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This film is about presenting cogent arguments for two very different perspectives on this girl's condition and her story, and I tried to have those articulated very well throughout the film. The goal is, again, not to provide any metaphysical answers for the audience, but to leave them asking themselves what do they believe about this particular girl's case? What do they believe about the larger questions that her case proposes? Do demons exist? Is there a spiritual realm? How does God play into all of that? Is there a devil and therefore is there a God? Questions like that. And I don't think that anyone can watch this movie without asking themselves what they believe.

You've got some really great actors in there—Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, and of course Laura Linney. Was it intimidating to be surrounded by so much talent?

Derrickson: It wasn't intimidating because they were all such generous people. It was a really, really enjoyable experience.

When Laura Linney and I first met, Laura was very hesitant to do a movie with this title, I think. She had read the script and thought the script was really good and really fascinating, but she reeeeally had a lot of questions. We met and talked for maybe three hours, and she really wanted to know very specifically where I was coming from, and what kind of film I wanted to make. And I think, when we were finished, she was sold that this was not going to be an exploitive film but a classy movie, which it really is. There's virtually no gore or blood. It's not a violent film. But Laura just wanted to know that it was going to be intelligent and that it was going to represent various points of view and not just one point of view on the subject matter.

It was a thrill to watch them act, particularly the scenes with Jennifer; some of the possession scenes with Jennifer were just jaw-dropping to observe, to watch an actress do the things she was doing, and go as far as she would go. But then, also, the more intimate scenes between Tom Wilkinson and Laura Linney—that was a real delight for me as a director, and as a writer, to sit there and listen to them say things that I had written, and to watch them act. I had just never been physically in the proximity of that kind of talent, acting-wise. It was quite a thing to behold. I felt really privileged to do it.

Our review of this film will post on September 9.

© Peter T. Chattaway 2005, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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