The Last Exorcism (2010)

• Year: 2010
• Released: 27 Aug 2010
• Country: France, United States
• Adwords: 7 wins & 10 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1320244/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/The_Last_Exorcism
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-last-exorcism
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, Latin
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
• Runtime: 87 min
• Writer: Huck Botko, Andrew Gurland
• Director: Daniel Stamm
• Cast: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr
• Keywords: found footage, mockumentary, exorcism, fraud, evil spirit,

	5.7/10
	63/100
	72% – Critics
	35% – Audience

The Last Exorcism Storyline

Groomed by his father John Marcus starting when he was just a child to follow in his footsteps, Cotton Marcus, a natural performer, is a Baton Rouge based preacher, much of his work, like his father, carrying out exorcisms. Because of the accidental death of a supposedly possessed ten year old at the hands of another exorcist, and his now adolescent son Justin Marcus’ brush with death at birth, Cotton admits to himself that he has never really believed in demons and thus possessions – all the exorcisms he asked to perform by like people with like stories, only the names being changed – and may not really believe in God, but had carried out such work, a scam, for his family and in providing a service in demand. As such, he decides to allow a documentary film crew to follow him at his next exorcism to show the process for the scam it is, he just choosing the next in the long list of requests he receives, this one from rural Ivanwood, LA. The supposedly possessed this time is sixteen year old home schooled Nell Sweetzer, the request coming from her devout farmer father, two-year widowed Louis Sweetzer, and apparently, as Cotton will discover, against the wishes of Nell’s older brother, Caleb Sweetzer. Louis’ devotion to his faith is despite he and his local preacher, Pastor Joseph Manley, having had a falling out over Nell, the Sweetzers who have not attended church now in two years. Cotton will discover that Nell is different than any of the other “possessed” before her that he’s seen, and that he, and by association anyone else dealing with this case, including the documentary crew, may be over their heads and in possible danger, that is unless Cotton truly has the faith and the power he purports to his followers.

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The Last Exorcism Movie Reviews

Possession story retold as found footage flick

Essentially, THE LAST EXORCISM is THE EXORCIST retold as a ‘found footage’ type film. That’s all good for me – I’m a self-confessed fan of this particular sub-genre, ever since the halcyon days of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, so the premise behind this film’s plot appealed to me from the outset. It’s also fairly novel, as this was the first ‘possession’ film I’ve seen that tackles its subject matter in this raw and realistic way.

The film gets off on a strong footing with an exploration of its central character, a preacher and would-be exorcist who turns out to harbour a few dark, cynical secrets of his own. It’s a witty and engaging character portrayal, which makes his later encounters with some decidedly disturbing situations all the more interesting, although I think it’s a shame that the film never truly capitalises on this character’s build-up; we never get time to see how he feels and reacts to these situations, because in the later stages the focus of the film is entirely on the possessed girl.

Still, the well-paced story is certainly lively and never skips a beat. The slow first half segues into a grimly effective second, featuring some excellently creepy moments that were all achieved without the use of CGI or any other type of effect, as far as I can tell. The movie plays a guessing game with the audience throughout, throwing in clues but never revealing the full extent of the plot, at least until the climax. And that’s arguably where the film falls apart, dishing out one twist too many and losing the carefully-constructed realism of earlier moments.

Nevertheless, as a whole the film is a success. The acting is strong, the characters feel believable, especially the anguish of Nell’s fundamentalist father, played to the hilt by Louis Herthum. As for Ashley Bell, who plays the possessed Nell, she’s excellent; we feel sympathetic towards her plight, but those glazed eyes seem to hold hidden depths of evil, and it’s an inspired casting choice.

Good idea and compelling Ashley Bell

In Baton Rouge, evangelical Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) has been a preacher since he was a kid. However he is tired of the fraudulent exorcisms. He takes along documentarian filmmaker Iris Reisen (Iris Bahr) and the cameraman Daniel Moskowitz to do one last fake exorcism. The Sweetzer family has asked for help for their daughter Nell (Ashley Bell). However, there may be something much more real than anything Cotton had planned for.

This is a low budget faux documentary take on the exorcism horror genre. There are a couple of logical questions in the movie in need of answering. For what it is, this is a good original movie. Ashley Bell projects a very compelling disturbing creepy and yet innocent girl. The ending isn’t that good. The ending looks cheap. The movie builds good tension, but the air bleeds out of it instead of exploding.

A Good Movie with a Poor Conclusion

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the evangelical Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) was raised by his father to be a preacher. He agrees that the filmmaker Iris Reisen (Iris Bahr) and the cameraman Daniel Moskowitz (Adam Grimes) make a documentary about his life. Cotton tells that when her wife Shanna Marcus (Shanna Forrestall) had troubles in the delivery of their son Justin (Justin Shafer), 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 (Louis Herthum) to perform an exorcism in his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell), 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 (Caleb Landry Jones). Cotton performs the exorcism in Nell, exposing his tricks to the camera, but sooner they learn that the dysfunctional Sweetzer family has serious problems.

“The Last Exorcism” is a good movie that follows the same style of “The Blair Witch Project”, “Cloverfield”, “(Rec)”, “(Rec2)” and “Paranormal Activity”), with a hand-held camera simulating a documentary. The acting is very realistic but unfortunately the poor conclusion ruins the ambiguity of the good story. Anyway I liked this film, specially the great performances of Ashley Bell, Patrick Fabian and Louis Herthum. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): “O Último Exorcismo” (“The Last Exorcism”)