The Last Exorcism
The Last Exorcism
Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones
Genre: Horror
Director: Daniel Stamm
Rated: PG-13
A charismatic pastor heads to a farm in rural Louisiana with a documentary crew in tow to reveal that exorcism is really a con and that demons and possession don’t exist.
Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) was raised from a young age to become a pastor, learning the craft from his father. Upon reading about a death that occurred during an exorcism he sets out to expose exorcism as nothing more than an elaborate con. Along with a film crew including the producer Iris (Iris Reisen) and a cameraman, Cotton heads to the Sweetzer farm where he meets the father Louis (Louis Sweetzer) his son Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones) and the daughter Louis believes is possessed Nell (Ashley Bell). After Cotton performs the exorcism he soon begins to learn more about the situation Nell is in which leads to more questions, does she have mental problems or is she might actually possessed.
The Last Exorcism is the latest in the pseudo horror documentary genre (Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity) the opening of the movie when we learn about Cotton is more of a comedy than anything else, whether its delivering a banana bread recipe for the camera crew mid sermon or attaching the magnetic fish to the back of his van. Cotton is man who is all show and no substance, not actually believing a word he is saying.
When Cotton comes across the Sweetzers he performs the exorcism on Nell all the while revealing what a showman he really is. It’s only upon return back to his hotel when Nell shows up that Cotton begin to have his doubts and show some real concern. This is when Cotton and the crew decide to try and save Nell for real.
If your expecting any head spinning or something that is even remotely close to the poster, you will be sadly mistaken. Nell is never standing in the corner of the ceiling (she is sitting on a dresser though) Apart from turning her neck at a weird angle or breaking her own finger there isn’t a lot of possession to Nell save for a few blank stares.
The biggest issue with the movie is going to be its ending which some are going to say is very similar to Blair Witch, most will say it felt like it was tacked on and forced with a tone completely different from the rest of the movie. The minority will be the ones that say they like how it is left open ended and left to interpretation. (If this same person brings up the ending to Inception, immediately slap them across the face).
While I am all for utilizing the power of my mind to fill in the blanks and interpret a film there is something fundamentally wrong about a possession movie and never knowing if Nell is in fact possessed. The cult scene at the end is a weak attempt at trying to be clever. I am still confused how a girl not showing who turns out to be pregnant can have a baby even when she isn’t nine months pregnant, Just by laying on some altar. The ending truly feels like it is a cheap cop. A few minutes should have been worked in to add more backstory to the satanic cult to at least provide a plausible reason as to there motive.
Within five minutes there is pentagram on the ceiling and then the townspeople are performing some demon ritual, it felt completely rushed and took what could have been scary and made it silly.
Grade-70
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Tagged with: Arts • Blair Witch Project • Documentary film • Last Exorcism • Louis Sweetzer • Movie • Paranormal Activity • Patrick Fabian
Filed under: Movie Reviews
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Sorry, but if you thought the ending was tacked on you were probably sleeping through the whole thing… If you had actually paid attention you would see that everything was laid out pretty much from the get go, from the townspeople telling about the evil things that go on in that part of town, the brother getting angry and turning against god (and joining the cult), the father pulling his daughter out of Sunday school because “something didn’t seem quite right”… I could go on, but you get the point…
I watched the entire thing and got all the “foreshadowing” however the entire tone of the film changed in 5 minutes and the ending felt rushed. If the father really thought something was going on at sunday school that had to do with a cult, why would he let the cult leader back into his house?