The Secrets of Emily Blair

source: The Secrets of Emily Blair

Moviecut—The Secrets of Emily Blair

It's not that good but kept me entertained for the most part. Only 1 sex scene but no real nudity.

Started off vaguely intriguing but then it just gets boring and predictable. The main problem for me was that you just don't care about the charachters. The suspense and horror that they try to put in just falls flat because you just don't care. Effects are pretty good for the budget, that's about the best thing I can say. Did quite like the idea of some kind of demon flashback thing to try and understand the fight between demon and human but it was just weird and didn't really make any sense. Just don't bother it's so dull.

With horror movies you sometimes wonder how many signs the characters need to get it. There has to be some disbelief and of course they can't know from the first moment/erratic behaviour. But if this goes on and on and the main characters make too many decisions that are just plain wrong, more than just your brain shuts off. In this case, we have a demon getting inside a woman early on and we watch her transform. The technical aspect of the whole thins is not half bad. Visually speaking there are some interesting things in there. Make-up is also good for a low budget movie. The jump scares are more than predictable as is the story overall though. Nothing special, on the contrary

I love exorcism movies but this one was truly awful. Even the talent of Colm Meaney, one of my favorite actors, is wasted in this film. Pretty good special effects, but that's about it. The demon vocalizations were over the top and sounded like a snarling pit bull. Didn't really care about the characters. Don't waste your time on this one.

The only cool thing about this movie is that it is the only exorcism movie I have seen that actually illustrates the possessed fighting the demon inside their own soul. That was about the ONLY fresh aspect this movie brought to the table. Other than that the Demon looked like a bad rip off of Groot, the CGI was beyond laughable, the demon voice sounded like a 4 year old who just learned how to use auto tune mixed it down, the writing is terrible and the acting was pretty bad as well. As I type this the ending of the movie is playing in the back ground and I cant even keep myself interested in it. If you want a good laugh, or are writing a thesis on how not to make a horror movie, I highly recommend this pile of trash. I cant understand how any of the reviewers above me found any redeeming qualities in this film.

The first half of the movie wasn't too bad but after that it just spiraled into oblivion and you just wanted the film to finish quickly. I got the impression that they may have run out of budget and hence the choppy dialogues and scenes at the end. Ellen Hollman was the better actor but Will Kemp's acting (her fiancé) was sub par. It's a shame that Ellen Hollman couldn't lift up the whole film with just her acting alone which I thought was good. It was weighed down by the bad scripting and acting from the other cast. I would watch the first half of the movie with some interest but the second half, just let it run it's course while you are having dinner or chatting with friends.

You might think 'oh no, not another delve into the exorcism genre' when you read the synopsis to this movie. However, rein your demons, because "The Secrets of Emily Blair" actually turned out to be surprisingly entertaining, despite it being yet another exorcism movie. And true, while "The Secrets of Emily Blair" wasn't outstanding, it was still a movie that proved to be entertaining and worthwhile to watch, especially if you enjoy horror and the exorcism sub-genre. The story told in the movie is about a bride-to-be who becomes possessed by a wicked demonic entity, and the groom-to-be seeks assistance from his childhood priest to rid his fiancée of this otherworldly evil. Right, fairly straight forward and generic, I will agree with you on that. Yes, what you see here is hardly new or innovating to the genre, but director Joseph P. Genier still managed to put together a rather enjoyable movie. The acting in the movie was so-so, just don't except any grand Shakespearian thespian experience here, because that will leave you sorely disappointed. It was a nice surprise to see Larry Drake in the movie, mind you he has only a very small role. I haven't seen him in ages. It is important for a horror / thriller movie to have proper special effects and CGI effects in order to be believable and entertaining, and "The Secrets of Emily Blair" does not fail to deliver. The effects were quite good here, and definitely served their purpose quite well. For a movie of this caliber, then I was more than pleased with what I saw on the screen. However, I had expected more in the scare department from this movie, so that I was a little bit disappointed that there wasn't much of that around. But then again, this is labeled as a thriller, not as a horror movie. If you enjoy a good supernatural possession and exorcism movie, then you should take the time to sit down and watch "The Secrets of Emily Blair". I did, and I was more than pleasantly surprised with it, and it certainly was an entertaining movie. "The Secrets of Emily Blair" scores a solid six out of ten stars rating from me.

I am not ever sure why I gave this movie a shot—so many exorcism movies are just retreads of other, better movies. Perhaps it was the length (only about 90 minutes). Perhaps it was a few of the stars, like Colm Meaney, Adrain Paul and Tom Wright—all so very good. Whatever the reason it was a huge waste of time. I try not to write bad reviews, but this film really was terrible. I kept falling asleep. It was full of action, lots and lots of the possessed star—Ellen Hollman as Emily Blair—acting like a demon and starling and hissing, and lots of gore too. But it was just silly, and despite all the stuff that was going on, I was bored to tears. Even the actors I mentioned above were sub-par, which is sad, because they are such good actors. Maybe it was the directing by Joseph P. Genier? Or was it simply that the script was so bad that no one, not director or stars, could do anything with it? So blasé. So stereotypical. So sensationalistic. Right down to the part where Meaney, as the priest, tells Emily Blair's husband that the church just doesn't do exorcisms anymore. I wonder how they got Larry Drake—the John Doe of the film in a very small part—to be in this? To do his first film in years? He was actually kind of scary, but he is in and out of the film way too fast for our own good. Please don't waste your time on this movie. Because it really is a waste of time. How sad.