The Last Exorcism


3/4

Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum

Rated PG-13 for Disturbing Violent Content and Terror, Some Sexual References and Thematic Material

Up until the final scene, “The Last Exorcism” is a compelling faux-documentary that looks at the line between faith and science, and fantasy versus reality.  By refusing to make any of the characters caricatures, it addresses these issues in a very honest and convincing fashion.

Cotton Marcus (Fabian) is a charismatic evangelical preacher who performs exorcisms even though he no longer believes in demonic possession.  He does it to pay the bills, although his motives are not greedy; to him, this is a way to heal people in crisis in a way that speaks to them.  He is travelling with a documentary crew to debunk exorcisms, but when he gets there to rid a young girl named Nell (Bell) of a demon, they get more than they bargained for.

It must be Exorcism Movie Week for me.  The third of exorcism movies I’ve seen this week (after “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and the dull-beyond-words “The Rite”) is easily the most different, but not necessarily the best.

After “The Blair Witch Project,” there were plenty of movies that used the faux-documentary approach: no name actors, visibly hand held cameras, and fake interviews.  Although this format is used primarily in horror movies, it has also been used (to varying degrees of success) in the sci/fi action (“Cloverfield”) and sex comedy (“The Virginity Hit”) genres.

Personally, I like these kinds of flicks.  The performances and dialogue are usually infinitely more natural than any normal Hollywood movie, and it creates a “you are there” approach that rivals even the most involving movies.

Be that as it may, comparing “The Last Exorcism” to something like “The Blair Witch Project” is a bit of a stretch.  Although there are some similarities in the scenes that bookend the film, the bulk of the movie more closely resembles the actual documentary “Catfish.”  Both films examine the line between fantasy and reality in similar ways.  For example, Cotton is definitely religious, but he’s not a nutjob.  Quite frankly, he’s more real than the media-whore evangelists like Pat Buchanan and James Dobson.  He acknowledges that there is a line between being faithful and being a fanatic, and when he sees Nell’s father, Louis (Herthum), cross it, he acts in a perfectly reasonable fashion.

Like in the best films of this ilk, the acting is very good.  Fabian is very convincing as the preacher with a brain.  He’s honest and a good person, and the actor of mainly TV fame makes him easy to sympathize with.  Likewise, Bell (who uses no CGI enhancement for her body contortions) is very sympathetic, and Herthum is chillingly convincing as her uneducated and fanatically religious father.  Bahr is also very good as the sound girl.

There are a few problems however, some are fairly serious.  For one thing, there’s a fairly obvious character inconsistency in the beginning.  But the bulk of the film’s problems are with the ending.  It’s meant to be a chilling twist, but it is handled so ineptly that it falls flat.  With a better set-up, it would have worked, but as it is it rings completely false.

Still, I recommend “The Last Exorcism.”

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