Cotton Marcus is a man of God who doesn't believe the gospel he preaches. He's grounded in the reality of the world -- and that reality doesn't include room for messages from God or demons from hell. Unfortunately, the Rev. Marcus is about to be reminded that even though he stopped believing in the supernatural, the supernatural never stopped believing in itself.
The Last Exorcism, the horror film produced by Eli Roth that combines the scares of The Exorcist with the found-footage sub-genre, is very nearly a great film.
Director Daniel Stamm and writers Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland have created a film that's tense when it needs to be, charming in other places and features more concentrated entertainment than most other horror films released in the last few years.
As the Rev. Marcus, Patrick Fabian is top-notch. Combining good ol' fashioned Southern charm with the weariness of a man who has lost his faith but retained his mortgage, Marcus is a hero audiences can root for -- even at his most smug and condescending.
The last of a long line of exorcists, Marcus was raised in a deeply devout family. Taking on the role of preacher before he could even grow facial hair, Marcus took to the role like a Jesus fish in holy water. As he grew older and had children, though, he began to fret over his role as an exorcist -- especially as he learned of the increasing number of deaths and heartache other exorcists across the country had left in their wake. As the movie begins, Marcus has assembled a film crew to follow him as he exposes the fraudulent nature of exorcisms. This, of course, means taking the crew along on one last exorcism.
Ashley Bell plays Nell Sweetzer, the young girl who supposedly is possessed by a demon. Nell is an innocent girl who has been raised in near-captivity by her over-protective father. Isolated from the rest of the world, Nell has managed to retain a bright-eyed perspective and sugary-sweet disposition. The character is loveable to the max -- which makes it all the more frightening to see her transform into a limber, animal-butchering monster.
Despite the film's PG-13 rating, there are plenty of scares and creepy scenes to be had. Ashley Bell's haunted performance isn't quite the ghoul-faced, profanity shouting child harpy of William Friedkin's The Exorcist, but The Last Exorcism isn't exactly The Exorcist either.
With its Washington, D.C., setting and privileged-in-peril plot, The Exorcist is very much a horror film of the North. The Last Exorcist, on the other hand, revels in its Southern roots -- seeping itself in the dirty backwoods of the swamp where anything can happen to the unlucky if you mess with the wrong people. The Last Exorcism has more in common with the Stephen Hopkins 2007 film The Reaping -- in plot, if not quality.
Bell's performance is rooted in realism. Besides some possible enhancing when Bell contorts her body in pain during the possession, there are no overt computer-generated special effects. Bell transforms herself from the sweet Christian girl next door into a demon from hell by using nothing more than her body language and a blank-eyed stare.
I liked the film so much I would have considered The Last Exorcism for a best of the year list if it weren't for the film's weak ending. The Last Exorcism is a film that proves just how important a good ending is. When the film peters out in the midst of an explosion of underdeveloped ideas and cool yet underutilized concepts, audiences will walk away feeling a bit unsatisfied.
A weak ending doesn't take away from the film's scares and laughs, though. And neither should it take away from its box office performance. Go and see the film -- pound for pound, its more entertaining than most other horror films you will see this year. That's the Lord's truth.
* For more movie news and reviews, follow Robert Saucedo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/robsaucedo2500.
RSS
Mobile
Daily Emails
Twitter
Facebook
