The Set-Up:

Disillusioned southern preacher Cotton Marcus agrees to perform one last exorcism for a documentary film crew, as a means of exposing to the public what a sham the procedure is. When he arrives at the Sweetzer farm in New Orleans he meets the presumably possessed 16-year old Nell, her angry brother Caleb, and their drunk and distraught father, Louis. He performs the exorcism, and everything seems fine…until Nell shows up at his motel room, five miles away, later that night. He becomes embroiled in her life, and drags producer Iris and her cameraman into some shit they never bargained for.

The good:

The acting here is really above par. Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell particularly stand out as Cotton and Nell. They’re the lynch-pins of the film. If you don’t believe the possessed and the preacher there isn’t much of an exorcism movie. Luckily they do a great job. Apparently Ashley Bell is double-jointed and all the contortions she does in the film are real and not special effects. I think this is a career-making film. Look what Emily Rose did for Jennifer Carpenter. Also, as with any film of this nature , the supernatural element remains largely ambiguous, but there are plenty of absolutely creepy visuals and scenes of great violence to keep you entertained and engaged while waiting to find out what happens in the end. And what an ending. Holy shit. Like it ot hate it you’ll have to agree it’s pretty insane.

The bad:

The Last Exorcism is like a horror film scarecrow: bits and pieces of other films copied and pasted onto a skeletal framework. It is difficult, as a film fan, to not sit and point out what other movies they lifted various pieces from. Sometimes subtly, and sometimes really, really, really blatantly. It also has one glaringly obvious logic flaw that doesn’t come to light til the end, and which I cannot point out here without issuing a spoiler. So email me if you’ve already seen the film and we’ll talk about it.

End Result:

Ultimately, I enjoyed the film. Yes, there is not an original bone in its body, but it was well-made, the characters were written and acted well, and there were definite goosebump moments. And they made sure that the final scene was going to be one sending you out of the theater going what the fuck did I just watch? I’ll give it a catch it on video thumb’s up.

Some trivia:

German-born directed Daniel Stamm made a film previous to this called A Necessary Death which was also documentary-style, following a man who planned to commit suicide. I can’t help but think that movie is why Eli Roth thought Stamm would be perfect for this film.