To top it off, the viewers themselves are given a taste of her inner struggle as the various opinions over the true dilemma of Emily is shown visually to us, displaying both the scenarios as if she were possessed, or simply ill.
Erin grows to believe, throughout the course of the movie, that something truly is amiss. She has trouble sleeping at night, because of the strange occurrences she experiences. She becomes an at-risk character before the trial even begins, with entities seemingly invading her home, playing with her emotions by waking her up at exactly 3:00 A.M., opening a locked front door, and even playing the tape recorder on which Emily's exorcism is recorded.
It seems as though there's no hope at all for the trial, and then she tells Father Moore of the locket she came across. She asks him “What are the chances that I, of all people, would find this locket?” and that it made her feel as though she was on the right path, right where she needed to be at this moment.
It's at this point the change is visible; whereas before, she was simply not sure, Erin now believes that she's doing the right thing. Whether or not the Archdiocese wanted Father Moore to testify, Erin knew that she had to help him no matter what the price.
Before this night, however, she'd run into Dr. Cartwright, who had offered to testify as an eyewitness to the exorcism. He seemed spooked, frightened, and altogether wary about even being involved anymore, and yet came forth to tell us, the audience, as well as Erin, that Emily's condition scared him. He was holding onto the tape recorder, and was also under attack by the forces surrounding the trial.
As for the events throughout the film that only we, the audience see, and the jury only hear, or hear about, there are many. The first time Emily comes into contact with the demons who have supposedly possessed her, the experience can very easily be mislabeled as an “Old Hag” experience. She wakes up, with the smell of something burning. She checks outside, afraid something might be on fire, but instead sees a door slamming open and shut with the storm. However, when she reenters her room, she feels an invisible presence slam the door behind her, and she quickly climbs back into bed.
Then, the pencil holder on her desk rattles, and slowly moves itself off, flying onto the floor. At this point, she feels the invisible presence again, on top of her, pressing down on her chest, holding her arms. The imagery is almost that of being raped, as he the presence attempts repeatedly to pull her nightgown up, in an attempt to invade her.
With a scream, the presence is gone, and she runs wildly, to a pay phone outside. As a continuation of this experience, we find Emily in the hospital, tranquilized slightly, and already on the drug Gambutrol. At this point, another attack incurs, throwing Emily to the floor, and ultimately invading her body.
The reverse of this, however, is given as two doctors testify on the stand. When one of their theories about simple epilepsy, with visual cues for our minds, fails with the efforts of Erin, a second doctor is brought in to give an explanation for a disease known as psychotic epileptic disorder. This does, in fact, seem as though it's an appropriate possible explanation for what happened with Emily.
At this point, to those who know the true story of Anneliese Michel, it becomes very obvious that the parallels between the two stories are written intricately into the movie. While Anneliese never suffered from psychotic epileptic disorder, it was implied throughout her trial that her family and the priests induced her psychosis, bringing her into the state of "possessed" on their own.
It was said that these psychotic tendencies were brought on with help by her epilepsy, which is originally the thought that even her family had in regards to her. It was hidden so that she could go to university, and there is no account in regards to the theory given to the courts as to how or why her symptoms progressively worsened while she was away from her family and priests.
This movie, while an attempt to entertain, is also an attempt to educate. For those who take such things with a grain of salt, perhaps it was simply an entertainment feature made by Hollywood.
However, the existentialism behind the film is that of possibilities. What if this could really happen? What if God really exists? Even if God doesn't exist, what if spirits and demonic forces do exist, and we deal with them on a daily basis? The true nature of the film is implied in Dr. Sadir Adani's theory given through the course of the film: that possession is, scientifically, a basic human experience that occurs worldwide, whether or not it is verifiable or malicious in its very nature.
