The problem with the ‘faux-documentary’ model for horror film-making is that, at some point, they tend to have to break the natural mood and deliver the shocks that your audience came to see. There are obvious advantages to framing a film like this as ‘found footage’, (it makes the exposition that much easier and the motivation for encountering supernatural beings that much more believable), but it’s the rare filmmaker who sets up a compelling argument that these are events that would later be edited and then released as a theatrical feature film. For the majority of its running time, The Last Exorcism is a surprisingly sensitive and intelligent portrait of religious doubt and family dissolution. But like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield before it, Exorcism doesn’t trust its premise to be scary enough, and bends it so far that it throws the whole thing into question. (Note: Though I don't think there's anything surprising in here, this could be construed as having spoilers.)
Over the years, the Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) has developed a slightly more complicated (and cynical) view of his own role in the community. Though he started out fully believing in the power of exorcism, he has since come to view the practice as more of an emotional benefit to people, a ritual that helps people who believe themselves to be possessed by demonic forces. After agreeing to be recorded by documentarian Iris Reisen (Iris Bahr) for his 'last exorcism', he is summoned to the home of Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum) and his children Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones) and Nell (Ashley Bell). Louis is of the belief that his Nell has been slaughtering his livestock, and is thus possessed by the devil. Marcus goes into his routine, but it doesn’t take long for him and the crew to realize that they’re in well over their heads, and that his powers of willful delusion may be no match for what they are facing.
Ashley Bell has received a good deal of acclaim for her performance as Nell (and with good reason; her totally natural physical contortions put anything that Linda Blair did to shame), but due credit must also go to Fabian, who turns Marcus into a surprisingly complex protagonist. Even when he is setting up AV equipment to further the illusion that his followers are suffering from demonic possession (and then collecting money for his efforts later on), he clearly has never lost sight of his belief that he is doing a better good by convincing people that he is an exorcist than by allowing for the religious mania of his congregants to go unchecked (he tells a story early on about a boy suffocating by the amateur exorcism on the part of his parents). When confronted by a fairly convincing possession, he responds in the same way that we all would: dismissal, followed by a nagging, paranoid tendency to cover all of your bases, just in case you’re wrong. For a long time, the film hovers comfortably in that grey area, where the origin of Nell’s affliction could be either metaphysical or psychological, in much the same way that the reality of Calvin's Hobbes is. Had they continued along that path, the film would have in all likelihood become a classic, and the first real successor to The Blair Witch Project in terms of effectively translating mythical horror to the camcorder age.
Much has already been written about how unsatisfying the ending is, and it’s hard to come to a different conclusion on home video. Everything that works so well up to a certain point is turned on its head quickly and entirely, as if you are suddenly watching a new director take over. It’s far from the stupidest ending to ever be hoisted onto a horror film, nor is it even unacceptable on its own terms, but it is handled in such a way that suggests that the director was unsure of it himself, and just kind of wanted to get it over with. It’s a shame, because it negates what came before it not merely on a level of tone and logic, but in basic communication with your audience. Taken literally, it could be interpreted as a condemnation of even the most modest departure from fundamentalism, but given how abrupt and discordant it is, it's hard to believe that any deeper meaning was meant to be derived from it. That's usually not a problem in horror, but it's a little discouraging in a film that not only seems to promise it, but merit it.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
This Blu-ray contains not one, not two, but three audio commentaries: one with Eli Roth, Eric Newman and Thomas A. Bliss, another with Daniel Stamm, Ashley Bell, Patrick Fabian, and Louis Herthum, and a final one featuring exorcism participants. There is also a feature entitled "Real Stories of Exorcism", which recalls different cable documentaries on such subjects. Both of these subjects are handled reasonably respectfully, but given the direction that the film ends up taking, their appropriateness could be called into question. The inclusion of a Protection Prayer to prevent exposure to demons doesn't really help, but one does have to reflect on how that is a very real concern to many people. There's also a 'making-of' entitled 'The Devil You Know', a theatrical trailer, audition footage of main actors (Ashley Bell, Patrick Fabian, Caleb Landry Jones, and Louis Herthum), and a teaser trailer from Cannes 2009.
"The Last Exorcism" is on sale January 4, 2011 and is rated R. Horror. Directed by Daniel Stamm. Written by Huck Botko, Andrew Gurland. Starring Ashley Bell, Caleb Landry Jones, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Patrick Fabian.
