The Exorcism of Emily Rose is one of those mid-2000s horror movies that managed to give quite the scare to the audience, even with a PG-13 rating. Some may wonder if there ever was a version that saw Jennifer Carpenter’s amazing performance in an R-rated setting. And to our surprise, it seems one particularly graphic scene from the film almost earned itself an R-rating.
Director Scott Derrickson recently got to reminisce over his 2005 movie, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and shared a moment about the film that took place behind the scenes. It seems that a scene featuring Carpenter in the role, while under possession looked too graphic for the rating board to grant the movie a PG-13 rating.
Jennifer Carpenter’s face contortion scene earned The Exorcism of Emily Rose an R-rating from MPAA
Derrickson tweeted about the graphic shot saying, “There was a scene in The Exorcism of Emily Rose where Jennifer Carpenter contorted her own face so disturbingly, the MPAA gave the film an R rating. I appealed in writing and they refused to back down, so I cut it because I wanted a PG-13.” You can find an image from the particular scene that Derrickson mentioned in the embedded tweet below!
It must be noted that Carpenter’s performance in The Exorcism of Emily Rose wasn’t influenced by CGI rather the actress going the long route with her acting chops. In fact, the team even had a puppet made to produce the contortion scene effect but to their surprise, Carpenter herself was able to pull it off. And rather quite quickly according to Derrickson.
The actress did contortion scenes herself and wasn’t CGI or practical effects, reveals Scott Derrickson
The Exorcism of Emily Rose was Derrickson’s first theatrical release and the movie that made him known in the biz world. Released in 2005, it still managed to gross $140 million worldwide with a production budget lower than $20 million. But since then, the director swayed away from the horror genre to explore other big-budget titles like The Day the Earth Stood Still and Doctor Strange.
Derrickson has also made name for his style of horror with the 2012’s Sinister and 2015’s Deliver Us from Evil. Fans will once again get a taste of his gritty dark genre in the upcoming horror title, The Black Phone.
There was a scene in The Exorcism of Emily Rose where Jennifer Carpenter contorted her own face so disturbingly, the MPAA gave the film an R rating. I appealed in writing and they refused to back down, so I cut it because I wanted a PG-13. pic.twitter.com/qPdl4D7Y2T
— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) April 19, 2021
For this dorm room scene in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, we had built a puppet with these body contortions. When Jennifer Carpenter saw the puppet, she said “I think I can do that.” It took her maybe 15-20 minutes, but she did it. That is all her. pic.twitter.com/CjWa6Qwmw1
— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) April 19, 2021
Source: Scott Derrickson
