Synopsis: A priest is charged with the death of a young woman whom he exorcized. Loosely inspired on the real case of Anneliese Michel who died in Germany in 1976 after a history of medical problems dating back to 1968.
Appraisal: Effective potboiler. Despite the inherent dishonesty which permeates it, there are some interesting philosophical issues which it suscitates. Both it and The Exorcist (1973) bring forth the notion that if demons exist then God must too. What this basically tries to reason is that possessions, by persuading people of the existence of the supernatural, would open the way to belief in other supernatural entities, God included. At first, this seemed logically sound to me, but later I saw its other side, namely, that the existence of demons, and possessions, is actually a sign of chaos and anarchy in the universe, which would be evidence of the absence of a God-like regulating entity. Anyway, it is obvious that what drives people's faiths is ultimately the selfish concern about whether they will somehow defeat death, and the mechanism which is employed is not really important. A more accurate rendition of the real events is said to be given in the film Requiem, which I haven't seen.
Rating: 51
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