SummaryWhen he arrives on the rural Louisiana farm of Louis Sweetzer, the Reverend Cotton Marcus expects to perform just another routine “exorcism” on a disturbed religious fanatic. An earnest fundamentalist, Sweetzer has contacted the charismatic preacher as a last resort, certain his teenage daughter Nell is possessed by a demon who must be ...
SummaryWhen he arrives on the rural Louisiana farm of Louis Sweetzer, the Reverend Cotton Marcus expects to perform just another routine “exorcism” on a disturbed religious fanatic. An earnest fundamentalist, Sweetzer has contacted the charismatic preacher as a last resort, certain his teenage daughter Nell is possessed by a demon who must be ...
I cared enough about these characters to follow "Exorcism" to tense and occasionally goofy places, even if the setup proved a bit stronger than the payoff.
Really powerful and enjoyable, it has good scenes of possession, the 2nd best exorcism since "The Exorcist" it is smart and original, a scary PG-13 feast, the acting is great and intense, this is a true horror movie without tons of blood and sex, it is horror at its best
Amazing performance by all those involved. The movie was hilarious at times, horrific at other times, and made you think about the debate between religion and science. This movie fits in one of my favorites now.
Aided by strong performances from Bell and Fabian, Stamm deftly plays with the boundary of fact and fiction, though his game might have worked better with a little more grounding in verisimilitude.
One of the pleasures of films about being stuck in a place -- "The Wicker Man" is maybe the best example -- comes from the skill with which the writers keep their protagonist locked in his box. On this test, The Last Exorcism pretty much flunks.
There may once have been a good and a bad film fighting for the soul of The Last Exorcism, but in its final moments, cinema's dark forces triumph emphatically.
Very very smart and original. And fun. And creepy. The first horror movie I've ever seen where I actually believed the main characters' behavior. And when we thought about it later, more and more pieces fit together. We loved it.
The ending ia dumb and unnecessary, but for most of the film's runtime, it's a real breath of fresh air for both the exorcism and found-footage genres.
Ashely Bell gives the best possesed performance in an exorcism movie since Linda Blair in The Exorcist. That is a really huge accomplishment.
Definitely reccomend it if you can look past the awful ending, because it's still one of the best exorcism movies not directed by William Friedkin.
In this film, an evangelical pastor performs his last exorcism, after a lifetime of lies in which he made false exorcisms and cures to make money. What Cotton Marcus did not expect is that his last exorcism was, in fact, the only one who would face a real evil that he did not even believe in. From the beginning, the film makes clear that we are seeing a mockumentary, unfinished and with false image editing in the style of "found footage" movies so, when you see the camera shaking this is purposeful. The film also makes great criticisms of evangelical churches, having the courage to say something we all know but rarely can we say out loud: many churches (not just evangelicals) exist only because of the money, transforming themselves into industries of fraud and extortion who treat God as if He were a lawyer or doctor with an office, where He only attends on prepayment. On the other hand, many people with psychological problems or health disorders believe they are possessed or threatened by demons without this really being their problem. Based on these premises, the film shows how a false exorcist deals with a case of true possession, for which he is not minimally prepared because of his lack of faith and opportunism. Although the film is slow at first, this delay is necessary to explain the whole context of what is going to happen next, and for the audience to be stuck with the two central characters. The exorcism was intense and realistic, much closer to a true exorcism than most horror films that approached the subject. The open ending is purposeful, adapting to the film's style and leaving room for the sequel that was made, years later. However, it can leave many people disappointed because it's not very plausible in the way it ends. Patrick Fabian did very well in the role of Pastor Marcus, being perfectly capable of showing his inner conflict, his doubts and his utter unpreparedness to deal with Nell, the possessed young woman, played by Ashley Bell. Young but promising, she was both loving and adorable and perfectly terrifying, when possessed. In short, this is not a perfect movie and is far from having an exceptional quality, but it was a good effort, has merit and courage. It's worth watching.
One of the lamest Horror movies that I have seen in recent memory. We don't need anymore exorcism movies we all know that there is really only one good one. Really all the characters were annoying and the only part I enjoyed was the last few minutes.
You can tell you're in for a bad horror film when you find yourself laughing at the "horror" scenes. This movie just wasn't scary. Not at all. In fact, I found myself laughing at just how poorly done some of the "scares" were. And to top it all off, the ending just ****. It's a damn near insulting ending.
Don't even bother with this one. Go watch something more worth your time.