Review of The Last Exorcism (2010) by Lasse C — 24 Nov 2013

Here is the rare horror film that works on every level a horror films should. It is a story with real charaters; a misguided, overprotective father who loves his daughter and laments the death of his wife; a secretive brother who doesn't say much, but who takes over every scene with terrifying domination; a pair of reporters who set out to make a film about a dishonest man coming clean; the man himself, who has his own children, and his own problems, and who, through this one final act, will try to cleanse the evil he himself has done and start anew; and finally, a sweet and innocent girl with a snake wrapped around her tongue.

Every performance is spot on, never did I get the sense that these were actors, and that this was not happening. I suppose one of the reasons for the shaky cam genre is the sense of realism one gets from watching unfiltered "truth".

Sometimes it feels strained, but here, as it did in The Blair Witch Project, everything feels genuine. The music is spot on, there is never too much in one place, never too little in another. I think that the score of a film, especially a horror film, has a massive effect on the way said film turns out, and I couldn't imagine this film without a good score.

The special effects are seamless, I never felt I was being tricked. Best of all, the film is able to give us a compelling, if fluid, story that is far from boring, and that keeps us on edge all throughout.

I'm not surprised that a lot of people were disappointed with the ending. If one doesn't pay attention (and the attention span of audiences these days are so low), the film's ending must seem to come from nowhere.

For those of us that were watching closely, we know that the evidence was there from the beginning, and we are proud to have watched such an amazingly satisfying horror film.