The Last Exorcism - Movie Review
What do you get when you take an in depth look at the world of sham churches and Deep South Christian mysticism through the lens of a documentary? Probably one of the best found footage films ever made.
Let’s discuss.
I remember when I first saw this film. I was a key holder at Blockbuster and I’d run out of films to watch. I used the movie pass to watch every film in the store. So anytime something new came in, I was on it. To tell the truth, I wasn’t excited for the viewing. Exorcism is overdone not just in fiction, but in real life. Exorcism is a widely used practice by both charlatans and the church as a power move. If faith in the church has waned, throw out a violent exorcism in a public place and boom, hallelujah. In the US, swaths of conmen travel around without any religious affiliation and perform exorcisms for cash, tax free, thanks to the US’s archaic tax laws.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a religious person. I was raised as a non-denominational Christian and I actually attended Christian Seminary courses near the end of my high school education. In those courses, I was able to delve in the Apocryphal texts like the book of Enoch. This gave me an education on angelic mythology and of course demonology. My studies as well my environments attempt to use right wing indoctrination to keep me in line lead me to develop very different beliefs on faith. I personally still believe in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, but I do not believe in prayer. I believe in a deistic world where mankind needs to succeed or fail on its own power. I also don’t talk about my faith unless asked. I’m never going to preach at you or anyone in my life because one’s beliefs are their own business. I have friends who are devote Satanists, Wiccans, and Occultists. Why? Because they are nice to me and I find them interesting. Faith should not divide us.
Imagine my surprise then when I watched this movie and it turns out to say a lot of things I was thinking while sitting in the pew on Sunday morning as a kid.
The Last Exorcism is a 2010 Horror / Found Footage film brought to us by director Daniel Stamm and writers Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland. You don’t recognize those names? Really? I can’t believe—wait, these are actually nobodies. All three of these guys have done little else than random television gigs. Maybe that’s why they plastered Eli Roth’s name all over the posters and TV spots, eh? Roth didn’t have much creative input on the film from what I’ve found in my research, which explains why he’s only credited as a producer and not executive producer.
It’s not a great start, but let’s look at this cast:
Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum, and Caleb Landry Jones—when Caleb Landry Jones is the biggest name in your cast… No offense to one of my favorite films of all time, Antiviral, but for real—this is a film of nobodies.
The film centers on Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a Southern fire and brimstone preacher. He was touched by God at a young age and began performing exorcisms at the age of ten. It’s an inspiring story, until Cotton reveals it was all a shame. His reverend father forced him to memorize scripture as soon as he was able to read. His reveal as a child preacher was all a set-up. While his father believes that it was all God’s doing, Cotton has lost faith. Although he performs exorcisms for cash, he doesn’t believe in any of it. He’s preparing to leave the faith behind him and become a normal member of society. He just has one job left… to expose everything behind the dangerous practice of fake exorcisms. He decides to take a documentary filmmaker and her cameraman with him on one last job, but when they arrive all is not what it seems. The fake exorcism goes off without a hitch, but that’s only the beginning. When the young exorcised girl shows up in Cotton’s hotel room in the early morning hours and voices in the night whisper about a satanic cult rising from the fields beyond Bush Rd, Cotton’s atheist faith is challenged. Is the evil tormenting this girl of man’s creation or something else. Are there eyes in the darkness waiting for him to fail? Find out tonight in The Last Exorcism.
Let’s Dive Deeper—CHOO CHOO—ALL ABOARD THE SPOILER TRAIN!
It’s a great premise. It’s a great idea. Play on the widespread hatred for the Catholic Church and religious fundamentalism in the modern day, but flip the script. Make people care by relating to the faithless. Genius.
The main reason this film works is because it was made with a cast of nobodies. As a person who lives and breaths horror, I love Patrick Fabian and Caleb Landry Jones, but the modern film audience will probably not recognize either of them. The most you might get is, is that the MMA brother from Get Out? Why yes, yes it is. Patrick Fabian is best known for his recurring role on Better Call Saul, but that wasn’t until 2015. Before that, he was on the crime show circuit. He’s one of those, That Guy! guys. Fabian is a fantastic character actor and he approaches this role with a weary sarcasm. While his wit is dry, he’s not mean spirited. I love how he asks questions that sound absurd like, “Where’s the UFO landing site?,” with congenial sincerity. He doesn’t talk down to people who believe in something, because it’s what makes them happy. The fact that he lacks faith, but still believes what he does helps people is a truly believable element. Mankind is nothing if not able to justify its deceptions. Fabian is 100% in the role. When he’s in plainclothes, he’s just a guy wanted what's best for his family, but when he puts on the suit, he becomes a bible-thumping, Latin-spitting super hero. I think one of the best parts of the film is when he tells the documentary crew that if you rile up the congregation, you can literally say anything and they will cheer. He bests the cameraman $10 that he could recite his mother’s Banana Bread recipe and no one would notice. I laughed outlaid as he wins the bet handily.
