Perry Mason meets The Exorcist in director Scott Derrickson's unusually intelligent genre piece. Both thoughtful and thought-provoking, this classy chiller - loosely based on the 1970s case of German teenager Anneliese Michel - stars Laura Linney as an ambitious, high-flying defence lawyer who takes on the case of a Catholic priest (Tom Wilkinson) charged with negligent homicide. Was Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) demonically possessed when she died or was it just a psychotic-epileptic disorder as church-going prosecutor Campbell Scott claims? This believable spine-tingler is a compelling courtroom drama first, a gripping science fact versus religious faith debate second and an intensely effective horror movie last (the genuinely powerful exorcism is a transfixing frenzy of hand-held camerawork and old-school special effects). Expect to engage in heated debates about possession as a valid phenomenon in western society after seeing this serious and seriously creepy movie.

When a younger girl called Emily Rose dies, everyone puts blame on the exorcism which was performed on her by Father Moore prior to her death. The priest is arrested on suspicion of murder. The trial begins with lawyer Erin Bruner representing Moore, but it is not going to be easy, as no one wants to believe what Father Moore says is true.