Bob's Quick Look: The Last Exorcism (2010)

Cotton Marcus is a southern preacher who is suffering a crisis of faith and is therefore looking to retiring from the evangelical profession. As a final act, he seeks to expose the fraudulent nature of exorcism by inviting a camera crew to follow him as he performs his final “battle” against the forces of Hell. The documentary team behind him, Cotton answers a letter from a widowed father believing that his daughter has been possessed. The preacher shows the audience the tricks of the trade, such as hidden wire, prop smoking crucifixes and the like, and walks the onlookers through his performance. Once it is over however, the girl’s plight is not over as he “symptoms” continue, and Cotton’s investigation into the family’s past brings him closer than he has ever come to true evil.

*Spoiler Alert* This movie takes an interesting approach to exorcism horror. The main character is admitting that he is a fraud and is showing the audience how he, and many people in his profession, bilk people into believing their loved ones are healed when they might require medical and/or psychological treatment. The film does a good job of bringing this point up, while remaining focused on the main character and his internal conflicts.

The film moves at about the pace you would expect from either a pov or exorcism movie, but it manages to remain constant rather than slowing down and speeding up as some horror films tend to do. In other words, I never found myself saying to the screen, “will you just get on with it already?” as I have found myself doing lately (people in the theater tend to dislike this.)
The cast turn out a solid performance. Special props go to Ashley Bell who performed all her own body contortions and bends for the exorcism scene, eliminating the need for special effects.
The film moves towards a certain twist, namely that even though it is concluded the girl was grief stricken, disturbed and needed a shrink, she really is demon possessed and the main characters pay for their error. But when we get to the twist, the writer goes so far into left field that I would almost, almost classify this as a diarrhea-splatter ending. The one thing that is staying my hand on this, is the fact that the twist that is presented is not what I was expecting, so it succeeded in throwing me for a loop. But, when it came, I found myself saying, “What the Hell?”
Fans of both pov and exorcism styles of horror should check this one out. It will not disappoint.