A troubled evangelical minister agrees to let his last exorcism be filmed by a documentary crew.
Director:
Daniel Stamm
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Title: The Last Exorcism (2010)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Patrick Fabian | ... | Cotton Marcus | |
| Ashley Bell | ... | Nell Sweetzer | |
| Iris Bahr | ... | Iris Reisen | |
| Louis Herthum | ... | Louis Sweetzer | |
| Caleb Landry Jones | ... | Caleb Sweetzer | |
| Tony Bentley | ... | Pastor Manley | |
 |
John Wright Jr. | ... | John Marcus |
| Shanna Forrestall | ... | Shanna Marcus | |
|
|
Justin Shafer | ... | Justin Marcus |
| Carol Sutton | ... | Shopkeeper | |
| Victoria Patenaude | ... | Motorist | |
| John Wilmot | ... | Spindly Man | |
| Becky Fly | ... | Becky Davis | |
| Denise Lee | ... | Nurse | |
|
|
Logan Craig Reid | ... | Logan Winters |
In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the evangelical Reverend Cotton Marcus was raised by his father to be a preacher. He agrees that the filmmaker Iris Reisen and the cameraman Daniel Moskowitz make a documentary about his life. Cotton tells that when his wife Shanna Marcus had troubles in the delivery of their son Justin, he prioritized the doctor help to God and since then he questions his faith. Further, he tells that exorcisms are frauds but the results are good for the believers because they believe it is true. When Cotton is summoned by the farmer Louis Sweetzer to perform an exorcism in his daughter Nell, Cotton sees the chance to prove to the documentary crew what he has just told. They head to Ivanwood and they have a hostile reception from Louis's son Caleb. Cotton performs the exorcism in Nell, exposing his tricks to the camera, but sooner they learn that the dysfunctional Sweetzer family has serious problems. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Equal parts The Exorcist and The Blair Witch Project with a generous dollop of Rosemary's Baby thrown in for good measure, the Daniel Stamm-directed Last Exorcism takes elements of its obvious antecedents and deftly (for the most part) blends them into a solid, genuinely tense horror film that only goes off the rails in the last ten minutes or so. Before that, though, it's quite an entertaining ride.
Filmed in documentary style, complete with interviews and photo inserts, the story behind The Last Exorcism concerns holy-rolling pastor Cotton Marcus, who once truly believed in demons and performed exorcisms just like his father before him. Following a crisis of faith, Reverend Marcus realizes he no longer truly believes, but continues casting out demons in order to earn money for his family, justifying his "fraud" by claiming to rid his clients of the delusion that they are possessed. Even so, his conscience still bothers him, so he allows a two-person film crew to document his "last exorcism," in order to show the world how easy it is to perform one with trickery, before hanging up his crucifix forever.
The recipients of Reverend Marcus's help -- chosen randomly from a pile of letters he's received -- are an isolated farm family in the backwoods of Louisiana. The father, Louis Sweetzer, believes his sixteen-year-old daughter Nell is possessed and has been killing the livestock, though she claims not to remember a thing. Nell herself -- played flawlessly by Ashley Bell -- is a sweetly naive, homeschooled child who seems quite incapable of violence, though her luminous face and large, uncannily dark eyes may mask a more sinister aspect.
Reverend Marcus, smug in his belief that Nell's problem is likely psychological and not demonic, puts on a show for the family, complete with a Hollywood-style "exorcism" performed with simple special effects. Of course, once this sham exorcism is over and the reverend has collected his (exorbitant) fee, he thinks that will be the end of it. But of course, this being a horror film, it's only the beginning.
One of the great strengths of The Last Exorcism is the way it ramps up the tension as the reverend and the film crew gradually become more and more entangled with the sick dynamics of this insular fundamentalist family and come to realize that they may have to take drastic measures to intervene and save Nell's life. As Nell seemingly begins to lose her mind, there are some frightening (and wince-inducing) moments, all punctuated by Nell's disturbingly innocent/terrifying gaze. Also impressive are the actors' performances, which are uniformly compelling and completely believable, which is crucial when making a "mockumentary" of this sort.
It is, in fact, the believability of the actors that keeps the bizarre, over-the-top ending from being entirely ludicrous, though it's a fairly close call. The ending doesn't spoil the film by a long way, but it could have vaulted The Last Exorcism from good to great had the filmmakers restrained themselves and kept the eerie, low-key suspense of the rest of the film throughout, rather than shattering the unsettling ambiguity with an out-of-the-blue and sadly laughable finish.
Despite that admittedly large flaw, and despite the fact that the film seemed rather gory for its PG-13 rating, The Last Exorcism was an accomplished mashup of old and new horror tropes that managed some genuinely scary scenes and a pleasurably creepy atmosphere of claustrophobic dread.
(Read the original review here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=439996281543)