Genres

Visitors Review

chaos-rampant 2012-05-19 19:28:56

The trickster

The whole setup here is that we have a professional actor - paid to puton shows about fire and brimstone - who will need to discern over thecourse of the film who is putting on the show he finds himself in. Afilm crew is turning this into a movie, presumed to reveal hiddenmechanisms that move spectators. Turns out something else iscontrolling the thing and moving parts we thought we knew all about andpossibly us. This will test his mettle as a showman himself, let's sayhis faith in the healing power of his act (art?). Is the girl actingout some repressed sexual trauma? Is the father, at the same timecovering his tracks with Jesus babble? Or is the demon, the greattrickster? (a mild problem here is that, the film being what it is, wenever really wonder, do we?)This is excellent stuff and could have worked as more than horror.Indeed, until the last part horror is intermittent here. Our focus ison juggling one show as part of another while getting to decide whichone horrifies more. The choice for 'found footage' is one of the betterapplications I've seen in terms of structure; it means we have one moreshow running behind the other two, and one that we use to look for thereal root of horror. There are many dramatic shots in the flow, but wecan chalk these to the presence of a professional cameraman.The ending has been reported as problematic. Oh, it is graphic but inways that have become a staple in films dealing with some extraordinarydemonic darkness; Polanski, Rosemary as well as Ninth Gate, the Hammershocker The Devil Rides Out, Night of the Demon, recently Drag me toHell. Many viewers bemoan the revelation and tend to prefer the wholething coated in whispers and rumors. Fair point.It works for me because it allows us to recast evil as another stagedtrick. Another group of people are brought in at the last moment toenact a show, the real deal this time. Real fire and brimstone. Deathcomes as storyboarded earlier.If you're interested in the scam priest angle, it's only alight-hearted jab at faith here. Watch Marjoe for a more chillingportrait, the '72 documentary on the "World's Youngest OrdainedMinister".

2012-05-19 12:13:47

Possessing an interesting premise "The Last Exorcism" has originality driven out of it by a contrived, forced ending

Originality in Hollywood has become a rare commodity and it's clear with "The Last Exorcism" that no matter what the producers of films like this are determined to take a premise with promise and dumb it down with an absurd ending.Pastor Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian of "Big Love")rejects many of the tenets of his faith and thinks peole who believe they are possessed by demons are suffering from mental problems. Marcus has agreed to let a documentary crew to film him so he can debunk exorcisms. He uses props to make his "audience" believe he has cured them. His latest case puzzles him as none of his techniques work and he is afraid that the possession of Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) may be the real deal.Fabian gives an excellent performance as Marcus and the documentary style of the film adds a sense of believability to the film. Actress Ashley Bell (who does all of her own contortions without the aid of any special effects)also brings added credibility to the film. While the film does borrow from better films (The Exorcist (Extended Director's Cut & Original Theatrical Edition) [Blu-ray] and Rosemary's Baby among others)the documentary approach and some unusual twists keep the movie interesting until the idiotic ending of the film. The conclusion is contrived and badly executed blowing any good will earned by the film in the preceding 70 minutes.The DVD looks quite good with a crisp picture and features some nice atmospheric lighting. The extras include commentary tracks by the producers including Eli Roth and a secondary one with the director, Fabian and Bell. We also get a "making of" featurette, a documentary featuring interviews with those involved with "real" exorcisms. The "Production Prayer" adds hyperbole as those who worked on the film claim that a number of disturbing incidents occurred during production. The "Production Prayer" provided in Latin and English is designed to protect you the viewer. Uh-huh.I wouldn't call "The Last Exorcism" innovative or all that original in conception but the script and direction does introduce a couple of unusual twist and turns to the plot. The ending however blows it all robbing the film of potential and cheating the audience out of a some cheap thrills.

youshotandywarhol 2012-05-19 16:06:05

Pseudo Documentary Provides Neat Vantage Point, But Comes Close to Killing Itself With its Borderline-Hokey Finale.

