Review of The Last Exorcism (2010) by Theresa L — 20 Dec 2011

The Last Exorcism is a decent film and quite competantly one as well, just don't expect it to scare the shit out of you. The story is quite good and I enjoyed it more than I thought that I would, but the pacing is definately slower than one would expect from a film like this.

The writing is also not bad, but it doesn't impress either. The cast delivers good performances and makes their characters quite believable. The standout for me was Amy Bell as Nell Sweetzer, managing to go from sweet innocence to psychotic mania at the drop of a hat.

I was a bit suprised that the film's shooting style wasn't put to better use to pull off some more effective scares. As a matter of fact, the film feels more like a docu-drama with thriller elements than a horror film.

My other issue with the film is the ending. I realize that there isn't a lot of options for how to end a film given the manner in which it was shot, but this just seemed so out of tone for the film that preceded it that it felt almost riduculous.

In all, a decent, but flawed film that is light on scares and takes a hard left turn in the last five minutes.