The problem making any movie with exorcism as it’s key element is it’s always in competition. It may be 37 years old, it may have been lampooned in numerous forms and it may now seem dated to the playstation generation, but The Exorcist is still, and will always be, king of the hill. Sensibly director Daniel Stamm takes us down a different route. Cotton Marcus is a protestant minister who has got into the exorcism game to con the weak-willed and religious-faithful out of their hard-earned cash, proving that as long as his subjects truly believe in his power he can say anything during his act. When Marcus invites a camera crew to follow him and document his work it becomes apparent that he is a fraud, and the documentary is to be his confession. He picks one letter from the many hundreds he receives yearly and his plan is to show the audience his tricks while driving out the devil one last time. The letter he chooses is from southern farmer Louis Sweetzer, whose teenage daughter Nell (Bell) is killing livestock on midnight walks around the farm with no memory of doing so. The Sweetzers seem like perfect targets. The family are heavily religious, with the Father not allowing his kids to school because he feels the world has too many bad influences, and it doesn’t take long for Marcus to convince him that Nell has a demon living inside her. If she does or not is the primary question.
Patrick Fabian plays Marcus as a showman, an actor putting on a fine show who is starting to believe his work may be harmful to his subjects. His loss of faith is pivotal and the scares really begin when he realizes that his words may be pushing Sweetzer to take Nell’s life for her own good. Possession or a mental illness, regardless, are much the same thing to Sweetzer, and when Marcus tries to admit he may not be able to help Nell he’s told that the Father will deal with it himself, by shotgun The girl’s Brother initially protests against Marcus’s involvement, only backing off when he realises that the preacher is a fake, which sets up a superb third act that turns everything against Marcus, including some hard-to-argue with supernatural happenings, that very quickly spiral out of control.
The docu-horror genre has been flogged to death but The Last Exorcism keeps I fresh, with much of that credit coming from a quality screenplay that never steps over the line into absurdity, subtle performances and a style that harks back to seventies thrillers. It’s been suggested that a horror film shouldn’t be PG-13 (12 in UK) but if there was ever a film that can work with that rating it’s this one. The Sweetzers are religious people, and the movie features little violence, no profanity and no nudity, because in their lives there aren’t any. The horror of The Last Exorcism comes from the situation Cotton Marcus finds himself in, the deep and hidden problems from Nell’s past, and where the film takes us.
Ah yes, the end. The final few minutes of this film have been much discussed, and certainly divided a portion of the audience during it’s premiere at Frightfest. Good movies are as much about misdirection as anything else, and those who don’t fully understand the last few shots haven’t been paying attention throughout. It pulls the rug from under your feet without cheating you and without destroying the movie, as some voices have claimed. You may not like the ending, you may not even agree with it, but it is a conclusion that you will talk about. Ultimately, on a low budget with very few of the tricks employed by Hollywood for cheap, throwaway thrills, The Last Exorcism emerges as a very frightening film. It is also one of the best of the year, in any genre, and is highly recommended.
-Rich Wilson
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