"The Last Exorcism" is presented to the audience in documentary format,chronicling a Louisiana reverend named Cotton (whose faith hasambiguously lapsed) who performs phony exorcisms in order to "cure"delusional people who falsely believe they are being terrorized bydemons. He answers a letter from a backwoods farm and heads there withhis documentary crew to help an allegedly possessed teenager, Nell. Herfather is convinced she is possessed, and is killing off his cattle inthe middle of the night. Cotton arrives and performs a phony exorcismon her, complete with staged effects, hoping to leave the family with apeace of mind, and cured of their "demon". Needless to say, it actuallyappears something beyond mental illness is striking Nell— somethingsupernatural— a demon, perhaps.The real strength of "The Last Exorcism" is its form of presentation.Although it's presented as a documentary, it's near impossible to takeit seriously as being "real footage", considering the editing appearsto be of professional motion picture status, as well as the fact that amusical score is played over many of the scenes. Ha. Alright, so wecan't take it as reality. But how could you anyway? The "found footage"angle died with "The Blair Witch Project". We all know it's fictitious.Nonetheless, the documentary angle of storytelling does provide amagnificent point of entry for the audience, and opens doors that astandard cinematic storytelling format wouldn't. It places the viewersin the center of the terror, and proves effective for a handful ofscenes in the movie.Secondly, I'd like to applaud the acting. Patrick Fabian is comical andserious when need be, and he plays the role of the skeptical reverendwith flair. Even more notable is Ashley Bell, who brings a genuineinnocence to Nell—sheltered teenage girl by day, animal-killing devilchild by night— whose childlike purity runs rampant when she's given apair of Doc Marten boots by one of the camera women, which appears tobe the most exciting thing to happen to her in years. She's adorablewhen need be, and even more terrifying when the horror starts to kickinto gear.As for the ending of the film, which seems to be the biggest gripe byaudiences— I was pleased and disappointed with it at the same time. Thetwist was original, and the concept was chilling and very reminiscentof "Rosemary's Baby" and "Children of the Corn". At the moment of itsrevelation, I was admittedly unnerved, mostly by the visuals we get ofwhat was happening from afar, and the entire punch in the gut that wasthe realization of what had been going on the entire time. The lastminute (very much drawn from "The Blair Witch Project") was fairlyshocking as well, and the final camera crash was very spooky. Even as aseasoned horror film viewer, I was a bit chilled by it. It wasn't untilI left that theater that I began to notice how hokey it was. Creepy?Yes. Disturbing? Mhm. Believable? Well, sort of, but not really. Thefilm's plot device teeters on being eerily probable and almost too muchto take in after having to deal with other fallacies prior. Perhapsit's because it all hits the audience within a matter of minutes, buteither way, some viewers will find it wonderful and others will leaveshaking their heads. I'm somewhere in the middle.Overall, "The Last Exorcism" is a commendable effort, and the first"documentary" exorcism movie I've ever seen. The format of storytellingsomehow works well with the subject matter, and even though it'simpossible to take as a reality, it is engrossing. The ending of thefilm comes close to shattering what was built up throughout, but Ipersonally don't think it quite gets there. In the light of everything,I think it's swallow-able for some people, though too much for othersto commit to. It's a nice bent on the story, and the concept isextremely chilling, so I have to give it the benefit of the doubt here.It's a lot more interesting than another "Nightmare on Elm Street" or"Friday the 13th" re-hash. 7/10.

lewiskendell 2012-05-19 01:51:35

Had potential, but it's largely not fulfilled.

