Horror Movies Based On True Stories: The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Anneliese Michel/FacebookAnneliese Michel being restrained by her mother during an exorcism.
The terrifying, but true, story of Anneliese Michel inspired the 2005 film The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Like Emily Rose, Michel was just a teenager when she began to experience mysterious blackouts.
Michel was a devout Catholic who lived in Germany. After she experienced fits of convulsions, trances, and incontinence she was taken to a neurologist and diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy.
She took medicine for her epilepsy but this did not quell her symptoms and her condition began to deteriorate. Michel was convinced that she was possessed by a demon. She claimed to see the devil’s face wherever she went and heard demons whispering in her ears telling her to “rot in hell” and that she was “damned.”
Michel and her parents were desperate for a solution to her affliction so they turned to a priest for help with non-medical treatments. For the next ten months, two priests conducted 67 exorcisms on Michel.
Throughout the exorcisms, the demons inside of Michel would compete for power over her body and would communicate through a low, guttural growl. Michel’s health steadily declined over this period until she eventually died of malnutrition and dehydration in 1976.
Anneliese Michel/FacebookAnneliese continuing to genuflect despite her broken knees.
Michel’s parents and the priests who performed the exorcisms on her were charged with negligent homicide for her death and the case became a national sensation in Germany.
For future horror movies based on true stories, one doesn’t have to look much further than Michel’s past.
