The Last Exorcism - Review

The Last Exorcism is a fictional documentary about a troubled preacher, a once true believer, he now questions the validity of god and is set to expose the truth behind his successful career as a Preacher/Exorcist. When we first meet him, Rev Cotton Marcus enlightens us by explaining that he is simply a well learned showman, that exorcisms are pure theatre, performing trickery to relieve the confused of their own misguided psychological burdens. Demonstrating a placebo effect, if you will. A camera crew accompanies Marcus to what a appears to be just another exorcism....but appearances prove to be deceptive as things take a very unusual turn for the worse. 

The Last Exorcism is superbly acted, edited and filmed. The events that take place on screen are often  believable with an engaging and charismatic central performance by "Patrick Fabian" as Rev Cotton Marcus, who from just after a few minutes into the movie had me genuinely excited about his plight to uncover the fraudulent nature of preachers. Maybe it is just the atheist in me, but I was involved from the word go. Equally as convincing is the "Linda Blair" of the film, Nell Sweetzer played by "Ashley Bell", a simple, god fearing country gal who's overbearing fundamentalist widowed father "Louis Herthum" home schools Nell with bible teachings. The fresh take on this overdone subject is that the initial exorcism is performed by Marcus, with ease and its obvious to the audience that it was (as he described) all in the mind. Without spoiling the entire movie, the "demons" (real/imagined) that were troubling Nell return very soon.

The movie succeeds in the first 80 mins due to the control and the surprising lack of any unexplainable "supernatural" behavior, however unusual and frightening the manner of "possessed" Nell, it all could possibly be identified and explained with fact. No head twisting, no projectile vomiting, no floating beds. All odd but conceivable. I genuinely was excited by this, thrilled at how daring and unexpected the choice the filmmakers had made (or at least I thought they made).This (near) genre changing movie fell flat upon the proverbial posterior, with the last 4 mins ripping every shred of originality out of the celluloid and displaying a tired and putrid conclusion (which I won't ruin for you). The finale wasn't shocking in the intended way, it was simply lazy and rather cowardly. A bolder move could have produced a bolder movie.

Fresh, engaging and brave....until the last 5 mins ruined it. RATING 2/5

Review by Joseph Carter

joethecornishgeek@hotmail.com