"Reverend, if you can't save my daughter's soul, I will."The Last Exorcism is a "found footage" horror flick about a documentarybeing made on the subject of fake exorcisms. A reverend who's beenperforming fake exorcisms for years has grown disillusioned with hisactions, and travels to a small town in Louisiana to film his methodsand expose his own deceptions. He does his usual thing, collects hismoney, and leaves to spend the night in a nearby hotel...but thisparticular exorcism isn't over. The Last Exorcism does some things very well. The faux documentaryangle works, and so does the idea of a charlatan wanting to come clean,being confronted with the thing that he doesn't even believe in. Thethings he does and says during his fake exorcism ultimately make a verydangerous situation for the young, allegedly possessed girl, and heends up having to protect her as well as attempt to find out what'sreally going on. The story twists and turns several times before theconclusion...perhaps too many times.  The end is somewhat of a mess, tobe frank. It tries too hard to keep the audience guessing, and ends upbeing a bit annoying, instead. And after going it's own way for themost part, the finale ends up being an almost exact mishmash of twoiconic movies in the genre. It's a bit of a deflating ending, actually.The Last Exorcism is a slow-burner, and relies on atmosphere and the"realism" angle a lot more than shocks or gore. If you're okay withthat, check it out. I liked it, but it's definitely a flawedexperience.

peterlane5 2012-05-11 09:04:27

Decent but it's nothing that hasn't been done before.

This movie answers the question; What would happen if The Blair WitchProject and The Exorcist had a baby? This would be it, a mildlyentertaining but boring at times horror movie. The story revolvesaround a pastor who used to do exorcisms but after seeing what sciencehas done for his disabled son starts to question his faith and goes outto disprove exorcisms thinking they are nothing more than a mentaldisorder. He gets a letter from a man who claims that his daughter ispossessed by the devil or another demon. He goes and tries to preformhis "last exorcism". The movie is well written and how they castrelatively unknown actors and actresses. The movie starts out slow andstays slow for the next hour but the at the last forty mins, it picksup and the last fifteen mins are when it gets scary. I really thoughtthe ending was good. The thing that brings this movie down for me isthe long periods of time when it's just boring. I really did not careabout any of the characters. This movie is good at times but it's allbeen done before.See More

Supachewy 2012-05-10 22:44:52

One of the Strongest of the Hand-held Horror Genre

The horror film The Last Exorcism is directed by Daniel Stamm and starsPatrick Fabian and Ashley Belle. The film takes place in modern dayLouisiana.The film starts out with a reverend, Cotton Marcus (Fabian), who ismaking a documentary with a group of filmmakers. The subject of thedocumentary is how he believes exorcisms are fake and is going to provethem to be fake. Marcus has performed many exorcisms in his life andall of them were with simple tricks. So he picks a random letter fromhis mailbox asking for an exorcism and goes to help them. When theyarrive at the home of the family the reverend is confronted by theeldest son in the family and is told for them to leave. Of course thegroup stays and the reverend shows how he performs his exorcism and allgoes well. But then they realize that the girl is really possessed by ademon...The screenplay for this film was good for the most part. It wassuspenseful the whole way through and I really felt attached to CottonMarcus. There were many great scares in this film and I would say thatthis is one of the best of the hand-held horror genre. The only problemreally with the film is the last five or so minutes. There is just somuch information stuffed into them and it is not truly explained. Itjust makes you leave the theatre saying to yourself what just happened.It is easy to form a theory on what happened at the end but no theorycould have the overall support. It would have been a strong 7/10 if ithad a decent ending.The direction for the film was fine. Stamm really knew how to work withthe two leads getting very believable performances out of them. Hetruly knew how to build up suspense instead of using tons of gore toget scares out of the audience. Overall solid direction, for the endmaybe he could have put in some more explanation, but that is reallythe writer's job.The acting for this film was good, especially by the two leads. Stammwas very funny as Cotton Marcus and was a truly likable character.Towards the latter of the film I began to question many of hisdecisions but I never started to dislike his character. Ashley Bellewas great as the girl with the demon in her. She was very sweet andlikable but when she was scary she was really scary. The rest of thecast did fine, especially the brother who was creepy throughout thefilm.Overall I give this film a solid 6/10, I would of gave it higher if theending was stronger. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys agood horror film.

george.schmidt 2012-05-09 20:42:28

Serviceable thriller a la "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" meets "THE WICKER MAN"; fine for Halloween retntal

