The Last Exorcism

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler, Geoff

If not for the last 7 minutes of the film this would probably be one of the best exorcism/mockumentary style horror films in the past few years.

The acting is just phenomenal. Rev. Cotton Marcus is a character that just pops off the screen. He's so believable and effective for the story. Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell and the rest of the cast really manage to sell the reality of the world.

The structure of the story also manages to position the audience and greatly helps suspension of disbelief. By actually denouncing the act of exorcism and showing how it's faked upfront it eases the scepticism and creates a nice false sense of security for when things start to get a little too real. It's a great device.

The scary stuff in the middle section works very well, there are some great sequences, but it's really actually a very small part of the film. The very realistic drama of this family and the girl with possible mental problems is actually quite engaging by itself, without all the supernatural stuff. If the film had ended with one of these revelations I would have been perfectly happy with it.

But there is a twist at the end that seems rather abrupt and doesn't work for me at all. It's still well worth checking out because the rest of the film is so strong, but I think they went for a big finish and dropped the ball at the end.