Reverend Cotton Marcus has been preaching since the age of ten. As an adult with a family of his own, he supplements his income as a preacher by performing exorcisms for money whether he feels they are needed or not. After a crisis of faith causes him to question his actions he allows a documentary team to follow him on his last performance as an exorcist.
The first half hour of this movie works. There is no horror in it save for a comical look at human depravity and ignorance. As an amateur stage magician, I particularly enjoyed the respect shown to the craft by the writers as well as Patrick Fabian’s performances. This was a long setup that turned out to be fun to watch. The setup itself is an upbeat story of redemption.
Things start to drag when the horror should begin. The mockumentary feel begins to lose its appeal as the camera work becomes shakier. The growing mysteries around the family and their perils feels dragged out. One also wonders if using a home deep in the countryside was intended as much to save money as it was to set a mood. The wonderful climax of the movie is nearly overshadowed by the dubious ending.
To be fair, the whodunnit aspect goes a great deal of re-synthesizing disparate tropes into a new whole. The movie showed equal parts modern “found footage” movie, exorcism movie, Evil Dead, and moody 1970s supernatural thriller. I can’t help but feel happy that someone tried to make this movie.
The Last Exorcism manages to be both sympathetic to people with faith while milking the charlatans on both side of pulpit. It manages to be a serious movie about exorcism without entirely mimicking what came before it. The filmmakers created a very competent horror movie for the pedestrian horror viewer. This is not to say that the movie is bad – it is very good for what it is. Persistent horror fans may not get as much out of the movie due to the familiar themes.
Recommended happily for casual horror fans.
