The Exorcisms of Emily Rose & Anneliese Michel
By Bobby Hankinson
October 2005 -
Before the gnarled face and contorted body of Jennifer Carpenter took
the number one spot at the box office in “The Exorcism of Emily
Rose,” Anneliese Michel lived the “true story” on which
the film so proudly proclaims it is based.
At the soul of both cases is a trial conducted to determine why each girl
died and who was accountable.
But – upon comparing the two – is the truth more terrifying
than the fiction?
Michel, a typical German girl with a religious upbringing, enjoyed a normal
life for her first 16 years. Then she was hospitalized and diagnosed with
“Grand Mal” epilepsy after she began having fits in 1968,
often losing control of her body.
The shaking was only the beginning of the “symptoms.” In 1970,
Michel began to describe seeing evil faces that appeared while she was
praying and hearing demonic voices giving her orders. She lost faith in
the doctors and began to turn to her spiritual background for help.
The fictional Rose initially follows a similar path. After leaving her
small American town to fulfill
her dreams of higher education, the devout Rose began to suffer from convulsions
and hallucinations.
After a brief hospitalization failed to improve her condition, she too
turned to her pastor for guidance and healing. In 1973, as Michel’s
condition worsened, her parents sought the help of many pastors. After
several of their requests to perform an exorcism were denied by a Bishop,
the pastors were instructed to have Michel continue medical treatment
and, later, to intensify her spiritual life.
Her behavior only worsened. Besides the usual actions typically associated
with possession ~ screaming, self-mutilation, speaking in tongues, destroying
religious symbols ~ Michel also began sleeping on a stone floor, eating
bugs and drinking her own urine. During this time, she also refused to
eat, claiming the demons would not let her.
Likewise, Rose suffers from the same strange behavior. The film follows
Rose as her actions
become more and more extreme and disturbing. We are introduced to one
clergyman, Father Moore, who seems to be the primary religious presence
presiding over her. Exorcisms began to be performed on Michel in 1975.
The exhausting rites were administered multiple times per week for ten
months. At times, Michel became so wild that she needed to be restrained
by several men or even chained. As her health deteriorated and she grew
weaker, her knees collapsed because of the 600 genuflections she would
perform during the ritual.
After her death in 1976, Michel’s parents and exorcists were charged
with manslaughter
resulting from negligence. The court ruled she died due to starvation,
a fate they claim could have been prevented if she had been force-fed
even a week earlier, and that the exorcisms had only
served to further her psychosis. Her parents and exorcists were sentenced
to six months in prison plus probation.
Some of the film’s most chilling moments recount the exorcism and
detail Rose’s ferocious behavior. Though not all the details, for
example the 600 genuflections, are included, the representation is still
shocking enough to convey the severity of the situation.
The focus of the Rose story, however, is on the trial of Father Moore
and his defense lawyer Erin Bruner (Laura Linney). Scenes jump back and
forth between the courtroom and flashbacks, illustrating both the possibility
of possession and that of psychosis. The film elaborates on Rose’s
relationship with her boyfriend as well as on Bruner’s own self
evaluation and the integrity of the fictitious Father Moore.
It is in these side-stories, though, that the movie drifts from the original
story and deprives the audience of the horror of Michel’s experience,
whatever the cause ultimately was. This young woman literally went through
her own hell on Earth, though we may never know what caused such torment.
Both Michel in the real world and Rose in the celluloid world went on
to be considered by some as martyrs who had waged their own battles against
the devil. But while the story of Emily Rose will be remembered for its
box-office grosses and cinematic accomplishments, the life of Anneliese
Michel will survive in records that document one of the few incidents
of its kind in modern times that was attributed by many ~ in both the
clerical and lay worlds ~ to demonic possession.
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