Paranormal Captivity

This Linda Blair Witch Project is exciting and fresh at first,
then drops the ball
By Morgan P Salvo



The Last Exorcism is a pain in the ass. A lot of movies tick me off but this one takes the cake. My observation is that movies with either “Exorcism” or “Haunting” in the title have a high rate of sucking. But with this flick I thought I’d found something completely different. I was once again duped and mistaken. The Last Exorcism had me watching and very entertained with which direction it was headed but in the last ten minutes defeated its entire purpose with an implausible absolutely utterly STUPID ending. The super creepy shocking previews are beyond misleading. I mean, I counted five bone cracks in the previews and there was merely one in this flick (not that more would have redeemed it).
The plot involves Preacher Cotton Marcus, a scam artist preacher/exorcist who, after a crisis of faith, makes it his mission to debunk the myth of exorcism as merely psychological phenomenon and/or scam. A fast talking charismatic guy, he has the best two minute summation of the existence of demons ever. Following in the overdone hand-held pseudo documentary camera style of Cloverfield, Quarantine, and Blair Witch, the representative “found” footage piece together all the zooms and cuts, telling a compelling story.
With a well-chosen cast, decent dialogue and ambivalent characters, The Last Exorcism offers a welcome twist to the demonic-possession movie. All the acting was superb and believable while the tension and dread the characters felt was palpable. It even has a creepy, stringed soundtrack. For the longest time it’s quite riveting. A well-paced approach to exposing the exorcism myth and medical/physiological ramifications, the methodical tempo generates enough doubt as to what is really happening. The suspense is ideological: is this documentary practicality or horror absurdity? Then with the finish line in sight there’s a complete meltdown by the writers in the last 10 minutes. The filmmakers botch the ending so badly it makes me think that no one is capable of writing a decent movie in this genre anymore. This is sad because up till then I was thoroughly enjoying where this movie’s uninterrupted excellence was taking me.
But the inept and totally lazy Devil’s Rain/Brotherhood of Satan/Race with the Devil ending is so out of left field, ridiculously unnecessary, cheap and idiotic it defies any further discussion. The filmmakers of The Last Exorcism should be ashamed of themselves. This was a brilliant little masterpiece that opted for such a cop-out ending that ruined everything it had so gallantly strived for.

The Last Exorcism
Starring Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones
Directed by: Daniel Stamm
 2 stars