Not a horror film.

Rating: 3/10 (27 March 2001)

Like many others on here, I recently saw this on its first UK network showing on channel 4.
I have to say, there's nothing like banning or hyping a film to utterly distort the audience's expectations.
Yes, there are definitely controversial images on screen, such as the girl stabbing herself with the crucifix, but on the whole they seem to rely upon simply combining religious and horrific elements in a fairly simplistic way. There doesn't seem to be any logic behind it except throwing one special effect at the audience after another. The effects aren't always good either. Did audiences ever really find an obviously fake head spinning around anything other than laughable?
The excellent opening scenes in Iraq are no guide at all to the rest of the film. The girl is possessed in her bedroom, her parents and various professionals go in to look at her, she swears and vomits at them and they leave the room. Then a few minutes later a different combination of adults go back in and repeat the process. Even the actual exorcism takes this format of endless repetition supposedly enlivened by the odd touch of levitation, cursing or glowing light.
Ultimately, there doesn't seem to be any kind of driving force behind the events. Instead of the action peaking at any point, we have a dramatic plateau, reached within the first 20 minutes. At least other non-eventful horror films like The Shining and The Omen had a situation steadily getting worse, or a threat to the protagonists slowly getting closer.
If this isn't a horror film, what is it? Some have noted that it was intended as an affirmation of religious belief, that if there was demonic possession, then there must be angelic salvation, but little more than angst-filled lip service is paid to any of the complexities behind faith and spirituality in this film. The hamfisted dismissal of medical science by an anxious mother in the face of moving drawers and levitating beds is not anything like a reason to become more interested in the higher purposes of life.
Perhaps this could have been a brilliant psychological thriller, if they hadn't kicked all scientific explanation in the teeth through obviously supernatural special effects early on. Some disturbed people *do* exhibit symptoms of possession and multiple personalities. Hollywood always opting for the supernatural explanation over the more frightening possibility that the girl's mind (or brain) had created the demon within her doesn't help society's understanding of mental health.
Moody, well shot and well acted, but plotwise of little more value than an episode of the X-Files. Sorry.