With so much in common from style to technical details, The Last Exorcism is not so much the unwitting sequel as the adoptive brother to The Blair Witch Project. Both rely heavily on the fake documentary scenario. Both have fairly believable acting. Both have stories that suck the viewer right in.
Sadly, neither have a steadicam between them. Because of their documentary setup, we’re led to believe that everything is being filmed by real people with regular handheld video cameras, and because they are such blithering amateurs and have no idea what makes an enjoyable visual experience, these people are always moving while they are shooting. Have you ever tried doing this while just walking casually and slowly down the sidewalk? Now imagine that you’re in a horror movie where everyone is running frantically everywhere. It’s enough eyestrain to give anyone a whale of a headache.
That being said, Exorcism accomplishes a lot more than Paranormal Activity attempted to do last year with the exact same cinematic heritage. Where that one floundered with basic movie tricks, this one goes deeper into psychological terrors and it’s pretty effective for the most part.
A famous and charismatic preacher from Baton Rouge, La. named Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) has lost his faith in the power of exorcisms, so he sets out to expose it as a sham with a bag of tricks up his sleeve. With his documentary film crew in tow, he goes to a small town to meet with Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum) who says that his sweet-voiced and smiley daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed. Marcus plays along even though he earlier admitted he doesn’t believe in actual demons. After exorcising her, he leaves with a wad of bills for payment and the glib satisfaction of knowing that he duped them successfully.
That’s when the real trouble starts, as the girl shows up in the middle of the night out of her mind and much more troubled than before. What follows is a twisted and tortuous descent into the source of the girl’s madness and the backwoods hysteria and superstition that clouds everyone else’s thoughts. It’s uncertain whom we’re meant to believe except we have no sympathy for any of them except maybe the girl. Maybe. We question whether she really has a demon or just needs a good doctor.
I love low budget thrillers with good hooks and respectable story lines. This one kept me enthralled all the way through and I had no idea of which way it was going to take me. It doesn’t really kick into high gear until at least the halfway mark when Bell begins to show off her skills as a contortionist. The denouement seemed like it was going to be a dud but it really wasn’t. I just hope this was really the last Exorcism in this line and not preparation for a disappointing sequel.
