its very reduced color scheme and the atmospherically matched contrasts leaves a good impression. This also applies to the sound, which comes along overall rather subtly mixed, but thanks to some well-used surround effects here and there for a pleasant goosebumps provides. Good!

Extras: As the only extra besides the trailer to the film, there is a making of, which is however quite extensive with just under an hour running time and offers a good insight into the production. To the bilingual (English/Spanish) documentary there are commendably optional German subtitles! Good!

Conclusion: The Exorcism of Emma Evans is a decent horror film that does not reinvent the genre of exorcism thrillers, but with a suspensefully told story and some successful shock moments has become quite a successful genre representative. Technically, the film is atmospherically implemented and as a bonus there is still a Making of worth seeing. All this makes this disc for genre fans quite recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp