Movie Review: The Last Exorcism
By Matthew Huntley
September 6, 2010
The Last Exorcism starts off with an intriguing concept but steadily descends into horror mediocrity. My theory is screenwriters Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland, along with director Daniel Stamm, initially wanted to take the movie in a different direction than where it finally ends up. But their vision probably wasn’t commercial enough, so the studio machine kicked in and started adding special effects, gimmicks, loud shrieks, sudden crescendos, etc. to make it more marketable. It’s a shame, too, because the movie had the potential to stand out. Instead, it settles on just fitting in.
It’s perhaps inevitable the very nature of the movie is derivative of other “exorcism” pictures, including the one-of-a-kind The Exorcist (1973) and the more recent The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005). Once again, a teenage girl is suspected of being possessed by a demon and her single parent beseeches a reverend to save her soul. What’s interesting about the reverend character, Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), is he’s a non-believer in demons himself. In fact, he’s less a reverend and more a self-proclaimed exhibitionist; he performs sermons instead of truly giving them. Marcus says he has faith in God but he also admits he has a career. His exorcisms are all an act but he figures if his actions make people feel better by letting them think he’s a rid a demon from their soul, that’s good enough for him.
Besides its premise, the style of the movie is also derivative, most notably of The Blair Witch Project. It’s shot and presented as a “found footage” documentary, although there are obvious holes in its execution. Marcus and his video crew drive from Baton Rouge to a deeper, more remote area of Louisiana. He’s answering the letter of Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum), a widower-father who claims his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed by an unearthly entity. Louis shows the reverend evidence that Nell has woken up in the middle of the night and killed the family’s livestock, although Nell says she doesn’t remember anything.
To Marcus, this all seems like a routine job - mentally afflicted family needs reassurance of faith. He goes through the usual motions and rigs Nell’s room with props and special effects to make the family believe he’s extricated a demon from her body and trapped it inside his crucifix. Nell’s older brother, Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones), knows the reverend is a fraud, but he doesn’t say anything to his father or sister. After Marcus and his crew leave, Nell shows up unexpectedly to his motel room, confused and disoriented. How’d she know where to find him? Only then does Marcus suspect the girl’s possession may be more than functional.
Up to this point, The Last Exorcism had a firm hold on me. Despite its familiar premise, I was with it and curious to know where it was going. But my interest started to dwindle as the movie began throwing all the usual horror conventions and exorcism effects at me - the low, brooding music; the silhouette shot of Nell standing against a window; blood stains on a white nightgown; green vomit; a contortioned body; broken bones, etc. If the movie is supposed to be found footage, how do you explain the music on the soundtrack anyway (the movie would have been more effective without it)?
Still, even though the movie eventually loses its edge, it is still effective enough to recommend, if only marginally. For the time it does keep us in its grasp, it’s genuinely creepy and I did like the mystery surrounding its destination. To its credit, the ending is courageous enough to leave use with unanswered questions. And even though the last shot is ripped right out of Blair Witch, it does generate some goose bumps, which is more a testament to the latter film’s indelibility than the newer one’s. If The Last Exorcism had stayed its initial course and followed through as an original take on a familiar premise, it too might have been unforgettable.
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