THE LAST EXORCISM (2010) ** Patrick Fabian, Ashely Bell, Iris Bahr,Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones, Tony Bentley. Fairly creepysupernatural suspense 'mockumentary' in the same vein as "THE BLAIRWITCH PROJECT" with echoes of "THE WICKER MAN" in this indie producedby horror maven Eli Roth about a charlatan man of the cloth (Fabianaffectively amiable and pitiable) who faces an ultimate challenge inthe form of young Bell (very good in her on-the-dime changes inbehavior/moods), a backwoods farm girl who may in fact be harboring ademon (or two) …or is she? Rookie filmmaker Daniel Stamm employs theserviceable but rather predictable screenplay by Huck Botko & AndrewKurland and milk it for all its worth with every genre trick in thebook (spooky mood music; shadows; sudden jerks of the camera etc.) thatoffers a big set up with a somewhat unsatisfactory final reel (but it'sa doozy). Fine for a Halloween rental for those who like 'reality'based terrors.

marctheshark101 2012-05-09 06:33:17

Blair Witch meets District 9...

this is a documentary style film, where a man is out to show exorcismisn't real. as he is doing this documentary things start going a tadstrange.*SPOILERS************The ending is left a lot like blair witch did. it leaves it open forthe audience to decide what happens. it even ends with the camerafalling to to the ground as the camera man is killed. in my opinionthere's too much going on. in the space of 4 or 5 minutes, the audienceis thrown lots of different things and then it ends without any of thenbeing explained. this can be good as you make your own ending.****************the acting is pretty good and some parts are scary and jumpy. certainscenes could have been improved and made a lot more scary though.overall, i think this was enjoyable and it stuck with me and mygirlfriend afterwards as we discussed what we just saw and whathappened.this is a film where a lot of people dislike, but if you have an openmind then i would recommend it.

3xHCCH 2012-05-09 04:53:16

Best of the Realistic Horror Genre

"The Last Exorcism" starts off very well. It is presented like anexpose-type of documentary about a very theatrical pastor (CottonMarcus, played by Patrick Fabian) and his rites of "exorcism." Hebrings his crew along to the backwoods area of Louisiana, where astraight-laced farmer Louis Sweetzer suspects his daughter Nell to bepossessed by a demon, and killing all of his livestock.The director and writers could not seem to make up their minds as towhat was really happening to Nell as the film went along. Were theseincredible events paranormal or psychotic? The audience will be puzzledas Pastor Cotton and his crew were puzzled, although I think ourdecisions would probably not be the same as the pastor's. Then, therewas that revelatory denouement of what the pastor and his crewwitnessed in the clearing, which was a big "huh?" moment that may notgo over with some audiences. I did not really mind it, but itdefinitely came out of left field.I thought the actors were all very good, in contrast to previous filmsof this realistic type, namely "Blair Witch Project" and "ParanormalActivity." Patrick Fabian has the charisma to pull off his charlatanminister act convincingly. Ashley Bell, the actress who played the"possessed" girl Nell, was very fresh and natural. Her country girldemeanor was so realistic, you would not know she was an actress atall. Her "possessed" scenes were pretty disturbing given how she wasintroduced at the start.I really liked the pace of the film, in general. It was relaxed andactually interesting. I liked the gradually increasing scary tension. Ithought the music score was good (yes, it had music despite supposedlybeing "found footage"). The shaky hand-held camera was not as dizzyingas that in "Blair Witch." Even though the real scares happen well afterthe first hour, I did not mind. I liked how the whole film ended,despite some questions it may leave unanswered.

macleinn23 2012-05-08 23:14:09

Some chills but still Luke-warm

I love exorcism movies as they usually involve creepy scenes andeternal damnation. THIS exorcism movie, however, falls completelyshort.Though Patrick Fabian does an excellent job as the deeply jadedReverend Cotton Marcus, Ashley Bell is the movie's only real ray oflight; her portrayal of meek, bewildered possession victim Nell iscreepy and at times downright disturbing. The other performances arecompetent though nothing special. As well, the movie does manage toachieve the right atmosphere through the first two acts but not enoughto save it from the decidedly worse-than-B-movie ending.Honestly, the ending is bad - like a barely-reasonable facsimile ofRosemary's Baby meets Blair Witch. I was actually more disappointedthan I thought I was going to be with the ending falling below evenwhat the movie was already averaging for viewing enjoyment.Viewer be warned!

