The Reverend Cotton Marcus has been an exorcist for years and is ready to expose the process as a sham. Inviting a film crew to follow him on an exorcism they travel to the deep south to help a young girl apparently possessed by a demon. The only problem is that this time trickery and magic might not do the job.
Patrick Fabian (Cotton), Ashley Bell (Nell), Iris Bahr (Iris), Louis Herthum (Louis), Caleb Jones (Caleb), Tony Bentley (Pastor Manley), John Wright Jr. (John), Shanna Forrestall (Shanna), Justin Shafer (Justin).
The Last Exorcism starts off a bit strangely jumping straight into the story without much in the way of character or plot development. Presented as something of a documentary in the beginning the film feels light and antiseptic making us wonder if we have made a bad choice. As the plot starts to unfold the audience is pulled into the story without even realizing it and things get much more interesting. Finally toward the end of the film the action and intrigue explode but leave us with a strange, insufficient ending.
Acting was decent with Fabian doing well with his part as an over the top showman. Bell also did nicely adding just the right amount of creepy feelings to her role. Herthum and Jones also did nicely alternating between menacing and generating audience sympathy. The remainder of the supporting cast was lukewarm.
Camera work was interesting with the shaky documentary handheld camera effect being a bit overdone along with some well done leading movement. Sets and backgrounds were simple but fit the film. Dialogue was decent with some unusual attempts at humor. Sound and soundtrack were both well done.
Overall The Last Exorcism is an interesting film that can't quite decide what it wants to be. The horror aspect is fairly well done but there just isn't enough of it, and it shows up a bit late. The storytelling should have picked up the slack but was a bit shallow to make the film really interesting. Fans of light horror will probably enjoy this the most.
With violence, gore, blood, disturbing images and some sexual references this should be fine for teens and above.
The Last Exorcism is no longer showing in any Littleton Colorado movie theatres.
Released: 2010
Reviewed: 7.16.11
Star rating: 3 out of 5
copyright ©2011 Dave Riedel
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