Movie Gazette

At some point, The Last Exorcism was going to be called Cotton after the faith-questing preacher upon whom the film’s moral dilemmas are focused. In the sense that the best parts of the film revolve around Patrick Fabian’s odd anti-hero charlatan preacher, the simple title would have worked—but it would’ve confused the audiences that the studios covet into thinking this was more drama, less scary. It also would have been a better representation of 95% of the film than those commercials that show you all the scary parts and make you think this is an Exorcist redux—sure, there are possession-flick staples all over this one, but what makes it worth seeing is Fabian’s conflicted evangelist.

See, this whole mess started because Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), one in a family line of preachers, has grown weary of his craft, and has decided to film a documentary meant to expose the trickery behind the showmanship of “exorcism,” which he has long faked by exploiting the fragile psyches of the so-called “possessed.” Arriving on the Sweetzer farm with a firmly held disbelief, he has a change of heart upon meeting young Nell (Ashley Bell) and her deeply religious father, and after a lifetime of tricking believers into buying in to the idea of demonic possession, Cotton is forced to face the very foundation of everything he has ever done in the name of God.

First off, forget the trailers—while it’s true that there are some genuinely disturbing aspects and images throughout, The Last Exorcism can almost be deemed a drama with some scary bits as opposed to the shock-a-minute horrorfest its ads herald it as. Plus, tacking Eli Roth onto anything guarantees we’re going to go in expecting gore and splatter. What we get is not so much of that but more of a look at the struggle of a man disillusioned with the life of a faux man of God who has to grapple with his—here it comes—inner demons. Performances are all spot on, and aided by the near-unknown status of most of the cast, everything feels just a bit more authentic. What drags it all down is that it’s disjointed, inconsistent, and though it has some suspenseful and grabby scenes, they deflate with no follow-through. Granted we’re doing the mock-doc thing, but there are shots that are just pointlessly bad.

Then there’s the ending. All over the blogs and boards, debates rage about how this story ends … and I’m not going to provide any spoilers. For me, though, it isn’t bad in regards to content; it just feels rushed and off kilter with the rest of the film. What I will say is that the last fifteen or so minutes change the whole game, and you’ll either love it or hate it—either way, though, at least it’s got people talking. The ending isn’t the problem—the issue is that the whole film never quite figures out what it wants to be or how to get there, so it vacillates between thought-provoking, boring, and messy.