Review of The Last Exorcism (2010) by Jeffrey G — 11 Aug 2012

Another addition to the found-footage, mockumentary style horror film, I really enjoyed the premises of "The Last Exorcism" to begin with. Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) was a child preacher who conducted his first exorcism at the age of 10.

As a husband and the father , he has a crisis of faith when he hears the story of a boy - the same age as his own son - being smothered to death during an exorcism. Rev. Marcus continued to perform exorcisms, but in his own way - and he agrees to allow a documentary film crew to accompany him on one last exorcism to see all the trick of his trade.

Rev. Marcus' approach to exorcisms is similar to own belief: that people who are 'possessed' by demons are really suffering from mental illness or sickness, but that part of their sickness/illness means that they (and those around them) are unwilling (and often unable) to accept modern medical assistance, and by playing into their hyper-religious delusions with a raft of tricks that any magician would recognise Marcus can "exorcise" a demon from the person, enabling them to get the help they actually need.

However, Rev. Marcus appears to have bitten off more than he can chew when he heads to Louisiana to help Nell, the daughter of a isolated farmer who turned to fundamental Christianity after the death of his wife.

After successfully performing the exorcism (and showing us how it was all done), Rev. Marcus heads back to his hotel room - only to have Nell show up, in a trance, vomiting, her body contorting in inhuman ways.

Concerned that there is something deeply wrong with Nell and the family, Rev. Marcus stays in town to get to the bottom of Nell's problems........and that's when the wheels fall off the wagon.

SPOILER ALERT. Not content to the audience with jumps and scares and the chilling realisation that what the human mind is capable of can be more terrifying than anything supernatural or demonic, the film makers go for the supernatural / demonic angle, and completely (and unnecessarily, in my opinion) undermine everything that the film had so painstakingly set up in the previous 60 minutes.

The ending doesn't make the film any scarier, it just delivers clichà (C) after unnecessary clichà (C), and leaves a bad impression on the audience. I would have given this film 3 stars for the premise and for the acting of Patrick Fabian, but the terrible ending ruined it for me.