The Last Exorcism (Film Review)

2010 Lionsgate
Directed by: Daniel Stamm; Written by: Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland
Starring: Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell
MPAA Rating: PG-13; Running Time: 87 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 7/10

Reverend Cotton Marcus is a fraud. It's not that he doesn't believe in God, it's just that his "Can you say amen?" call-and-response sermons and fiery exorcisms are simply performances. Growing weary of faking it, and dismayed after seeing a news report that someone died as a result of an exorcism gone awry, Marcus decides that he will perform one last exorcism. This time, he'll take along a documentary film crew, in order to reveal his methods and prove once-and-for-all that exorcisms and demons are fake. The crew has barely even gathered enough shots of Cotton doing his usual number on his Baton Rouge congregation before a letter arrives, asking for Marcus' exorcism services. Good thing folks in South Louisiana are so gullible. Hey, wait a minute!
Cotton has been summoned to the rural Sweetzler farm. It seems Louis Sweetzler believes his daughter, Nell, has been killing the family livestock because she's been possessed by the devil. Cotton and his two-person crew show up at the swampy farm to find that something is definitely off, and Nell's brother, Caleb, seems to aggressively want them to leave. However, the film-making trio find they can write the weirdness off to simply the oddness of dysfunctional, superstitious yokels, who need Cotton to perform his fake exorcism in order to set their simple minds at ease. Cotton performs the exorcism, hidden speakers blasting demon noises, and all goes off without a hitch. He seems to have convinced the Sweetzler's that this demon has begoned, and all seems right with the world. Cotton and his crew get back to their hotel to relax and prepare to head back to Baton Rouge,when suddenly Nell shows up...and something is decidedly wrong.
The found-footage horror concept was old by the end of The Blair Witch Project, let alone 11 years later. Released in 2010, The Last Exorcism certainly arrived late to the party. However, this filming style does serve the The Last Exorcism quite well. Thankfully, it's built into the film's story that Marcus is working with professionals, so there's little of the shaky seizure-cam aspect that can plague this type of movie. The film also finds some creative ways to build suspense and draw some unexpected scares from the technique, despite its ubiquity. Also, The Last Exorcism is a pretty intimate film, with mostly just Cotton, Nell, and Louis on screen, and the handheld shooting style actually accentuates their interactions. It also highlights Patrick Fabian's excellent performance as the conflicted Reverend.
Fabian has come to some prominence in recent years on AMC's Better Call Saul, and has shown a knack, with his commanding voice and stature, for making figures in power seem a bit more empathetic. With Cotton Marcus, he both sells Marcus' salesman skills, and the fact that Cotton genuinely feels like he's helping his "customers." He also just wants to provide for his family, saying at one point that he'd just like to get a job with health insurance. When things take a dark turn with Nell, Cotton walks a fine line of truly caring for her and wanting to help her, while still failing to believe that the explanation for whatever's happening to her could be anything other than rational.
It's also refreshing that The Last Exorcism takes the rarely beaten path of having its main character lose faith in some of the more charismatic aspects of what he's doing, while not losing his faith altogether. It's one I myself am quite familiar with. For the majority of its run-time, The Last Exorcism does a phenomenal job of leaving it up to the viewer whether Nell, played extraordinarily by Ashley Bell, is possessed, or simply a very troubled young woman dealing with some very serious trauma...until those last five minutes.
Yes, it's not just the found-footage trope that The Last Exorcism follows, but the "Let's just left-turn into batshit crazy in the last five minutes" trope, as well. Honestly, I don't have a problem with what happens in those last five minutes. The events give a chance to strip Marcus to his pure essence, and show who he truly is...but the film could have given this ending just a bit more space to breathe in order to make it work better. The original conclusion before this insanity occurs is a little underwhelming, yet oddly fitting and still cathartic, kind of like kicking sand on a campfire to put it out, instead of dumping a bucket of water on it. The last five minutes of The Last Exorcism is like turning around from that put out camp fire to see the whole damn forest is ablaze. A fire that big needs more oxygen to exist than this film provides.
With that overblown fire metaphor out of the way, even with the tacked-on ending, The Last Exorcism is still worth watching, for its excellent performances, its complex subject matter, and the nuance and care it takes with its themes. And hey, if you like the batshit crazy left-turn ending that kind of ignores all that other stuff, you've got almost nothing not to like here!