The
Last Exorcism is a found
footage, mockumentary-style film about
a
disillusioned Anglican preacher and exorcist named Cotton Marcus.
Cotton comes from a long line of preachers and he cast out his first
demon when he was just ten-years-old. When he was older though, he
realised that he did not believe in God, the Devil or possession, but
he carried on with the show because he knew that the people who came to
him were believers and it was Cotton's opinion that he was delivering a
service to the people who needed it, in a way that they needed it, and
one way or another it worked. It paid well too.
Cotton reached a turning point when he read about an autistic child who
was killed during an exorcism. This shocked him so much that he decided
to
‘expose exorcism for the scam that it really is’ by
performing one last exorcism and allowing a film crew to film it.
Unfortunately for Cotton and the camera crew his last exorcism proves
to be a little more complicated than expected.
Nell Sweetzer appears to be a very sweet girl, but her father Louis is
convinced that she has the Devil in her and is killing his livestock.
Nell cannot remember disembowelling any cattle, but the amount of blood
that it splattered on her nightdress does tend to point the finger of
suspicion in her direction.
Cotton goes ahead with his fake exorcism and, ever the professional,
he
makes the process appear so convincing that everyone believes that Nell
is cured. Cotton believes it as well and he goes right on believing it
until Nell turns up a few hours later in his hotel room. How she got
there, or even knew where to find him, is a complete mystery, even to
Nell.
After this unexpected turn of events Cotton suggests that Louis gets
some medical help for his daughter, but stethoscopes are not renowned
for their success rate when it comes to casting out evil spirits and
Louis is so convinced Nell is possessed that he tells Cotton that he
will save Nell himself. This convinces the preacher to repeat the
exorcism because Louis’ kind of exorcism would involve a
shotgun.
This time Cotton takes things more seriously and attempts a real
exorcism while Nell busies herself snapping the bones in her fingers
and manages to bend her back in ways that backs are just not meant to
bend. Once again though, it appears that Cotton has got to the bottom
of the problem, but he is wrong. Things are not what they seem and by
the time Cotton realizes this it may just be too late for all concerned.
The
Last Exorcism starts
of pretty slow and for the first ten minutes
it
really does seem like
you are watching a very boring
documentary
about a born again atheist who want to spill the beans about the trade
that he hates. The story starts to pick up though, when Cotton arrives
at the Sweetzer Farm and much of the action takes place between the two
exorcisms. It turns out that Nell is pregnant and at one point she
tries to drown her doll in the bath, something which is perhaps not the
best indication of her fitness for motherhood and the doll must feel
that way too judging by all of the screaming and crying it would seem
to be doing. It’s a strange doll all right and Nell is a
strange girl. Heck this is strange film, but once you get the boring
bit at the beginning out of the way it is pretty okay. The ending?
It’s not bad, but it falls a long way short of being
brilliant and it leaves a few questions unanswered, but isn’t
that always the way with these found footage-type of films. The camera
can only show the viewer what it has seen and it always stops filming
when the last man (or woman) dies. Is it, as stated at the top of the
DVD cover, the scariest movie
that you’ll see all year? Well I suppose it might
be if it’s the only horror film that you see all year. The Last Exorcism
might make you
jump a few times, and will probably
surprise you in places, but is it a serious contender for the scariest
movie? I don’t think so.
As with most DVDs these days there are some extras included:.
Audio
commentary with the producers Audio
commentary with the Director
and actors (Ashley Bell, Patrick Fabian
and Louis Herthum) Audio
commentary with witnesses to an exorcism (haunting victim, deliverance
minister and clinical psychologist) The
Devil You Know (the making of The Last Exorcism) Interview
with Daniel Stamm and Patrick Fabian Interview
with Eli Roth and Ashley Bell Ashley
Bell audition footage Patrick
Fabian audition footage Caleb
Landry Jones audition footage Louis
Herthum audition footage Protection
prayer 2009
Cannes Film Festival teaser trailer Theatrical
trailer Real
stories of exorcism
I was quite interested in watching the real stories of exorcism, but
the warning at the begging of the footage changed my mind:
‘The
following
documentary contains audio
recordings which are purported to include actual demon voices.
Our
religious consultants have
advised that listening to these
recordings could result in adverse or unwanted contact with demonic
forces.
They
have suggested that
viewers recite the protection prayer that can
be accessed from the special features menu.’
Call me a wimp, but I read that little lot and then pressed eject.
CAST
Patrick
Fabian
Ashley Bell
Iris Bahr
Louis Herthum
Caleb Landry Jones
Tony Bentley
John Wright Jr.
Shanna Forrestall
Justin Shafer
Carol Sutton
Victoria Patenaude
John Wilmot
Becky Fly
Denise Lee
Logan Craig Reid
Sofia Hujabre
Adam Grimes
Cotton
Marcus
Nell Sweetzer
Iris Reisen
Louis Sweetzer
Caleb Sweetzer
Pastor Manley
John Marcus
Shanna Marcus
Justin Marcus
Shopkeeper
Motorist
Spindly Man
Becky Davis
Nurse
Logan Winters
Cafe Manager
Daniel Moskowitz
Steve-Calvert.co.uk
Audio
commentary with the producers
