Starring Ashley Bell, Patrick Fabian
Directed by Daniel Stamm
Father Damien Karras: “There isn’t a day in my life when I haven’t felt like a fraud. I mean priests, doctors, I’ve talked to them all. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t felt that.”
Despite taking on scared horror ground (the exorcism of a young girl whose troubles may or not be psychological instead of supernatural) and using the oh-so-tired gimmick of the faux documentary/ perpetually running handheld camera (Blair Witch with a touch of Paranormal Activity), director Daniel Stamm actually delivers a solid horror movie in The Last Exorcism. It’ll keep you interested and most likely scare the bejeezus out of your date. It’s pretty well done – right up until the end, when it drives off a cliff with an ending so bad you’d think Stamm had been fired and the guy who made Jennifer’s Body took over.
In the movie, a two-person documentary film crew follows around the Reverend Cotton Marcus, who inherited pulpit and parish from his pappy, but doesn’t exactly share his faith or enthusiasm for the 
job. But it pays the bills (or maybe not so much, as the movie seems to suggest at one point, although it’s never made clear), so he peppers his sermons with “can I get an Amen?!?” every other sentence, and stages exorcisms that are right out of the Southern Travelling Faith Healer playbook (including a bed shaking apparatus, smoking crucifix and iPod with hundreds of demon noises).
However, the Reverend has lost his taste for casting out demons, especially in light of a child’s recent death (not at his own hands – but he has a young son, so it has him rattled). Now, he’s determined to prove the whole possession thing is bogus, and that any “demons” are psychological manifestations that can be cast out with a few parlor tricks.
It’s a pretty unique (and at times funny) premise, and Patrick Fabian, who plays Marcus, pulls it off so well you’d think he really was the cynical and slick son of a preacher man.
“What a lovely day for an exorcism…”
As you may have guessed, though, Marcus gets a little more than he bargained for when he meets up with teenage Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) in the backwoods of Louisiana. The Sweetzers (Nell, her dad Louis and creepy brother Caleb) are still struggling to get over the recent death of Nell’s mom and, as a result, have all but shut themselves off the world.
But Nell’s condition is far beyond grief, according to her dad… beneath her incredibly sweet demeanor, we’re told, is a zombie-esque monster who has been killing all the animals on the farm. Cotton agrees to perform the exorcism, believing this one to be a slam dunk that will help make his case. But after a “successful” ritual, things go awry…
“Keep away… the sow is mine.”
On the plus side, nothing is done with special effects – the tone is set by slow-building tension… by the things you don’t see… by creepy what’s that-down-the-hall/out-the-window/in-the-dark? camera shots. It’s fortified by how well Stamm balances the supernatural-psychological argument – throughout the movie, I kept flip-flopping as to where the movie was headed.
And oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Ashley Bell (and/or her stunt double) is one hell of a contortionist.
On the minus side, the fake documentary thing is really tired and hardly necessary. I always hate movies like this, where I’m supposed to believe that when someone is in peril, including the cameraman himself, that camera stays rolling all for the sake of capturing the events for posterity.
And while all horror films do require a healthy suspension of disbelief, this movie’s strength is in how badly it strives to be perceived as real. And if that’s the case, someone needs to learn how to dial 911.
“Why you do this to me, Dami?”
And then there’s the ending. I won’t give anything away other than to say it’s a shame how Stamm and his writers took such great pains to establish characters and build anticipation only to deliver such a moronic, bullshit ending (which, by the way, was a complete rip-off of another movie from way back that made no sense here). While it didn’t erase all the good things I saw up to that point…
The Verdict
…it certainly did leave me with a bad taste as I left the theater. It’s worth a look if you’re in the mood for a horror movie and aren’t quite up for the intestine-spilling carnage of Piranha 3-D. But be warned of the ending.
Mike’s verdict: C+ (shoulda been a B/B-).
But don’t just take my word for it…
The Metacritic score was 63 out of 100 (Generally Favorable Reviews).
Rated PG-13 for “disturbing violent content and terror, some sexual references and thematic material.”
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