Factual error: During the credits, as the house is shown, a paper wasp nest is shown hanging from the eaves. Crawling all over it are honeybees, which do not live in paper nests.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Tom Wilkinson, Laura Linney, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter, Shohreh Aghdashloo
Continuity mistake: When the lawyer, Laura, is in her room in two scenes, one of which is when she checks on a letter almost at the end of the film, her hair is lighter than the rest of the movie, where her hair is noticeably darker.
Factual error: During the opening scene when the house is being shown, a nest hangs from the porch ceiling with live bees swarming around it. It is also snowing. The insects are honeybees, but the nest is a hornet nest. Honeybees don't make paper nests. Also, bees, hornets, and wasps are not active during the winter. (00:02:40)
Father Moore: Once you've looked into the darkness, I think you carry it with you for the rest of your life.
Ethan Thomas: I'm looking at your list of published articles, doctor. You've been quite busy, prolific. So, based on your time spent with holy rollers, snake handlers, voodoo priestesses and Indians tripping on peyote buds, based on observing these bizarre individuals, you've concluded that possession is a basic typical human experience?
Dr. Adani: I must say, counselor, that's quite a laundry list of disdain and one that thoroughly mischaracterizes my research.
Karl Gunderson: Are you drunk?
Erin Bruner: Not yet. But I'm working on it.
Question: At the end of the movie, Emily is greeted by the Virgin Mary who gives Emily a choice. She can either ascend to heaven or remain on earth and become a martyr to prove that God and demons are real. Emily chooses to become a martyr and shortly after dies. How is her death supposed to prove that God and demons exist when Ethan came up with so many logical explanations for her demonic attacks? For that matter, how would she be able to tell people that God and demons are real if she isn't even alive?
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Answer: You seem to have missed the point. It boils down to what Emily believed, not anything Ethan manages to explain away. In her written letter the priest reads in court she explains that she believes people would have to believe in God if she showed them the Devil. The logic goes like this: if someone sees or experiences something so horrible that they have to believe the Devil exists, then there has to be a God as well. It's about getting people to embrace faith, which was her ultimate goal. She wasn't concerned with anyone potentially finding evidence to the contrary. She believed that she had to suffer greatly and die in order to achieve the goal, which is the essence of martyrdom. Whether she suffered from mental illness or demonic possession is irrelevant in the end. Emily believed that she did her part to prove God exists when she died and that was all that mattered to her. As for her telling anyone despite her being dead, well, there were witnesses to the attacks and her story was national news. Her story would live on after her death, so in a way she'd be telling anyone that looks into her story.
dewinela