Review“Is that regular water?” - Cotton MarcusThe Last Exorcism (TLE) is an entertaining movie that works on a lot of different levels and which is surprisingly subtle in what it does. There are no over wrought moments or loud clashes from the score to get cheap thrills, this one works as an old fashion horror film, utilising atmosphere, and cramped confined spaces to get it's work done. Quite possibly the best “possession” movie since Phil Davison gave us the equally low budget Belief (2005). Though I did notice a tad of borrowing from The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005). Cotton Marcus has been in the evangelist game since he was a child Preacher at the age of ten. Recently Cotton has become disillusioned with Christianity and due to his son's illness amongst other things is having a crisis of faith. Cotton jokes that he might take up real estate sales. A film crew is on hand to catch his last road trip to perform an Exorcism and Cotton selects a letter at random from his mail to provide the destination. Cotton might not believe in the devil but the satanic one sure does pay the bills in the Marcus household. Seems Nell Sweetzer is harbouring a demon and her fundamentalist father feels an Exorcism might be the order of day. Cotton and a two person film crew travel to the isolated Sweetzer farm in the backwoods Louisiana where the Reverend shows his tricks of the trade to camera. However things are a lot more real than Cotton thought, and there's some deep dark secrets about to come to light. So the movie is another one of those found footage affairs that works for the most part. It's clearly superior to ham fisted stuff like The Blair Witch Project (1999), but falls away slightly in the second half. During the first half we have a single tightly controlled camera in use, Nell getting hold of the camera and giving a POV from her perspective is a riot, but the second half offers up multiple cameras (where were the rest of the film crew exactly?), and simply destroys itself by the addition of a soundtrack that wasn't needed. Sure if I found footage showing murder, weirdness in the woods, and down home inbreeding, I would add a soundtrack before dropping off the footage at the nearest Police station. It's just something you do. Director Stamm here failed to provide any information on how the footage was actually "found" by the way, a weakness in these sort of movies for mine. While not wanting to make comparisons to The Exorcist (1973), the two movies operate on entirely different levels and it's becoming increasingly trite and lazy to compare every demonic movie to Friedkin's masterpiece, I have to say there's a similarity between the movies in one of the characters suffering a crisis of faith that is only resolved in the most striking of fashions. At least that was my take on Cotton's ultimate step into the breach. There's also a sly wink of Friedkin's movie with Cotton “taking the demon into himself” during the first, fake, exorcism. Yes folks we actually get two exorcisms for the price of one here. As stated this is a multi layered movie with the truth about Christianity and some of the charlatans operating on it's fringes very much a recurrent theme in TLE. Director Daniel Stamm doesn't stint in bringing the backwoods nature of Southern belief systems into the open, and implies via Cotton that evil lurks behind every rotting cabin for locals. There's a degree of intentional humour invoked during the movie, much of it by the wonderfully cynical Caleb who is onto the Reverend's tricks. What is really working for TLE is the battleground over science versus religion, once again portrayed in a subtle under the radar fashion, that adds much of the drama to proceedings. Our resident Exorcist doesn't believe in possession and is more apt to seek Psychological help than spiritual, while the backwoods locals are into their old time bible thumping, praise the lord and can I get a hallelujah over here! What TLE asks the audience to consider is whether or not Nell is actually possessed or is the victim of religious fundamentalism and an unhealthy dose of incest. We're not talking projectile green soup vomiting here but actually quite a sophisticated approach to the question. For anyone versed in exorcism movies by the end credits you will have reached a conclusion on the subject. Nell, played in an Oscar worthy performance by the remarkable Ashley Bell, can speak in tongues and is fluent in languages she has not been exposed to. She has precognition, note the drawings she made of Cotton and the two person film crew that turned out to be totally correct. And she has more physical dexterity than you can poke a contortionist at. The case for the Prosecution rests friends and neighbours. Perhaps the only weakness with TLE is the ending scenes that make no sense really. They don't come from left field, Director Stamm has been throwing out hints all movie, but they simply don't fit the taunt and psychological hammer blow you have received previously with the film. It's an easy out for the Audience and I noted in my cinema session people visibly relaxed during the final ten minutes or so after a rather harrowing experience getting there. I could have crafted a much better ending that would have involved an exorcism that goes completely wrong harking back to one of the reasons Cotton has for his current crisis of faith, though how to involve a plastic bag around Nell's head remains problematic. See the movie to get the reference. Overall Director Stamm uses confined space to his advantage, darkness is superbly crafted into a thrill ride, and keeping things off screen rather than throwing the whole kitchen sink at the audience in every major scene is working like a brought one. Stamm scores a major with one of the best found footage movies to be made in the present cycle. Like Caleb, who remains the most intriguing character for mine, I like documentaries. This approach really can work if used correct in dark genre outings. Pity about the nondescript ending that ruined things slightly with a completely off the wall twist that added nothing to the reality that was being sought for TLE. One final thought before we wrap, well over my word allocation already. Could Studios stop showing stuff in promotional material that simply doesn't happen in the actual movie? I was waiting on one major scene to come my way that never happened, disappointing to say the least. I had a lot of fun with TLE and got my money's worth out of the movie. There were some intriguing aspects to the film and I wasn't prepared for just how good the subtext was going to be. The only let down was the conclusion that had me wondering if they had mistakenly mixed in footage from another movie. Ashley Bell as Nell was simply stunning, wait till you meet her dark passenger (to borrow a term from Jeff Lindsay) it's an understated moment yet entirely chilling. If you like dark genre movies that attempt to actually rely on being professionally made and having layers rather than simply being gore rides than dial into The Last Exorcism. One of the best dark genre movies of the year, looking forward to see what Director Stamm sends our way next.
ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ... Excellent film, pity about the ending.
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