The Last Exorcism

Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum

Synopsis:

An evangelical minister agrees to have, what he sees, as his Last Exorcism recorded on film in a documentary, to debunk the phenomenon of possession.

Review:

There's an elephant in the room, in this review, and it's called Marketing. How to market a movie like this? It's difficult. I'll get my thoughts out of the way, first. Had the movie been called "Cotton" as originally titled it would have been even more difficult to market.

I think the marketing people got it right overall given the nature of the movie. Through the review I'll explain why there are similarities between this movie and Emily Rose, but The Exorcist couldn't be further from this film, and that's a good thing.

I went into this movie purposefully having not bought into the hype machine. There are plenty of trailers out there, only one of which I had seen. It told me not to look into this movie any more before seeing it as I would ruin the experience. One thing I noticed that initially put me off was the footage of Nell's contortions. Ok, Emily Rose, I thought. I've seen this before. I was wrong. This movie is very different. Emily Rose purported to be a "court room" drama, I guess in the same way that 28 Days Later was described as a "Sci-Fi" movie by its director.

Emily Rose suffered from the dual story of Emily's background and the courtroom scenes, so that any tension generated was soon dissipated. There is no such problem with Last Exorcism, although no scene is quite as creepy as the scene where Emily is found by her boyfriend contorted at the end of his bed staring at him.

What piqued my interest in this movie, initially, was the fact that Eli Roth and Strike were involved in the production. I genuinely believe that Eli Roth has yet to make a classic horror movie that will stand the test of time and not just be remembered for the torture of its characters. Cabin Fever was entertaining but not good enough; it was Roth's debut and the director is still young enough to learn from his experience. Strike gave us the surprise remake hit of Dawn of the Dead. So my hopes were high but I tried not to expect too much. By the time the screening came about I wasn't expecting anything.

"You can see the camera in the mirror" - a female voice uttered in the cinema. Great, I thought, clearly someone hasn't bothered to find out anything about the film. It would be easy for viewers to think of the Blair Witch Project but the only comparison is that there is a cameraman and we see the events from his camera's point of view. Ok, there is another Blair Witch comparison but to mention it would ruin the movie, as would analysing the entire plot in detail.

This isn't some dumb horror flick where the protagonists are there, ready to be dispatched, eliciting a "so what" response from the audience. Each character is well drawn. Taking Cotton as the prime example, he is full of ambiguity which is something that is evident throughout the whole film; what is the real person under the character that we are seeing. By this I don't mean the actor but the true nature of the character that the actor is playing. From the offset, Cotton comes across as an egotist ready to con money out of people. He justifies it by surrounding himself in the notion that he is providing a service and "curing" those that need a placebo, in the form of his exorcisms. As the movie progresses, we see different sides of Cotton; a man prepared to go to elaborate and quite torturous lengths to fake the exorcism and a man doing the best he can for his son. We can get sanctimonious at the methods Cotton employs to get results but ultimately this is not a man out to get rich. Every detail is important in this film. We see early on that the Cotton family do not live a full life of luxury that some Evangelists thrive on.

The movie plays with our preconceptions about Religion. Cotton boasts that his congregation don't care what he's saying even delivering a short recipe for banana bread. This doesn't so much tell us what his congregation is like as to show where Cotton is with regard his "Faith" or lack of. The Sweetzer family display all sorts of religious iconography around the house, as the father clings on to the only things he knows after the death of his wife; God and a good bottle of liquor. Religious groups in the area appear to be normal enough and embracing modern interpretations of doctrine. I say appear to be.

If you're reading this, then chances are that you're interested in the horror side of things. Ashley Bell, who plays Nell transforms easily from sweet, naïve farm girl, brought up in an almost medieval approach to Religion, to a snarling psycho. Like Jennifer Carpenter in Emily Rose, Bell was able to contort herself, making the visuals unsettling and creepy. The movie's International Poster clearly shows this. On the whole this is what the movie is, creepy. The nature of the movie is not to gross out the audience, so the blood letting is fairly tame, or off camera. I would have liked the movie to capitalise more on the spooky nature of Bell's slips into possession. But, again, this would deny the overall nature of the movie. Tension is ratcheted up throughout the movie. The crowd that I watched it with were getting a little restless forty-five minutes in they went very quiet not long after.

All the acting is very convincing. It had to be, otherwise the main thread of the movie would be lost. The use of the camera's POV means that we can't escape anymore than the cameraman can and lures us into wondering what is behind every shadow, and curtain. The elements of humour work very well too and help the audience relate to the characters.

The ending is divisive. Some of you are going to hate it, the rest love it. I loved it. Without spoiling it, I did not anticipate where the story was going to go. This is the beauty of it, that a horror movie watching veteran like myself can be surprised. Like the scares, there is very little in the way of signposts. It just happens. Many will say that it appears rushed, but I feel that we experience it firsthand like the characters. Irritatingly, the final shot was just too derivative of other movies.

Summary:

I really hope this movie does well, it deserves to. But, I think that what it comes across as will possibly put people off who are expecting a similar movie to The Exorcism of Emily Rose. (Some might think it's a sequel!). As stated, as soon as word gets around about the ending it'll either draw in punters or drive them away. It's no [REC] but there are some goose bump moments. The gore doesn't quite deliver, but it's a PG-13/15 rated movie. The ending has divided us as critics and sadly will determine the movie's ultimate fate at the box office. I found the final denouement unsatisfying but I was glad of the journey up until that point.

8 out of 10 (Wayfarer)

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