2012-05-08 14:21:19

FILMED IN ST BERNARD PARISH!!!

PLOT WAS OK, BUT I LOVED THE FACT THAT IT WAS FILMED IN ST BERNARD PARISH. ALOT OF LAND MARKS OF THE PARISH WAS WELL NOTED.

Luis Cuevas 2012-05-07 22:57:09

It was only profitable for producers

It was only profitable for producers who invested 2 million and havealready collected about 40 million estimated. The only affected werethose of the cinema audience. The movie has no special effects some,only used the ability of actors to create fear in the audience who seesit. If they had continued with the talent of the players until the end,perhaps until the film has been nominated for an award, but theproduction turned to some poor special effects right in the last minuteof film. it was an error to predict the fate of the characters withsomething as simple as a drawing of a child with problems. Lacking muchprops and details in indoor scenarios. We need more and better audiocinematography. Lacking more sound effects. Lacking imagination. Thecasting was not too bad. But the image of the assistant priest at theend, was not consistent with the sympathy which she transmitted to thescreen. Again good business for producers.

meininky 2012-05-05 04:54:16

An underwhelming effort

Ambiguity is a powerful tool for a writer, filmmaker, or any creativeperson. But there's a fine line between ambiguity and lazystorytelling. The Last Exorcism, unfortunately, makes use of thelatter. The film poses many questions but doesn't feel the need toanswer most of them, meaning at the end of the film, the audience isn'tso much pondering the themes of religious doubt and the adverse effectsof shame so much as wondering what the hell just happened. The lack of clarity is only made more frustrating by the overly shakyhandy-cam cinematography. I normally enjoy this mode of filmmaking, andit was proved to be effective for horror films in last year'sphenomenal breakout Paranormal Activity, but Daniel (the cameraman) hasa bit too shaky of a hand for the style to work well here. I actuallygot a headache from some of the later, jumpier scenes. It's a shame the film meanders to such a laughable conclusion, becauseit starts with such promise. The first half hour or so is surprisinglyfunny, effectively parodying the genre (specifically exorcism-basedhorror films) and presenting a religious slant to the proceedings thatmakes things interesting initially but ultimately seems cheap and evenstupid. Two fine performances from Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell arewasted as the material goes from subtly self-reflexive to blatantlygeneric. The horror that unfolds along the way rarely generates anyreal scares, settling instead for bursts of weirdness, cheap jumps, andultimately, an unattractive mixture of stupidity and discomfort.

johnhillery 2012-05-04 17:29:40

Yet another Blair Witch "Follower"

Growing up I was told to be a "Leader" and not a "Follower". To badpeople making movies don't live by this. I am so tired of seeing peoplemimic another movie instead of making an original one.Blair Witch made money NOT because it was good but because is wasdifferent. We never saw a "Suppose to be real, cam recorder" movie".After Blair Witch's hit at the box office everyone got on the bandwagon and decided to be a "Follower".Not only is this movie bad because the decided to be a "follower", thedirecting of the movie is to.ANY movie filmed with a hand held and acting like it is real willalways get the lowest rating from me.This movie might have had a chance to be good, if someone with talentactually made a REAL movie and not this Blair Witch wanna be...

