The Last Exorcism

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2010
Country of origin:	USA / France
Director:	Daniel Stamm
Genre:	Demonic possession
Starring:	Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1320244/
Tagline:	What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Favourite line:	"Demon, cast yourself out."

You know when you are watching a movie, it's ticking along nicely but then, in an idle moment, you decide to astrally project your inner being outside your own construct and your essence floats above your body in the auditorium.
You know, when you can see yourself sitting in the seat, your meta-body aloft, studying your own features, only to find your own face rendered into a portrait of absolute apathy. You know what I'm talking about, right?
Well, I found myself doing precisely that during The Last Exorcism.
I was mildly entertained.
I was mildly intrigued.
I was mildly spooked at times.
But no more than that.

The plot:
A disillusioned evangelical priestly sort allows a film crew to follow him as he performs one more exorcism, to prove to the world the mockery that the ritual actually represents. A letter arrives, marked urgent, so our ex-Man of the Cloth heads down to New Orleans to perform his act of cleansing, only to find.....gasp.....that this is one dispossession that comes with a demonic kick.

It's intriguing stuff.
It really is.
The movie is shot as a documentary, a lens-eye view, if you will and, for the most part, it works. I only say for the most part as, annoyingly, on occasion the PoV shots make little sense, but that's a small complaint.
The real downer is the ending, a pointless ten minute bolt on that bears scant resemblance to the preceding 75 minutes or so, and will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has seen either Rosemary's Baby or the Stones of Blood story from classic era Doctor Who.
Not dreadful, just not terribly impressive either, this is one to file under 'must try harder.'