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Is it worth $10? Yes
When we first meet Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) in “The Last Exorcism,” he’s a man without faith. Born into a family of preachers, he performed his first exorcism at age 10. Then through a series of tragic events, he loses his belief in God. Soon after, he hears a story about a child who was killed by an exorcist. He then vows to expose exorcism as a fraud.
To do this, he hires a film crew, comprising of two members: Dan (Adam Grimes), the cameraman, and Iris (Iris Bahr), the sound recorder and interviewer. It’s through a series of interviews with Cotton and his family, in pseudo-documentary style, that we learn his history. The crew also follows him around as he picks a family in need of an exorcism and pays them a visit.
That family is the Sweetzers. Dad Louis (Louis Herthum) wrote a letter to Cotton explaining that his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) needs an exorcism. Cotton sees this as the perfect opportunity to “perform” one and show it as a scam. When he arrives he is met by Nell’s brother Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones), who encourages them to turn around and head home.
There wouldn’t be much of a movie if they actually did that. Cotton performs his fake exorcism, but Nell is still troubled. He stays around and tries to convince Louis to seek alternatives. He also tries to recruit the help of local Pastor Manley (Tony Bentley) to speak with Cotton. Try as he might, things go from bad to worse, and “The Last Exorcism” gets more creepy and more chilling.
Ashley Bell is to be commended for helping to make that happen. This role calls for an actress with not only emotional depth and range, but also physical capabilities that allow her to twist and move in unusual ways. Bell is equally believable as Nell, the sweet farm girl, and possessed Nell, who kills animals and lashes out in anger. At 24 years old, she will hopefully choose her next roles wisely. She could have a great career ahead of her.
Indeed, all of the performances are solid. The only distraction was in the sound department. Since this film was made in pseudo-documentary style, it would have been better if they let the audio also play that way. Instead, the soundtrack is junked up with unnecessary mood music and cliché sound cues that do nothing except detract from the terror shown. “The Last Exorcism” is a film that should have trusted its visuals to do the job--no hand holding via sound effects necessary.
The ending is also a bit convoluted. After taking time and care to ratchet up the suspense and tell a clear story, the resolution could have been tighter. At the very least, it could have been less rushed. Still, when it comes to sitting in the dark and getting a few scares, "The Last Exorcism" delivers.
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Gsypydreamer
said:
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... Sorry, disagree. Know the area well, in which the movie takes us, which made me smile, but they could have done without the camera following. It was too distracting. |
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