2012-04-29 23:49:12

Good start, tense middle, puzzling end

This docu-film begins with a biography of preacher Marcus Cotton, a man with contradictory religious beliefs who preaches in order to make money. He does exorcisms on the believers, knowing full well it is a trick although a well intentioned one.Cotton gets more than he asked for when he meets Nell and the Sweetzers. The family covers up a rough past and uses Nell's apparent possession as a way to escape their troubles. The father hopes that her exorcism will solve their problems.The start and middle are great, filled with creepy atmosphere and the witchery and entrenched superstitions of the South, but at the end it unravels, giving the audience too much to believe in too short a time. At times the film makers have their own conflicts about whether they wanted to make a true "Exorcist" style film or a film about religious frauds, faith and reason. Last Exorcism will treat you to a decent but uneven spectacle.

dnL0901 2012-04-29 03:07:12

The best horror film since Rec

I was not the least bit excited about seeing this film; but that workedout really well because the main character who was a pseudo-preacherwasn't really excited about exorcisms. He was the perfect counterpartto the lasting bad taste that recent exorcist movies had left behind.This movie has everything those movies did not, which is an intelligentscript, a real and reasonable main character, and a thin line betweenreality and Christian dogma. The documentary style aimed to expose thefraud of exorcisms gives the movie a very scary feel, but also makesfun of our fears and we can laugh at it. I'm not going to give asummary, but recommend that you see it!

2012-04-26 18:20:48

Tragic story that must be told.

From start to end, the scenes are gloomy, dim, and depressing. From the onset, you would think that story would follow the Paranormal trail. As the priests turn into forensic experts, the narration comes to focus on the unfortunate sin of incest. The clues develop as the events unfold. Yet, the most stressing aspect of the movie was the playful scare tactics of the moviemaker that attempted to add an aura of terror. Most of the scenes are unclear and served no purpose in charging the viewers' emotion. The tragic story suffices traumatize a rational person. The outcome of the story is most probably the most established practice since the rise of mankind. In many cultures, the offspring of sin is eliminate together with the vulnerable target. Here, the vulnerable target will live with greater wounds than being eliminated. The end was definitely well thought. The respected priest participating in a clandestine abortion leaves the viewers with endless thoughts. The church stepped in to help a hopeless family when no other authority could. The outcome was the murder of a newborn. Had the government stepped in, many citizens would have suffered endlessly under the heavy hand of state. The priest gained nothing by daring to endorse the harsh reality. "Cut off" summarized the underlying causes of the unfortunate outcome. The brother and sister were cut off society, slipped into sin, where the community was kind enough to lend help: kill the newborn.

2012-04-26 09:51:15

I'd give it 3 stars if not for the ending.

It could have been an interesting approach at an old story. However, there was far too much time spent on the fake exorcism but I guess that really was the whole purpose. The biggest problem is the ending. It ruins the few positive aspects that do exist.

rgordley-897-832377 2012-04-23 06:56:05

Great set-up ruined by last 10 minutes

In spite of the Blair Witch/Cloverfield fake documentary style, thefirst 75 minutes of this movie sustains interest and suspense as thesupposed exposure of a con-game style exorcism turns into somethingmore. Excellent acting primarily by Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell (whocan do frightening things with her body) makes the plight of theSweetzer family and the cynicism of Cotton Marcus a great setup. Thenthe imagination of writer/director ran out and we get a horriblyunsatisfying clumsy steal from Rosemary's Baby and Blair Witch. Thismovie insults the viewer with a cop-out ending and leaves a bad taste.8 point movie loses 5 points for phoning in a 1 point ending.

Abbas Khan 2012-04-22 18:05:21

Didn't Like it, I Loved it!! One of the Best Horror Movie I've seen

The Last Excorcism has done it for me. As a true horror Movie fan, Ihave to say that this is one of the best Horror movies I've ever seenand at the Top 5 of My List of Favorites. It has no mind-less slashingmoments like some other stupid movies have. Just pure Thrill that willkeep you engaged.It's a psychological view in the point of Excorcism with lots of scaresinvolved which took me out of my seat! This Movie has good elements ofExceptional Gore and Violence. And Good Suspense, Thrill and especiallyGood acting by all the actors, and all of them have done their jobperfectly. I must say!The ending was a bit disturbing, though. Which adds to another goodelement!I Rate it This Movie 9/10! It's Too Good And it is a Must See HorrorMovie. Go get it!