Emily Rose: thoughts about the movie

This past weekend I saw The Exorcism of Emily Rose.  I hate horror movies.  I went into this movie thinking it would be a horror movie.  Something like Danzel Washington’s movie Fallen.  In Fallen they take a biblical theme or idea, throw in a little Catholic church and make a darkly entertaining movie that as a film is descent but its theology is way off.  I cannot say the same about The Exorcism of Emily Rose.  I have not seen The Exorcist and remember only brief moments that were shown on Geraldo but this particular movie was unnerving.
     I have not found too much in the movie that seems to be outside of either the experience of the Bible or of the Roman Catholic Church.  I am a Protestant, and grant the movie portrayed the Methodist Lawyer as a callous, egotistical brainiac, for the most part I had a hard time finding items in the story that were inconsistent with the Bible.  And yes, there were a few parts of the story that seemed to be Hollywood, the Theology seemed solid though I would be more than willing to debate this point with anyone simply to see other sides of the argument.
     That being said, what I fear about the movie, is that evil is given a face outside ourselves.  It is a necessary reminder that evil is ugly, destructive and far more powerful than we give it credit.  Christ is eternally more powerful but we as human beings are not.  In stories such as these evil is fantastical and easily recognize but it would be foolish to think evil is always this way.
     There is other evil in this world that at its core is just as ugly and destructive though it lacks the flair of demon possession.  Systemic racism, bitterness toward our neighbors, gossip, debauchery, and gluttony are all evils that are pervasive in American culture and we see them everyday but a movie about such things would have a hard time selling tickets (exception might be Crash, 2005)  There is a darkness that lies within us all that needs the light of Christ to shine upon it so we may ask for our forgiveness.  The little everyday things do matter.  The way we treat one another, the way we love one another and the way build each other up are all there own kinds of exorcism.  But they are exorcisms we are all capable of, though sometimes it requires a priest or a pastor to pull us back onto the right path.