'Last Exorcism' Review: Smart & Intensely Satisfying

Like 1999’s “Blair Witch Project” and 2007’s “Paranormal Activity,” “The Last Exorcism” (which opens everywhere this Friday) effectively utilizes the concept of a single camera pseudo-documentary style to tell the story of Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a fire and brimstone preacher who was once a Bible-thumping child prodigy but who has now lost faith in both his profession and in God. Cotton’s a charismatic fraud tired of being Elmer Gantry and eager to make up for his past, especially for the many phony exorcists he profited from at the expense of those suffering from either religious fervor or very real psychological problems — everything but actual demonic possession.

A newspaper report detailing the death of a young child at the hands of another exorcist prompts Cotton to team up with documentary filmmaker Iris Reisen (Iris Bahr) and her heard but never-seen cameraman. Hoping to save other children from a similar fate, the idea is to use the film as a way to put these bunko artists out of business by exposing the tricks of the exorcism trade for all the world to see.

Though wanting to do the right thing, this doesn’t exactly mean Cotton’s a contrite man. With his loss of faith came a sense of superiority and even contempt for those who haven’t seen the secular light. He now openly mocks believers and when a letter arrives from Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum), a widower from rural Louisiana requesting an exorcism for his teenage daughter Nell (Ashley Bell), Cotton arrogantly assumes he’s found the perfect family of superstitious rubes for his cinematic expose’.

To say things don’t go exactly as Cotton planned would be quite the understatement.

At 88 minutes, director Daniel Stamm keeps things humming but never at the expense of what makes for an effective horror film: a believable set up and enough time with the characters that you come to care about their well-being. A smart, thoughtful script avoids cheap scares and keeps you guessing throughout as to what might really be happening. Each plot twist and turn offers what could be a valid explanation for Nell’s behavior – that is, until the next valid explanation comes along. Is she schizophrenic, psychotic? Is she truly possessed by a demon? Is this all a hoax set up by Cotton? (A hint is dropped early on that the clean cut ex-preacher enjoys making short films that include special effects.)

Thanks in large part to a logical plot, the storytelling spell never breaks. This is one of those rare horror films where you don’t roll your eyes at the stuff dumb movie-people do. While you most certainly wish everyone would get the hell out of that house, their reasons for sticking around do make sense. This makes the experience a truly frightening one, and at times so intensely terrifying that you just want it to end so you can drink hot cocoa and speed-dial your mommy.

The conceit of the faux-documentary works perfectly as a You Are There device, and while the camera might be handheld, it’s (thankfully) not distractingly so. A bigger plus are impeccable and believable performances by all, especially the two leads. Fabian’s outstanding as a fallen preacher dealing with a crisis of conscience but also made smug now that he thinks he has all the answers. As Nell, the home-schooled and naïve farm girl who will knock the smug right out of him, Ashley Bell gives a career-making performance. In seconds she goes from zero to rampage, from innocent to something grotesquely contorted, from someone you want to protect, to something you need protection from.

Make no mistake, for all its many pleasures this is certainly nothing like the uniquely terrifying experience that was William Friedkin’s “Exorcist.” For starters, the chills don’t linger for a single moment after the lights come up. But to his credit, Stamm’s film is his own and still plenty intense, though a tad anti-climatic.

For those of you understandably worried about how a Hollywood hostile to all things Christian will treat your faith, fear not. This is intelligent movie-making, and with a PG-13 rating, also not a grotesque blood bath. Although what you see in your mind’s eye might make you think otherwise.

Strap in. Hold on. Have fun.