Review of The Last Exorcism (2010) by Kevin K — 15 May 2011

Grade: D+ (67%).

The Last Exorcism had something going for about 75 minutes and then the last 10 minutes happened and I literally said, "What!?". Now I'm going to be clear with my statement, my response was not out of confusion (even though that had to do with it somehow) but out of anger. I was loving the the movie up til the end that is so absurd to be called a "twist". More about the ending later.

The Last Exorcism takes the Blair-Witch style of direction that is becoming more popular each year. The film follows Reverend Cotton Marcus performing one exorcism to show how fake they really are. He brings with him a camera man, and a sound person as "witnesses". He goes to Louisiana where a father believes that his daughter is possessed by a demon. The livestock have been cut open and left for dead, Nell wakes up with blood all over her and has no idea where it came from, and his son wants the Reverend to leave.

After a hilarious fake exorcism, where the film breaks in the middle to show how the bed shook, roars appeared, and smoke came out of the cross, the reverend goes to a motel and plans to leave in the morning. But when Nell appears in the Reverend's motel room in the middle of the night, the movie turns into a suspenseful thrill ride. From this point on, scares come from every direction. Some of them are very clever, and some are not as strong as the others.

So the beginning informs the viewer of what an exorcism is, shows a fake exorcism and most of the laughs come from here. The middle shows most of the scares and reveals that the Reverend is dealing with a possessed or mentally disturbed teenager and a psycho father with a shotgun. The ending is . . . horrible. It was like the screenwriter and the director came together and did a "maybe we can pull this off" idea for the ending because it is obvious that the film makers were clueless on how to finish the film. The ending throws such a curveball that it is confusing to even comprehend. The ending makes no sense with the rest of the film and it shows.

Without the ending I would've gave this film a fantastic score - probably low 90s or high 80s because I was in love with the most of the film. But I can't get by the ending. The ending was absurd, confusing to the plot, and a ridiculous twist. I don't know if this film will have a sequel (personally I don't think it will) but if it does and continues after the ending of this film, I will have to be pushed into the movie theater. For 3/4s of the film, The Last Exorcism succeeds but just be prepared for a whacked out ending.