Live Review

The Last Exorcism –

• 1st Sep 2010

Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a disillusioned minister with a nice line in fake exorcisms, has agreed to be filmed by a documentary film crew. After receiving an invite to drive the devil out of Louisiana-based teenager Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell), he takes the team along to a remote farmhouse for what he claims is to be his last fake exorcism, little knowing that what he is about to come across may be too much for him to handle…

Having studiously avoided the “Hostel” franchise (due to extreme squeamishness on my part), it was with some trepidation that I sat down to view the Eli Roth-produced “The Last Exorcism”. Buoyed by the tame 15 certificate, I was expecting old-school, low-budget (the film was made for under $2 million dollars) scares. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed. The film starts well; Cotton is a likeable character, justifying his fake exorcisms as an alternative solution to psychological problems which have been mis-diagnosed by naive believers as possession cases. The farmhouse is suitably spooky and the exorcism film staples are all there: mutilated animals, scary rednecks, spooky drawings made by 16-year-old Nell, an overtly religious father who may or may not be abusing his daughter, etc. Alas, it all goes wrong in the second half when the film degenerates into bad Hammer horror schlock. Clichés abound including pentagrams and 666s scrawled on the walls and some of Nell’s supposedly frightening drawings drew laughter from the audience – in short, it’s all been done, and better, before.

On the plus side, there are some nice touches and scary moments: the first faked exorcism is well done, with humorous side edits showing Cotton revelling in his fraudulent methods and props, including an MP3 player and speaker cued up with hundreds of spooky noises and a smoke-emitting crucifix. Nell takes the camera off for her own gruesome mini-documentary and performs some suitably ghastly contortions (and kudos to actress Bell for doing the backbend for real) and the noises-behind-the-locked-door scenes are suitably unsettling.

Fabian portrays conflicted fraudster Cotton admirably well – despite his job as a religious conman, he’s both charming and charismatic – and as his scepticism is challenged by the increasingly spooky goings on, it seems that we are about to see a man losing control of his beliefs and being forced to confront his deepest fears. However, this transformation is never fully explored. Ashley Bell puts in a good performance as nice-Nell and possessed-Nell, Caleb Landry Jones (who’s next job is playing Banshee in “X Men: First Class”) does sterling work with a small part as Nell’s brother, and Louis Herthum as their father gives a great performance, torn between protecting his innocent daughter and destroying the perceived beast within. With a shotgun, if necessary.

Apart from the obvious, decent exorcism films are pretty thin on the ground. Unfortunately, “The Last Exorcism” is not breaking any new ground in this admittedly small genre. As a “mockumentary” horror film, it has none of the claustrophobic tension of “Paranormal Activity”, as we waited with trepidation for night to fall, and the “Blair Witch”-esqe running-whilst-panting-behind-the-camera feels forced. The gore is minimal (apart from a nasty facial wound and the fairly run-of-the-mill animal mutilations) and indie director Daniel Stamm’s sporadic use of incidental music and cuts mean it’s hard to figure out if this is supposed to be “found footage” (in which case, why the music and editing?) or a finished documentary (in which case, better music and editing!). The big reveal in the closing scene feels rushed, tacked on and derivative, is bereft of scares and unintentionally funny, undoing any of the good which has gone before it.

By far the biggest sin committed by “The Last Exorcism” is that it’s just not very scary