Anneliese Michel: The Real Story Behind ‘The Exorcism Of Emily Rose’

Horror movies are terrifying to an extent where even some of the mysterious real-life incidents mask off. We live in the shell of fear the movie has embedded in our mind and then move on with our lives but most of these Hollywood horror movies are often associated with real-life incidents, for instance, The Conjuring series, Annabelle, The exorcist, and many others and here is one such chilling movie no a chilling real-life story of a girl who was possessed with not one or two but six demons which squeezed the life out of her.

You might be familiar with the movie ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ which was initially released in 2005 if you are not now you will be.’The Exorcism of Emily Rose’  revolves under the female protagonist of the same name who is possessed by demons and how the reverend who performs her exorcism gets tangled in a legal battle after her death and more but what most people do not know is that the successful horror movie was not fiction but a real-life story. 

We always believe in good and bad, holy and evil and you often hear the name evil with god and the security of god protecting you against demonic spirits will help you sleep at night but what if the faith succumbs and there are not one but six ghosts that do not even submit to the divine power.

In the case of Anneliese Michel, the same had happened. For six years, the girl was possessed and tortured to hell and eventually murdered. The Exorcism of Emily Rose narrates the real-life tragedy of a german girl Anneliese Michel who died in 1976.

Anneliese was born on September 21, 1952, in Leiblifing, Bavaria, West Germany. Born in a Roman Catholic family to Joseph & Anne Michel. Anne has three sisters. She has been pious since childhood from attending church twice a week with her parents to worshipping god every day Anneliese was a religious girl but at the age of 16 her health started deteriorating and her life took turn to the worst. Doctors diagnosed epilepsy and mental disorder, according to the symptoms of the disease she was treated in the hospital. 

While the treatment continued her health did not elevate and she remained fragile from time to time she would speak demonically but doctors stated that it was part of the disorder and ignored it as a mental problem. 

But over time she began to behave strangely, every time someone mentioned the church, god, or she would see the cross hung on the wall. Her family started suspecting demonic possession due to her sudden shift and over time it only grew stronger, With the fear of losing their daughter the church turned to Father to exorcise Anne.

However, permission was not immediately granted as there were already strict rules on exorcism. But Anneliese herself wrote a letter to father asking him she wanted to live and the letter was passed to Bishop Joseph Stangal who approved Priest Arnold Range to practice exorcism but all this was ordered to take place in secret. 

From September 24, 1975, they stopped giving medications to Anneliese Micheland started performing an exorcism and the whole process of exorcism was kept under surveillance through video & audio taping. 

Read More: Axone- The Unheard Tale Of NorthEast

In the video, Anneliese seemed to be calm while the priest is performing exorcism but after it, we can see her laughing in a menacing voice, and in one of the audiotapes we can hear a voice stating there are “six of us” the voice goes on explaining how it is not going to let Anneliese live and also mentioned the names of ghosts as Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Belial, Legion, Nero but the priests failed to scare away the ghosts from her body. 

Two or three days a week at a rate of 4 hours 67 exorcism was performed on Anneliese which ended up killing her ultimately on July 1, 1976, at the age of 23. 

Only then did the world hear about this strange story. The police registered a case that the death was caused by an exorcism performed on the orders of the bishop. Anne’s parents were also arrested for collaborating. The postmortem report came labeling that Anneliese Michel had not eaten for about 10 months, that she had died of malnutrition, that all her bones had been broken, and she weighed no more than 30kg.

To prove their innocence the church played the tapes of Anneliese Michel in demonic possession. They also explained how Anne was drinking her urine, eating bugs off the wall, and much more once the court analyzed all the information they released Anne’s parents and the priests involved and also gave the opportunity for her funeral her ashes were exhumed two years later and buried in another quality coffin. 

There have been many criticisms that Anneliese Michel was exorcised when she was sick and killed without being fed and that Anne went insane due to parental pressure, strict rules, and chastity.  

Exactly 37 years later, on June 6, 2013, the house where Anneliese lived burnt down. The house was unoccupied yet the mystery of the fire remains unsolved. The videos taken during the fire spots spirits in the house but none sure. 

According to statistics, the sixth month, the sixth date, six-plus the digits of 2013,  the number ends up as ‘demon number 666’ which was also advertised by the media at that time. 

While some called it lame others believed the apparition to be of Anneliese Michel

Also Read: Mysterious Yogini Temples