A Thomas Bess review of:
Directed By: Daniel Stamm
Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones
Running Time: 87 minutes spent wondering when they’ll break down and just call the freakin’ cops.
Religious horror is a real mixed bag for me, not due to any specific peculiarities of faith or belief, but I tend to be more interested in fear on a smaller scale or at least something that might happen to me out in the big wide world someday. Which is not to say I don’t believe in the potential to be possessed by Old Scratch or any of his minions, because I’d wager it could, BUT the same could be said of being crushed by a falling piano, eaten by a cloned dinosaur, incinerated by a stray chunk of meteor or even buried in a naked lady avalanche. All of these things and more COULD happen, but the odds against them are so low it’s not worth worrying over. Should such a circumstance actually befall me, I’d probably shrug and think “Well, there’s nothing to be done” and hope that I’m reincarnated as someone with better luck. Where was I? Oh yeah, demonic possession–could happen, not real likely. All that said, the topic can make for interesting cinematic fare, especially if the folks involved are trying to put their own spin on the sub-genre and not just out head-spin and pea soup The Exorcist. Thankfully, Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism is an original, interesting entry whose only real problem comes in the last five minutes. But more on that later, how about a little plot crunch first?
The Plot
The Revered Cotton Marcus (Fabian) is a charming, genial fellow who, over the course of his storied career has performed exorcisms for dozens and dozens of folks who claim to have been possessed by demons. He’s very good at his work and seems to enjoy the theatrics of it all, unfortunately he doesn’t believe a word of what he’s saying, either about God or demons for that matter. Deciding that it’s time to put an end to the chicanery, he hires a film crew to help him make a documentary about his “last exorcism”. It’s the Reverend’s intent to show that while he is in fact healing the people in need, the demons he’s ridding them of are strictly of the psychological variety. So he and his crew head out into the wilds of rural Louisiana to aid Louis Sweetzer (Herthum) a fellow who believes his teenage daughter Nell (Bell) has been possessed. Louis’ son Caleb (Landry Jones) on the other hand seems to think dad is up to something nefarious and is none too pleased to see the Reverend reinforcing his father’s delusions. Cotton doesn’t care either way, he just runs through his mojo and all seems well, so he collects his money and takes his leave. Of course there’s still forty-five minutes left in the movie at this point so things are most assuredly not fine and he and his crew are drawn back to the Sweetzer farm for a showdown with an increasingly paranoid Louis and an increasingly violent / bizarre Nell. To provide any more details would delve deep into spoiler territory and this is most assuredly not a movie you should know too much about going in, as most of the fun is derived from trying to figure out just who’s playing who and what, if any, otherworldly presence might be involved.
The Good
What’s good? Casting is a strong point with Patrick Fabian’s turn as Cotton Marcus proving especially engaging. Things could have gone to Hell (no pun intended) very quickly if the Reverend was nothing more than an unrepentant jerk, but while Cotton is admittedly a shyster he’s not without heart and keeps trying to do the right thing, whether it be with divine ritual or more mundane avenues like police intervention or psychiatric counseling. As demon haunted Nell Sweetzer, newcomer Ashley Bell has to walk a fine line between innocent girl and foul mouthed, body twisting temptress at a moment’s notice and she does so admirably, though I was ultimately left hoping she’d been given a bit more to do. The rest of the cast does a fine job with their roles, especially Caleb Landry Jones as Nell’s brother–he comes off as quietly menacing without the viewer ever really knowing quite why and his presence in a few key scenes ramps the tension up noticeably. On the special effects side of the fence, those of you hoping for a lot of grue and other bodily fluids will probably be disappointed, but what carnage we are treated to is quite nice. One particular slashing is shown far more clearly than I would’ve anticipated for a PG-13 rating and the much spoiled scene of Bell bending her spine at an ungodly angle is easily the film’s best visual. For those of you who can get queasy watching something shot on a handheld camera, things are kept pretty steady through most of the run time with only a few bouts of running and jostling breaking out during the last act and even then it’s maybe five minutes worth.
The Not So Good
What’s not good? No question about it, the end of The Last Exorcism is going to divide people. It will in fact, probably determine how you feel about the story overall. I’ve heard the phrase “wheels came off” to describe the climax but that’s not really fair. It’s not that the ending is bad from either a technical or narrative standpoint; the problem is that it really doesn’t jibe with the rest of the film’s cinema vérité feel. Consider the following: In films like The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield or Paranormal Activity, there’s a scene at the beginning or end that says something like This footage was found blank. The people who made it are blank. Draw your own conclusions. We don’t get anything like that this time out, which would lead you to believe that we’re supposed to be watching these events as they take place but even that doesn’t work because A) it looks like it’s been professionally cut together and B) there’s freaking musical cues sprinkled throughout! Now okay, it could be dramatic license and that’s fine but it shouldn’t yank the viewer out of the story whenever it happens. Also, and this isn’t really a complaint about the movie itself but of the marketing thereof, a lot is made of the “is she possessed or is it all a hoax?” angle. And it might’ve actually had some folks guessing if every single poster and bit theater lobby hype hadn’t featured Ashley Bell folded nearly in half or stuffed up into a high corner like a spider. When you’re trying to plant a question in the audience’s mind, it helps not to undermine it with blatantly supernatural imagery on the promotional material. Sure it still could turn out to be a hoax (I’m not answering one way or another) but to market the story as one thing, then potentially go in a completely different direction is disingenuous at best and fuckin’ annoying at worst.
Should You See It?
Should you see it? Tough call. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea and the ending alone is enough make the whole thing a loved it or hated it type of experience. If you’re just looking for jump scares and gore, pass on this and go see Piranha 3D, it’s certainly worthy of your box office dollars. But if you’re interested in a movie that’ll have you turning certain ideas over long after you leave the theater, give The Last Exorcism a try. It’s not the final word on Satanic wonkiness by any means, but it’s an interesting chapter nonetheless.
The Verdict
In honor of the most famous demonic possession flick of all time, on a head twisting scale of 0-360, 0 being awful and 360 being perfect, I’d say The Last Exorcism is easily 270 and that’s pretty disconcerting.
Til next time, always remember that the calls are coming from inside the house.
Tom Bess recently shaved his legendary sideburns at a cost of two hours and five pounds. The end result is a slightly puffier, but much more aerodynamic movie-reviewing machine who is still patiently waiting for Allison Mack to return his calls. While he’s waiting, he’ll read copious amounts of Lovecraft and eat too many Peach Gummy Bears.
