The Last Exorcism Review

Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) is a good husband, a good father, a good preacher, and a liar. He knowingly performs fake exorcisms for religious fanatics, effectively "curing" them of their supernatural ailments. But he's sick of it. Guilt plagues his soul. So he hires a small camera crew, intending to film a confessionary documentary of his very last exorcism. He draws a letter at random and it's off to the farm of Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum) in rural Louisiana. It seems Sweetzer's teenage daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) has not been feeling well these days.

The Last Exorcism gets so much right it's scary. Unlike most post-Blair Witch first person POV shockers (Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity), The Last Exorcism knows the devil is in the details. Nary is there a moment where we don't understand who is filming and why, despite some quick editing and clever cheats. The faux-documentary style is almost a given in these days of The Office - a show in which the supposed presence of a camera crew is all but totally ignored by its subjects. Not so in The Last Exorcism, where potential interviewees eye the cameraman with distrust and disdain.

In this way and many others, authenticity is the name of the game. Filmed on location with a minimum of flashy special effects, the movie evokes strong feelings of isolation, dread, and most importantly, ambiguity. It turns out Nell isn't the only one who could use some help. The actions of her father and brother (Caleb Landry Jones) grow more suspicious by the minute as Reverend Marcus and his crew grapple with their ever depleting options and subsequent ramifications. All the performances are subtle and effective, but the standout is Ashley Bell as the possibly possessed Nell.

To start, Bell has incredible eyes. They fill the screen, nervously darting from corner to corner, relentlessly in search of salvation. According to producer Eli Roth, her demonic contortions are 100% genuine - no makeup, no CGI, no special effects of any kind. If this is true, she does some damn impressive (and painful looking) work. Now, speaking of painful...

THE ENDING. Without giving anything away, I must impart that The Last Exorcism's conclusion is simplistic, bombastic, obvious, and entirely unworthy of the film preceding it. A wasted opportunity. A let down. A bummer. Was there an original ending left on the cutting/scripting room floor? Based on the quality of the other 4/5 of the film, I'd wager so. Unfortunately, we may have to wait for the DVD to see it. Common wisdom dictates that a film is only as good as its ending, but in the case of The Last Exorcism, I'm going to have to disagree. It may have lost a star in my book, but this is still a movie of merit.

Sum...ology: Hand-held horror. You're doing it right.