The Last Exorcism Review

The Last Exorcism, written by Huck Botko and Alex Gurland and directed by Daniel Stamm, is a smart, atmospheric horror movie that takes a new twist on the exorcism story.

Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) is a preacher that was bred into the life from birth. But when one of his children becomes seriously ill, his faith is shaken. From that point on he continues to preach, and even perform exorcisms, but as a performance. He doesn't believe in any of it but it provides a way for him to make money to support his family.

This changes when he reads a story in the paper about an autistic boy that was smothered to death during an exorcism. Cotton decides to invite a film crew to make a documentary about him, allowing him to expose exorcism as a fraud so that no more children will be harmed. The crew follows him as he travels to Ethe a farm to perform an exorcism on Nell (Ashley Bell),the teenage daughter of Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum), who believes his daughter has been slaughtering his cattle because she is possessed. Cotton plans to reveal to the film crew all the tricks he plays and how he orchestrates the performance of an exorcism. But strange things begin to happen that Cotton cannot explain.

It would be easy for The Last Exorcism to fall into the traps of typical horror but it doesn't for the most part. Modern horror is about the jump scare or about grossing you out with incredibly graphic gore. What these modern films forget is that these things aren't truly horrifying unless you care about the characters. Too often, modern horror is populated by a bunch of characters that are so unlikeable that you are happy when they are dead. It is refreshing to see The Last Exorcism break away from this nihilism. This film takes the time to build the characters and let you get to know them. This way when the characters are put in these horrible situations the scares resonate more deeply because you care about the characters. You don't want these horrible things to be happening to them. You want them to get away.

This caring is also created by the great performances of Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell. Fabian is really convincing as a man that has excepted the fraud he has realized himself to be, and instead of becoming consumed by that, he embraces it, takes ownership of it, and even finds humor in it. Bell knocks it out of the park. She conveys such innocence as Nell that you can't help but care for her. It is really impressive to watch the physical changes Bell makes in her performances between the timid, shy young girl that sits with her hands folded in her lap to the body-contorting aggressiveness of the possessed.

The film is shot as if it were a documentary, with one character as the cameraman recording the whole thing. This isn't used as a gimmick to try to sell the movie as reality or to set the audience up for constant jump scares. Instead, the filmmaker is using the aesthetic to help create atmosphere and mystery by not revealing exactly what is happening. This idea works quite well. It is terrifying to be locked out of Nell's room and hear her talking to someone and not know who that is.

I was very impressed with the emotional grounding of the story. It really comes down to being a story about the struggles of this family, which was surprising to me and I found it really rewarding. The ending of the film feels cathartic in a way that transcends the horror genre. Or at least it could have.

The film achieves a wonderful moment with the family and what I felt was the ending of the film. But then the film goes on for another ten or fifteen minutes and in that time completes devolves into everything it proved it wasn't. Random characters appear to take control of the story. And the final sequence features a shaky camera running through the forest at night - exactly the kind of gimmick that the film had proven to be above using. The ending isn't bad enough to ruin this film, it is just disappointing.

Overall, The Last Exorcism is a very smart, funny, and emotional film that has really wonderful performances and three dimensional characters. In a time when horror is stagnant with shallow characters, graphic violence, and nihilism, it is refreshing to see a movie like this that cares about its characters and telling a compelling story that will stay with you well after you've seen it.