“If you believe in God,” says Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), “then you must believe in the Devil.” This eternal clash between good and evil is the backbone of Christian faith, and Marcus understands that. Growing up in Baton Rouge as the son of a preacher, he was groomed to become one himself at a very early age; looking back on his life, he admits to the camera that, while he learned plenty about behaving like a preacher, he never really learned about what he was preaching. He plays the part of the pious evangelical beautifully – boisterous, flashy, always with the loud, slick talk about Jesus and God the Father Almighty and crying, “Amen!” But what does he really believe? He isn’t sure when the film starts, but when the film ends ... let’s just say that, at that point, a crisis of faith is the least of his problems.
 
Of one thing, he has become certain: Demons don’t exist. Having performed many exorcisms, he candidly explains that, although he has never been a doctor, he has served as a healer for those who believed they needed healing. All he had to do was put on a performance and maybe sneak in a few special effects. But then came news of a supposedly possessed autistic boy that was suffocated to death during an exorcism; for Marcus, a line had been crossed. What if that had been his own son, who survived after being born prematurely? How could he continue pretending to cast out demons knowing that medicine and not Jesus Christ saved his son? His new mission in life has been to expose the phoniness of exorcisms as well as to rescue victimized children. Hence this documentary.
 
The first ten minutes of “The Last Exorcism” develop the Cotton Marcus character so well, he effectively draws the audience into a plot that, when viewed from a distance, is relentlessly absurd. This is the newest in a long line of faux documentaries compiled from “recovered footage,” which is to say that it’s by no means a groundbreaking horror film. Nevertheless, it’s thoroughly entertaining, and at times, it’s quite frightening. I only take issue with the film’s final five minutes, a scene so visually and structurally unoriginal that it surpasses routine and becomes an anticlimax. If there’s anything we’ve learned from the good horror movies, it’s that certain things are better left to the imagination – to explain everything is to ruin the suspense. Had I been one of the producers, I would have fought tooth and nail for a reshoot of the ending.

But I’m getting way ahead of the story. Marcus, who’s constantly sent exorcism requests, responds to a letter from a man claiming that his teenage daughter is possessed. He travels to a remote farmhouse with his producer and cameraman, where they meet the Sweetzer family. The teenage son, Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones), always seems to know more than he lets on, and is often highly intimidating. The father, Louis (Louis Herthum), is devoutly religious, deeply troubled since the death of his wife, and alarmingly overprotective of his daughter, Nell (Ashley Bell), who he believes is afflicted with a demon. How else to explain his slaughtered livestock and the blood that always appears on Nell’s clothing in the morning? How else to explain the nights of endless screaming?
 
Marcus has seen and heard all this before. The sleepless nights, the dead animals, the blood – it’s a textbook case as far as he’s concerned. After meeting the nervous but nonetheless good natured Nell, he reveals to the camera his tricks for creating a convincing exorcism, including rigging a bedroom with fishing wire, hiding speakers in strategic places, and playing spooky sound effects at the push of a button. He then puts on a show, Nell and her father none the wiser. Marcus tells them that the demon has been exorcised. Father and daughter are relieved. Marcus and his crew leave, believing it to be another open and shut case. Things start going wrong, however, when Nell suddenly appears in the crew’s motel room, her eyes glazed over, her actions highly provocative. How did she get there? The motel is miles away from her home. Upon taking her to the hospital, Marcus stresses that what she really needs is a psychological examination, not more religious rhetoric.
 
And from here, the film gets increasingly more conventional. Conventional and nauseating, the ever reliable Queasy Cam put to full use. Marcus and his team return to the farmhouse. Nell has periods of erratic, violent behavior, only to emerge from them unaware of what she had done. Disturbing drawings prove to have been prophetic, such as that of a white cat coated in blood and with X’s for eyes. Suspicions are aroused. Marcus finds it harder to play the part of an evangelical minister, for his real goal is to get Nell out of the house and into a psychiatric ward. Although shaken by the night’s unsettling events, he remains unconvinced Nell is genuinely possessed. I dare not reveal whether or not this is the case. “The Last Exorcism” would have been a much better film if it had done the same thing. Given the wonderful development of the Marcus character, given how frighteningly enjoyable most of the film is, it’s unfortunate that director Daniel Stamm opted for an ending that unsuccessfully goes for the obvious.

- Chris Pandolfi

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