The Last Exorcism

The idea of demonic possession is nothing new in films and forms the main focus of "The Last Exorcism”. Unfortunately the Eli Roth (Hostel) produced movie mostly fails to impress.

The Last Exorcism is filmed in documentary style and focuses on Reverend Cotton Marcus. Cotton is an evangelical minister from the deep south of America who, because of his minister father, has giving sermons at his church and performing exorcisms since the age of 10.

Cotton Marcus doesn't believe in demonic possession and has decided to stop doing them as he sees them as a dangerous practice that exploits money out of people and on some rare occasions kills the person who is believed to be possessed. He has decided to allow a camera crew to follow him on one last exorcism so they can see how the fraud is set up and carried out.

The movie is filmed on a single camera which, as with the majority of movies in this vein, shakes during the numerous times the cameraman runs. This is understandable given the situation but in most scene, when the camera changes focus, it takes several seconds for them to find the focus again. This was likely done in order to remind the viewer that it is meant to be a documentary but for me it was realistic but highly annoying.

The character in the movie fitted very well with the setting and the situation and they all had a slight preoccupation with the camera watching them. As such, the acting in the movie was either good, as the actors were able to portray their characters perfectly or simply mediorce acting. Both of which worked well in the context of the movie.

Overall, The Last Exorcism blends into the background of the ever growing number of shakey handi-cam movies that are all too common nowadays.

Rating 3 out of 5

See it if you liked:
Blair Witch Project
Hostel
The Exorcist

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