The Last Exorcism

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Sep 062010

You can do it, put your back into it.

You know what’s great about having been raised Catholic? Free cookies. And if you buy into the whole transubstantiation thing and if you’re a cannibal, double rainbow. I’m not a cannibal but being raised in the amusement park ride that is the Catholicism (12 years of Catholic school, thank you) and being taught all the freaky shit that you might know us for (yes, they did), we’re particularly susceptible to peeing ourselves when it comes to exorcism-devil-satan-possession movies. So in finding out that The Last Exorcism was a kind of U.S., mainstream Christianity take on “the devil made do it” sub genre, I was intrigued. Catholics Vs. Evangelists: Who’s Demons spit split pea soup more convincingly?

The Last Exorcism, originally titled Cotton, is fittingly all about the main demon buster, Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian).¬† Having grown up the son of a prominent pastor, Cotton was primed to follow in his father’s foot steps from the day he could hold a bible.¬† Like any good little foot solider, he never questioned anything he was taught and simply embraced his lot in life with his congregation’s adoration galvanizing his passion for preaching.¬† As time goes on, Cotton begins to become aware of his disconnectedness from his preaching with personal event in his life bringing him to the realization that he thinks everything he’s done with his life is a sham.

Bearing a cross of truth upon his shoulders, he chooses to expose preaching for the stage show that he believes it to be by inviting a documentary film crew to follow him on what he thinks is the biggest crock in the circus, exorcism.¬† Having opened a typical exorcism request letter from the top of a large stack of them, Cotton gets the crew together and we’re on our way…

This film is of the found footage sub genre of film, just like The Blair Witch Project and similar to The Fourth Kind, minus the reenactment by Leelo Dallas aspect.¬† What sets this film apart from those two features is that the found footage device fits perfectly well within the confines of this particular story not only with how the story develops but with the actual quality of the footage.¬† The documentary crew, consisting only of the director, Iris Reisen (Iris Bahr) and the camera man, Dan Moskowitz (Adam Grimes) give the impression of having documentary shooting experience as the camera work and shots are both competent and pertinent to the subject matter as it unfolds before them.¬† The Last Exorcism’s actual director, Daniel Stamm, in effect, gets a free ride through these two characters to shoot a found footage film that doesn’t feel like a rough ride in an amusement park; these two would shoot a film well.

Having such an easy time viewing something that shouldn’t be comes in handy here and goddamit, I can’t tell you why.¬† If you have any desire to see this film, you’d might find it within in your rights to crucify me if I told you why.¬† You’re sick asshole if you’d try but I could see where you’re coming from.¬† The film got some noticeable heckling as the credits started to role when I saw it but that’s only because this film was marketed as horror fest in a similar vein to The Exorcist.

You have to understand, there will probably never be another film about exorcism that will be the second coming of The Exorcist.¬† Sorry.¬† The Last Exorcism is, I can tell you, barely a horror film.¬† I could go into detail about the possessed, Nell (Ashley Bell) and all the contorting and voices and other stuff she pulls off convincingly well but in the end, none of that really mattered.¬† This was all about Cotton and his wrestling with what he believes.¬† It might be easy to lose sight of that if you’re looking to be scared but in delving into that, as somebody who still can’t stand the idea of screwing with a Ouija board, for me, the scares here were almost non-existent.

Despite this movie being very un-scary for me, I can’t say that I wasn’t impressed with what was pulled off in this PG-13 romp enough to use a double negative.¬† Ashley Bell, a newcomer if I’m not mistaken, was given a pretty big role to fill and she shows a tremendous amount of promise.¬† She wasn’t given a terrible amount help from special effects, her bodily contorting looked freaky but most of it looked like she was just a limber girl and that she was cast with that in mind.¬† The scare set ups depended solely on your imagination molesting your expectations into crying in the corner but the majority of them don’t pay off in that “HOLY SHIT!” way that we all want them to.

I don’t want to be that guy who tells you how to feel when you go see a movie; you have your own expectations and that’s the way it should be.¬† However, I’d almost feel remiss if I didn’t tell you that if you go into The Last Exorcism expecting to leave a stain on the seat, you’ll probably wind up doing it just to spite the clean up crew for having paid money for your disappointment.¬† I went in feeling that way but as it played out before me with the little jokes present throughout, with the little bits of sympathetic humanity displayed by Cotton and crew, my expectations shifted from wanting to be scared to wanting to see what would happen to Cotton and his film crew and wanting them all to have some kind of closure with what had been happening to them.¬† The weren’t demon finger puppets anymore; I cared about them.

The Last Exorcism is going to get a lot of shit from horror fans, I think.¬† Maybe rightfully so, considering what’s presented before them.¬† I think this movie will find it’s fans in people who just love well told stories and for me, that was pretty awesome.¬† Approved and recommended for people who don’t to have nightmares about a crusty-faced Linda Blair.

Oh, and to answer my main question, Catholic demons totally out demon Christian demons.