The Exorcism of Emily Rose – Set Visit Report, Pt 3 of 4
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PHB: I think in terms of avoiding pitfalls of the horror genre in doing this I never felt conscious too much of pitfalls specifically of the horror genre, as much as just thinking about the movie we're trying to write and make and then just avoid the pitfalls of, you know, bad storytelling or, you know, easy things that aren't the best way to, to do a scene or do a moment or do a, you know, tell the story, trying to always have the surprises and the, to build tension and just make a good story. Good characters. I mean one of the pitfalls might be-- sure, you know, there are pitfalls, now that I think about it, you know, the sort of “Don't go in the house, you know. Why are you doing that?”
You know, you don't want the talk back to the screen kind of silly -- those can be fun, but that's not what we were doing. So yeah, trying to write characters who were very intelligent people, um, who aren't getting into situations just to con-contrived things so that you could see a scary moment or a cool effect, or whatever. It's not that kind of movie. So, you know, we never-- the subject matter was so different I did never find that I was in a scene almost going that way because that just wasn't the kind of movie it was.
I think we've had that problem more when we've tried to work in other movies and maybe people want you to make that movie and you're trying to subvert it. This time we didn't have to too much.
SWITCHO-CHANGO! NOW WE’RE INTERVIEWING DERRICKSON AND HIS CAST, LAURA LINNEY, TOM WILKINSON, AND CAMPBELL SCOTT:
Q: Were you familiar with the story underlining this? Did you do any research into the true story?
Laura Linney: Um, no, I knew nothing about it. Um, and while it is… There is a, a similar story that it is based on, but it is not a recreation of that story, so there, there is a book that was written about the events and I did read that, um, and then just talked to Scott a lot.
Scott Derrickson: I filled her in.
Q: This question is for Tom Wilkinson. You probably have the most to do with the horror element in the film. Is that a lot to carry on your shoulders?
Tom Wilkinson: Almost everything I ever do in a film I haven't ever done before. Uh, what was interesting, um, for me at least, I mean is kind of relates to your question as well as far as research is concerned, I didn't do any. I mean if I can possibly ever not do any research I won't, (LAUGHTER) because like this-- what was interesting about this for my character is that it's the first time it's happened to him, the first exorcism that he's been involved with, and so I thought it would be quite interesting if you could just do it from the, you know, from the kind of both my character and I were kind of beginners.
So, uh, that's-- that’s-- it was an interesting aspect of it. You allow the events to sort of happen to you in a certain sense rather than controlling them, like an expert might have done. So, um, and I welcomed, welcomed the idea of doing something that I had never done before.
Q: My question is for Scott. I saw THE EXORCIST in the seventies when I was very young and it really scared me, and when I saw it again in the re-release the whole audience was laughing at parts that should be scary. Since this genre has been spoofed so much, how did you approach writing the script and how are you approaching the direction of it?
SD: Um, I mean how was it approached? It, you know, I think… I saw the, the same re-release and, uh, had a different experience. I mean the audience I saw it with liked it quite a bit, so-- and I am a big fan of that picture. But I, I think that whenev-- if you're going to make an exorcism movie of any kind, you know, you certainly have a, a certain burden or hurdle -- burden to carry or hurdle to get over with, with that film. And, and for me -- I think if I understand your question you're asking how did I sort of treat that...
Q: Did you see that as a challenge? Were you excited about it? Or were you like …
SD: The subject matter is-- well the subject matter is profoundly compelling and I think that what everybody knows is that it is a real phenomenon out in the world whether you believe it's-- there's anything spiritual to it or not.
It happens. People get exorcisms. And, and there are lots of stories of lots of cases, um, and that fact alone makes it interesting. And what I wanted to do was approach the subject matter in a, in a bit less exploitive way. You can't out exorcist THE EXORCIST and so you, you sort of have to almost go under it in a sense, you know.
You have to-- you-- I certainly want the film to be scary and I want it to be compelling to watch, but in some ways, um, I think to really frighten a contemporary audience you just can't do that with special effects and sound and, and camera tricks and sort of the manipulative, uh, tricks of the trade that were implemented there that were extraordinary at the time, and now those same sort of-- that same sort of approach has been used in a, in a million different horror films.
And so I think that with this one certainly my intention -- we'll see if, if we pulled it off -- but certainly my intention was to, uh, for the effectiveness of the sort of horror elements and the exorcism itself to be rooted in the reality of these real characters portrayed by great actors and, um, and for the phenomenon that you watch to be very counter-intuitive but not over the top.
And, and for me the result is that it's, it’s effective and it's really frightening and, and, and it really puts your head in a space of thinking about whether or not you believe that this sort of thing can happen. I don't think anyone really watches… anyone watching THE EXORCIST, I don't think people watch it and wonder if that's what it looks like. A lot of people know that that was based on the
So I think what we're trying to do is make a movie that's a little bit more of an exploration of what does it really look like and what, what's the range of possibilities there and what can it mean? And that's, that’s what we're trying to do.
Q: Scott, given your previous credits for doing films like URBAN LEGEND 2 and all these sequels, how do you make the transition?
SD: Write a good script, you know. We just-- we, wrote, we wrote the script and, and developed it with Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson, and, and we developed it outside the studio system and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the script, the script didn't have to go through… it wasn't a concept, a studio concept before it became a screenplay. We, we wrote it pretty much on our own and did it the way we wanted to do it, and then, you know, it just found the right home, found somebody who, you know, it’s with Screen Gems and Lakeshore they just understood it, you know.
There was a lot of interest around the project as soon as it became kind of available to the studios and, and we ended up where we did because we felt like that was a place where they were going to let us make it the way that it was. And, and, you know, it's a great-- it's very satisfying, because I love the genre, you know, and, and this isn't even really a-- purely a horror film.
It's a courtroom movie as well and it's, it’s got very dramatic characters and, and, um, I certainly don't ha-have anything but really positive feelings about the horror genre in general. But I do think that, you know, there are sort of two tiers to it, you know, and, and this one's-- is sort of going to that second tier, which is, which is great. And so far that's the movie we've been shooting.
Q: So the other films you’ve done didn’t quite get there, are you saying?
SD: For what they-- no, I think that for what they were, you know. They, they were, they were both sequels you know, and they were, they were movies that were green-lit before there was ever a script, and whenever that's the case there's just-- and, and they had their, their constraints and their limitations and they were there to serve, you know, a very narrow purpose. And when you're in that kind of situation and in the case of URBAN LEGENDS you know, you-- there were a lot of producers and there was a lot of different input, so it, you know, it just ended up becoming…
I think that project belongs to a lot of different people, you know, and whenever that happens you end up with something that sort of can lose its way a bit. But I think, uh, that didn't happen on this at all, you know, and, and I'm very happy to have worked on those other films. They were, you know, it was a great place to start.
Q: I understand you had to be talked into this role, Laura… Was there any one thing that finally convinced you to do it?
LL: Scott. Talking to Scott. You know, and his, you know, sincerity about wanting to make a good movie, you know, and wanting to be true to the story first. Um, that went a long way.
Continue to part 4….
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Staci Layne Wilson Reporting