The Last Exorcism (2010) – A Movie A Day 2021 #19
The Last Exorcism (2010) – A Movie A Day 2021 #19
Found footage movies have a bad reputation. Ever since the subgenre’s popularization with The Blair Witch Project back in 1999, general audiences have tended to look down on found footage movies. Granted, the proliferation of hastily made found footage horror movies in the ensuing decades has set the bar pretty low, but the when the style is done well, the resulting movies can be great. In my opinion, The Last Exorcism is one of those great found footage movies.
The Last Exorcism follows Reverend Cotton Marcus, a charismatic preacher with a flair for showmanship. Marcus believes that by preaching he can perform a valuable mental service for those who find comfort in religion, but events in his life have caused him to no longer believe in the spiritual side of what he does. Marcus has lost his faith in God, and that lack of faith has caused him to re-think his stance on some of the more archaic practices in his religion. Specifically, stories of children being harmed and killed by modern-day exorcisms have led to Marcus feeling the need to expose exorcisms as fraudulent and unnecessarily dangerous. So with that in mind, Marcus invites a two-person documentary crew to follow him as he performs one final exorcism with the goal of showing that there are no gods or demons involved, just people with serious mental problems.
The setup for the exorcism itself is pretty standard as far as these things go. The person possessed is a young girl who has been living an isolated life in rural Louisiana with her extremely overprotective father. The girl, Nell, is sweet and naïve about the ways of the world, and it becomes apparent that her father, Louis, has been raising her with a strict and fundamental understanding of Christianity. Nell also has a brother, Caleb, who is protective of his sister in a different way than their father. Caleb sees the danger in his father’s way of thinking, and he blames Louis for Nell’s problems. That anger is evident right away when Marcus and his crew arrive at Louis’s house, and it sets up some great tension between Caleb and Marcus very early in the movie. From there, Marcus gets to know the family and goes about his fake exorcism. Things begin to get out of control though, and there may be more to Nell’s problems than Marcus was prepared for.
So yeah, the setup isn’t super original, but the difference between The Last Exorcism and a bunch of other exorcism movies in in the stylistic approach and in the characters. First of all, I think found footage is a great format for a movie like this. I’ve seen some actual documentaries on exorcisms (there’s even one on Netflix right now called The Devil and Father Amorth made by William Friedkin, the director of The Exorcist), and the pseudo-documentary style of the early portion of The Last Exorcism feel very similar to a lot of those. Of course with something like this I always end up questioning the logic of having the footage edited so nicely if it were footage that had actually been found somewhere, but that aside, the filmmakers used the format extremely effectively.
As I said, the first part of the movie feels very much like a documentary. We get to know Reverend Marcus and his motivations, and he comes across as likable and sympathetic. The actor playing Marcus, Patrick Fabian, does a fantastic job. He infuses a certain degree of smarm and sarcasm into Marcus, but never so much that you start to dislike him. There are enough funny moments that you start to smile with him, and there are enough quiet moments that you begin to understand that he’s taking a huge personal risk by doing what he’s doing. Turning his back on the church could have dire consequences for his family, but he’s doing what he believes is right. All of that comes across very effectively through Patrick Fabian’s performance.
After Marcus and his crew get to the farmhouse, the tension begins to rise. Part of that is thanks to Caleb, played by the great Caleb Landry Jones, and part of the tension increases naturally as Nell’s situation starts to unravel before our eyes. The found footage style really works to add an immediacy to that tension. Not only are you right there with everyone in the house with the chance that some very dark forces will be looking right at the camera/at you, but as the tension and action ramp up, the cameraman becomes less careful with his shooting style. Yes, there is a decent amount of shaky cam in the later stages of the movie, but that’s never really bothered me. To me, the shaky cam is part of the effectiveness of the style. We’re not supposed to see everything clearly, and that adds to the terror.
In the later stages of the movie you might start to question why the camera is still recording, but the movie does an admirable job of setting up everyone’s motivations enough so that most questions of that type have more or less been addressed. Well, maybe not at the very end of the movie, but I think a little suspension of disbelief is warranted given the strong setups earlier in the movie.
I’ve already talked about how good Reverend Marcus is, but the rest of the cast is great as well. Nell is played by Ashley Bell, and she really gets into her role. Nell is rather childlike when we first meet her, which makes sense given her background, but she is also very convincing when she goes to some of her darker places. Caleb Landry Jones plays Nell’s brother Caleb like a bomb about to go off. He seems dangerous right from the start, but once the family drama begins to come to light, you might be more on his side that you previously thought. And the father, Louis, is played very well by Louis Herthum. Louis is strong and stubborn, but there’s also a deep sadness driving him forward. He seems like he’s about to go over the edge, but what that means for everyone in the house remains unclear at first.
So yeah, I love The Last Exorcism. I’ve seen it a few times now, and I enjoy it every time. Like many found footage movies, the action and terror are built up to, so the most exciting bits are towards the end of the movie, but that feels more realistic to me. If you have scary, life-threatening stuff going on early in a found footage movie, then I have a harder time believing that the people involved wouldn’t just leave. In The Last Exorcism, I understand why the characters do what they do even if I don’t agree with all of their decisions. The writing and the acting make me believe that they believe they are doing the right thing pretty much all the time. But yeah, if you’re not into a slower buildup for a series of payoffs later on, then this movie might not be for you. But if you’re looking for a good found footage movie with some memorable characters and scenes, then The Last Exorcism should be on your list. I’ve read reviews where people say they don’t like the ending (I’m phrasing that way more politely than they usually do), but I think the ending, bonkers as it is, was well done and was foreshadowed in a rather sensible fashion. That’s all I’ll say about it though. Check it out, then we can talk about that ending. By the way, don’t watch this trailer if you don’t want spoilers…