Review of Chronicles of an Exorcism (2008) by Goofster * — 03 Feb 2009

Saw this on Netflix instant watch, just after I watched similar film "The Exorcist Chronicles".

This is decent for a found footage horror film, though the best scare (the cornfields one) becomes the worst scare when the cut uses it fives times instead of just once. I can't rate this film too highly because I hate found footage horror and I'm not into the exorcism subgenre. If you are into both of those horror subgenres, this may be a guilty pleasure gem for you.

Our priests start out and stay pretty damn believable, but the possessed girl totally ruins the movie with poor acting, though she looks the part in medium shots, and the cameramen aren't performing to acting task either. I do like that the film references actual demons but I've no idea if the specifics are correct (I can recognize names and know some basic facts but I'm far from a demonologist). One big (maybe) error is that the possessed's local priest is Methodist and the consulted exorcists are obviously Catholic; I'm not sure this sort of cross-organizational cooperation occurs as I'd think the Catholic church wouldn't send representatives to care for a non-Catholic.

Besides the possessed girl being acted weakly, the possessed afflictions are stereotypical in terms of film language (stigmata, flashing lights, warped voice, creepy contact lenses, urination, Tourette's style cursing, "tempting" a priest). I admit that the creepy contact lens is indeed creepy when at the end one character has one eye creepy and the other normal. But with both in, it quickly becomes too normal to scare with.

This film is marginally better than incredibly similar film The Exorcist Chronicles.