The Last Exorcism

The Last Exorcism
2010
Directed by: Daniel Stamm
Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell

This is one of the harder movies to review. I did like it but I don't know why. My friend told me "it's hard to make exorcism movies now because they did it perfectly the first time." Of course he was referring to The Exorcist (1973), but there was something different about this. The suspense factor was great. There were many times I grabbed the arm of my friend anticipating something to happen that would make me bite the collar of my shirt.

The suspense factor did do a good job of making me nervous whether something scary did happen or not. The movie did not rely on gore like many modern horror movies do. The realism of the documentary style shot created the feeling that you were actually inside this girl's house. So many exorcism movies are very one-dimensional, showing the struggling priest with the hatred of his own life, then moving on to the young, blonde girl with such promise and a big future.

However, this story took a dog-legged turn to show the complexities of how exorcisms can be a total and complete sham. The priest that the documentary crew follows is exposing exorcisms for what he believes they really are. He is a con artist who creates frightening situations for these so-called "possessed" beings. He exorcises minds and not spirits as he believes that all possessions occur due to psychotic episodes.

The priest's own psychosis gets thrown in a whirlwind when he discovers that he may not be completely accurate in his theories. The foreshadowing was very spot on with different things throughout the movie, and you never seemed to know what would happen next. The unpredictability was the most appealing factor of this movie. I never knew what would or could happen, and you never really seem to trust anyone at all throughout the whole hour and 40 minutes. The speculation that the exorcism movie is overdone may be true, but this new take on an old tale kind of did the job for me.

Stars (out of 10): 6 1/2