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A horror film that starts out as a mockumentary must have
seemed like a good idea at the time. The Last Exorcism lulls the
audience into generic expectations, and for a while at least, we sail
along with them just fine. Reverend Cotton Marcus (Fabian) is an
Evangelist who performs exorcisms; even in this day and age he gets
requests from all over the US of A. Determined to expose the
charlatanism of his occupation (which he wants to end), he engages a
camera crew of three to track him to one last such expulsion of evil.
Picking the request at the top of his mail pile, the gang
head off to post-Katrina Louisiana, to the Sweetzer family, where
widowed father Louis (Herthum) is struggling to raise a boy and girl
teenager. It is extra-hard because Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed and
has been killing the livestock (uber-Biblical) in her sleep. Father and
son Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones) fear for their lives but Caleb is far
from welcoming.
The good reverend Marcus does his usual shtick and
performs a mock exorcism, mostly to allay parental fears. All is well
and the girl rests, except, later that night, she turns up at the crew's
motel all bloodied and gruesome. Then we descend into some grim Deep
South connotations (she's a pregnant virgin?) and the crew realise that
they must blow their cover for the safety of the girl. But is it too
late...?
The Last Exorcism
starts out so well, both in terms of look and feel. There's a comical
playfulness which is a pleasant surprise and makes viewing non-taxing
but engaging. The 'through the camera' viewing is deliberately immersive
and immediate. Marcus is easy to like and very charismatic; the topic of
unmasking religious tom-foolery is also a welcome one for me.
However, the filmmakers change tack and shift genre,
disappointing the viewer's expectations. Presumably this was done to
scare and thrill us... it is a horror film, after all. As documentary
and mockumentary makers, Stamm, Botko, Gurland et al are very good; as
horror makers, they should keep trying. The result is insipid and vapid:
a low-budget and inferior mash of Blair Witch and The Exorcist
with no cred or gravitas. You cannot take them seriously and are instead
left to laugh awkwardly with everyone else. I felt sorry for the actors,
who were really trying. The ending is also quite something, but not
necessarily in a good way.
More interesting than the film is the source of its
documentary inspiration: 1972's Marjoe, a film about a real-life
preacher who gives the game away and is aided by embedded filmmakers. It
can be found
online,
and if you're at all curious, it's well worth a look. |
