The Last Exorcism Movie Review 166

 

 

 

The Last Exorcism is a horror documentary-style movie. It stars Patrick Fabian, Iris Bahr and Ashley Bell.

It is directed by Daniel Stamm .

This film is based on Reverend Cotton Marcus(Fabian) who was brought up to be a healer and he was a devout Christian and an Exorcist before his son was born disabled and he reads an article in a newspaper of a young boy being killed during an exorcism. He loses his belief in possessions etc and he sets out to debunk the so called possessed. He receives a letter from a guy called Louis Sweetzer(Louis Herthum) who is worried about his daughter, Nell(Ashley Bell). He thinks that she has been possessed. Cotton's documentary is going to expose this as just nonsense. He thinks that the girl is not possessed and he is going to show people that it is all not true.

 He travels to the Sweetzer farm and he is stopped by a young guy in a truck called Caleb(Caleb Landry Jones) who tells him to go home. Cotton is not put off though and he soon finds out as he pulls up to the farm that Caleb is Louis' son. He does not want Nell to get hurt in this exorcism.

Cotton talks to Louis and he finds out that Nell walks down to the barn and kills animals without remembering it and other strange things. Cotton sets up props and he fools the family into believing that she is possessed and that he has driven out the demon. He leaves, thinking that everything is fine. Nell turns up that night at his hotel and she is in a strange state. They take her to the hospital. but she is physically fine. Cotton thinks that she might need psychiatric help. Cotton goes to see Pastor Manley(Tony Bentley) who was a good friend of the family until he fell out with Louis over Nell. Nell's dad takes her home and she hurts her brother, Caleb with a knife. Louis chains her to the bed, but Cotton and his crew arrive at the house and Cotton releases her. She is acting very strangely.

Nell kills a cat and she is going to kill Cotton but the crew stop her. They look around the house and Cotton thinks that the father is abusing her. He sees pictures of himself and the crew dying in different ways and it spooks him. He finds out that Nell is pregnant and he thinks that her father is the culprit.Louis returns and he holds a shotgun on Cotton until he agrees to do another exorcism. He does so and it seems as if there is a demon inside Nell as her body contorts and she breaks her own fingers. Cotton begins to realise that she is just pretending, though and  when he questions her, he sees that she is just disturbed and not possessed. Later, Nell tells that a local boy got her pregnant. Cotton goes to see him and he denies it.He tells them that Nell was at a party held by Pastor Manley and Cotton realises that the Pastor lied as he told Cotton that he has not seen Nell in a long time. He goes back to the farm and finds the house covered in Satanic symbols. He goes to the woods nearby and sees a group of Satanists led by Pastor Manley. Nell is tied to an altar and her 'baby' is delivered. It is not human and they throw it on the fire. They hear demonic voices from the flames. Cotton is horrified and he realises that his faith in God has been restored. He goes towards the fire. The rest of the crew run by are caught by the Satanists, one of who is Caleb, Nell's brother. The movie ends with the cameraman being decapitated by Caleb. His camera falls to the ground and that is it(Blair Witch anyone?)

An okay movie. I thought that it started well and went downhill near the end. The twist wasn't that great and I was disappointed with the end to be honest. I thought that it could have been a lot better.It gets a 5/10.