“I wanted the audience to leave the film with the feeling that they must ask themselves what they believe. Specifically, what do they think about the existence of the spiritual realm?”
“I wanted to portray a man of faith who is skeptical of this sort of phenomenon. It adds to the complexity, so that the audience can't just write him off as a non-religious person. He believes in God, but he also believes wholeheartedly that Father Moore acted negligently and that it led to the death of this young girl.”
“I certainly wasn't interested in inserting my own point of view. The questions themselves are interesting. There are very intelligent people who come down on both sides of the argument about the existence of angels and demons. For me, it's impossible to live without reckoning -- honestly and deeply -- with those questions, because how you answer them is going to affect how you live, how you think.”
“It's the difference between art and propaganda or quality entertainment and propaganda. I'm not interested in convincing. The pulpit in churches is for that purpose. The pulpit for politicians is for that purpose. It doesn't belong in movies.”
“The benefit of being able to flashback during the courtroom scenes to varying perspectives on the possession and exorcism of Emily Rose allows the audience to make up their own mind about what they think may or may not have happened. My intention is to make a film that provokes people to ask themselves what they believe about evil, what they believe about the demonic.”
