The night three years ago when I watched Emily Rose, my wife was out of town and I was alone in the house. I figured it would be another toothless horror film, and I rented it mainly because it was a courtroom drama. I’m a little skittish when it comes to (good) horror films, but I felt reasonably safe because in my opinion there hadn’t been a scary horror film made since 1980.

Big mistake! I sat up all night with every light in the house switched on, beset with a feeling of deep terror and completely freaked out, and I did not have an unmarred night of sleep for over six months.

Now, more than three years later, I still occasionally get freaked out in the middle of the night if I wake up around 3 AM (if you watch this film you will understand why,) and even though I would like to watch Emily Rose again for this appreciation piece, to refresh my recollection, quite honestly I am afraid to. Such is the power of this film. It is not like any other horror film in history. It is different, it is unique. It scarred me for life.

What sets Emily Rose apart is the way it approaches possession obliquely and psychologically, instead of literally and visually. It’s all done through the dialog, which somehow, through a remarkable juxtaposition of rational and irrational understandings of possession, has the effect of making the viewer feel they could potentially succumb to possession, regardless of whether they believe in it or not. I’ve never experienced anything remotely like it with any other horror film. There are of course visual sequences – the initial possession and the exorcism – and they’re pretty damn scary in their own right, but the film is structured so that they play more of a supporting function. The real horror lies in the cumulative effect of the dialog, particularly that which involves Tom Wilkinson’s character.

Tom Wilkinson’s performance in this film is absolutely overwhelming, probably one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen. His dialog and monologues lodge in your brain indelibly. Obviously they are written really well, but it’s his performance that pushes them into a whole other realm. It is so human, so real, so burdened, so profoundly scared, so layered with the crippling agony his character has brought upon himself. His delivery is uniformly sublime; one of his lines while testifying under cross-examination stands among my small collection of the best delivered lines I have ever heard. Think about this for a second: how great does a performance have to be for a character’s spoken lines to disturb your sleep for months on end? Images? Sure! Occurrences? Absolutely! But mere spoken lines? Clearly we are in very special, rarefied territory here. Given the superb body of work that Tom Wilkinson has produced over his career, it’s not too surprising that it should be he that delivers this incredible performance.

Even though its dialog is the heart of this film’s horror, I should say a few words about the remarkable sequence when the demons first get Emily. It is exquisitely and terrifyingly done. No film, not even The Shining, has ever so effectively captured people alone and scared in long, empty corridors and empty buildings. I invite you to ponder the disturbing visual quality of the movie still at the top of this review – the visual quality of the film is so strong that even in stills it pulses with energy. And I should add that Jennifer Carpenter’s acting, especially in this part of the film, is extraordinary.

As for the exorcism, there have been many exorcisms in movie history. This is the only one that seemed at all real. It makes the one in The Exorcist look like a fucking piece of comedy, I can assure you. The only reason I do not have more to say about it is that despite its remarkable quality, its impact simply pales when compared to the impact of Wilkinson’s spoken testimony and the initial possession sequence. It’s still pretty remarkable, however.

Wilkinson is not the only standout in the courtroom sequences. One of my favorite character actresses, Shohreh Aghdashloo, plays the anthropologist who gives testimony on alternative understandings of the phenomenon of possession, and through her strong presence and strange energy, her testimony scene contributes a lot to this idea that anyone could potentially become possessed. As for the other actors, Laura Linney (not a favorite of mine) is solid here, and her casting strikes me as pretty inspired, because her flatness creates a certain contrast that keeps attention on Wilkinson and the film’s overall themes. And although I’ve seen Campbell Scott’s performance in this film criticized, I thought he was basically solid and effective as the prosecuting attorney. The rest of the supporting cast is very good.

Yes, bits of the court dialog are flawed or stilted, but minor problems like this just fade when compared to the overall impact of the main actors and story lines. When you get done watching Emily Rose, you won’t be thinking about any of Campbell Scott’s clumsy lines – you’ll be thinking about what time it is when you wake up in the middle of the night, and whether or not you smell burning.

Despite the risks involved in watching this movie, I think everyone should see it, just to experience for yourself a truly unique moment in horror film history.