Director: Daniel Stamm
Screenplay: Huck Botko, Andrew Gurland
Producers: Marc Abraham, Marc Abraham, Eric Newman, Eli Roth
Starring:Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones
MPAA Rating: PG13
Running time: 87 min.

(2.5/5)

It’s unlikely that we’ll ever see a movie about exorcism as effective at scaring the pants out the viewer as William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, but admittedly, the trailer for Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism suggested good things.

Patrick Fabian is Cotton Markus, a minister who doesn’t believe in exorcisms and finds the idea of them troubling because they endanger the lives of those being exorcised. That doesn’t stop him from performing the rituals and collecting handsomely for his work but repeated news that children die during exorcisms prompts him to reveal the truth behind the sham that are exorcisms. With a camera crew in tow, he travels to a nearby town to help a man named Louis who believes his daughter Nell is possessed.

Cotton arrives on the property and is immediately accosted by Louis’ son Caleb who isn’t at all happy by the arrival of the minister. Cotton mmediately sets up shop and begins working on exorcising Nell’s demons with a few tricks more reminiscent of a magic act than a religious one. When all’s said and done, Cotton and his team retreat to a nearby motel for the night and then Nell arrives, out of sorts and looking a little green. The film crew, concerned that Nell is being abused by her father, try to convince Cotton to call authorities but he decides to investigate further and what he finds is that Nell really is possessed and that there’s more going on in the small Louisiana town than he’s prepared to handle.

Stamm’s film is interesting in that the trailer sold it solely on one scene of bone breaking horror. What you don’t know unless you’ve seen it (or until now), is that the scene is short and comes late in the film. It’s a bit of a bummer if you’re going in thinking you’re seeing a horror film when what you get is an interesting look at the hoax of exorcisms except its not really a hoax but rather a non-believer’s approach to something he believes is false.

There’s been a lot of buzz of Ashley Bell whose performance is good but I was much more taken with Patrick Fabian in the role of minister Cotton Markus who is likable and charismatic, even when he’s taking money for services rendered when he actually did nothing more than put on a show. His character and actions do bring up some interesting ideas about faith and religion but it’s all pretty vague and the film is much more interested in building up to the explosive (literally) finale.

The Last Exorcism isn’t a bad film it’s just one sold on a premise when, in fact, it’s something completely different. That would all be well and fine if it managed to stick to its ideas but the ending is awful and everything that leads up to it loses some of its sheen. It definitely had potential and starts off brilliantly but The Last Exorcism ends in a disappointing mess.

The Last Exorcism is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Alliance on January 4th.

DVD Extras: A couple of audio commentaries including one with Eli Roth, Eric Newman and Thomas A. Bliss and another with Daniel Stamm, Ashley Bell, Patrick Fabian, and Louis Herthum. I would have preferred to have a commentary track with Roth and Stamm together. Other extras include a feature entitled “Real Stories of Exorcism” which actually made for an interesting watch and a behind the scenes making-of documentary.