Then there’s Ashley Bell. A prolific voice actor who made a splash with her first starring role in this blockbuster film. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit award and an MTV Movie Award for her role in the film. Then she vanished back to the world of voice work. Prior to this film, she was most known for a recurring role on The United States of Tara. As Nell, she breaks your heart. She is such a sweet girl. Homeschooled and isolated by her fundamentalist father, she’s overjoyed to meet the film crew. She shed a tear when the filmmaker gives her a pair of red boots as a gift, because she’s never seen such pretty shoes. She’s a sweetheart. It’s the fragility Bell imbues the character with that makes the film so emotionally crushing. Bell has these eyes—Google it—they are haunting oceans of darkness. There is no divide between her pupils and iris. It’s an incredible trick of genetics that lends her a ghostly appearance. When Nell, the eyes are like a sad puppy. When her face contorts under the stress of Abamalam, they are horrifying mirrors of deceit. This is a performance for the ages.
This movie isn’t as over the top as most exorcism films as, for the most part, the filmmakers avoided the various stereotypes of the genre. Yes, there’s a possessed young girl, but its more wrinkle-brained than that. There’s also an unwanted pregnancy, history of a violent cult in the area, UFO activity, and a game of cat and mouse that you don’t realize started at the very first scene.
SUPER SPOLERS AHEAD
Every single scene from the beginning part of the documentary foreshadows events in the last half hour of the film. The writers pull off an amazing feat in rebutting every point Cotton makes and proving all the townspeople right in a way. Let’s take them one at a time, shall we?
The Banana Bread Sermon - Cotton’s joking bet on being able to say anything during the sermon once the crowd is riled up is thrown back in his face when he attempts to exorcise the demon from Nell for real. He screams verses, proverbs, but the demon screams back that all he is saying are meaningless words, words, words.
The Gas Stations Apostles - When interviewing the folks at the gas station in town before heading to the farm to perform the exorcism, Cotton interviews various townsfolk. His goal is to show how superstition in small towns is not an anomaly, but an institution. One woman tell him to be wary because there is a violent satanic cult that has been broken up once by police for attempting to do human sacrifices. There’s also tales of cattle mutilations due to Aliens, which also leads to mention or fiery lights in the sky. This all comes to a head when Cotton finds that Nell has been brutally killing cattle while seemingly sleepwalking. They also find that the town minister that they’ve gone to for help is actually the leader of the satanic cult and we seem him sacrifice Nell and her unborn child to the demon Abamalam who in turn reveals himself to be a towering creature built of fire and light.
The Family That Plays Together, Stays Together - Ew. Okay, so there’s an implication in the film by the documentary filmmaker that Nell’s father is molesting her. This is compounded by Nell’s brother slipping a note to Cotton, warning him to not leave his father alone with Nell and even more so when they hear a message on the answering machine from a local clinic notifying Nell’s father of his daughter’s pregnancy. They immediately begin treating Nell’s unstable father with derision, but it’s all for not. Nell’s father, while misguided, isn’t an evil man. Far from it, he’s the only person in the town that isn’t involved in the cult activity. It’s actually Nell’s brother, Caleb, who impregnated her. He also cut his own face in order to set-up the film crew for the horror they are going to endure and in turn, he returns just in time to murder the camera man, bringing to film to a close.
There are more than these three, but these are the easiest ones to recall. Pulling off tricks like these in a film is easier said than done. You need a great continuity team and clever performances to make it work. I can’t say enough about how good everyone worked together to make this con a success.
I know a sequel exists for this film, but as I recall, it was greatly derided as a lame cash grab. I’ll try to track down a copy as it’s not available for streaming in my region currently. For all intents and purposes I consider The Last Exorcism a one-off film.
Watch this movie if you like atmospheric horror that plays it fast and loose. If you like great acting and conflicted characters and slow burns, or if you—like me, come from an overbearing religious background. This film is for you.
Currently, The Last Exorcism is streaming on Amazon Prime.
