THE LAST EXORCISM

The GDT trailer for Don't be afraid of the dark was very interesting.

I actually liked the setup of the film and the introduction of the "priest". The actor who played that role did a good job. The beginning of the film kind of reminded me of District 9 in terms of the style. It would later fade into Blair Witch terrority in a bad way at the end, but before I get to that I'll talk alittle more about what I liked. The presentation of the family and Nell's character was interesting and kept my attention. I liked the whole phony exorcism sequence. That was cool how he deceived that family and Nell, but then it starts picking up with weird things that Nell does. Anyway, it was all going very well (also, the whole gay Logan thing was pretty convenient...) until the end. If I'm spoiling you (too bad) but that Pastor and others turning out to be devil worshippers was totally out of nowhere and then it ends so abruptly in a bad way imo. Overall, I liked probably 90% of the film until that last bit of nonsense at the end really felt phony to me.

Grade - C

*spoilers*

I really liked the whole concept of the priest making exorcism out to be a joke and setting out to show it for what he believed it really was, and in the end he became a believer and all. The characters in the film were all solid, with a really good performance from the guy who played Cotton. The girl and her family were effectively creepy. The film has some solid scares and, for the most part, is pretty entertaining.

But the ending...ehhhh. I didn't HATE it like the rest of the people in my audience, but it was surprising in a bad way. The family was obviously crazy, but there was no sign in the film that the entire town was a crazy cult. It was completely out of left field and kinda hurt the film overall.

It was a fun every-three-years-exorcism-movie until it wasn't. And then I wanted to rip the weave of the film makers.



out of

aaw... Not even stupid fun?

Well, let me just say this was FANTASTIC until the last 5 minutes. It doesn't totally ruin the movie, but it could have been so much better if it didn't "go there." Before the ending I would have declared this one of my favorites of the year so far. However, it's well-worth seeing and still great.

Ugh, I'm sooooo pissed about the ending! It would have been fine if this weren't a terrific movie up until then, but it was really intelligent and well-done. Then it goes and insults our intelligence. Why did it have to pick sides? In the end it becomes a Christian movie and not one for practical thinkers.

This baby crow had it's dark heart in the right place - - The Last Exorcism ran like the dickens, flapped it's wings with a feverish glee, leapt into the abyss overlooking Hell - - but then, unfortunately came stumbling back to Earth, never having really taken full evil flight over it's snatched Dominion. Worse, a passing fox took liberties with opportunity - - the end.

Yep, I dug the main conceit - - very nicely handled with an elegant eye for logical details (actually well above and beyond the call of duty in this type of film). Authoritistically executed by the director, and then extraordinarily well played by the two worthy leads in the entrancing roles of Cotton and Nell.

...yet at 87 minutes it seemed too long by a third. Shame they don't make 55 minute movies, at least when 55 minutes is the perfect time to tell a particular story (like The Last Exorcism) - - yet you'd hear people whine:



Still, it was better than 90% of the horror movies I see (albeit a proudly small number), and I have to rate it a solid:


4 out of 5.

C

It was a great movie, but that ending, I felt insulted.

Everything that's already been said: Great set up, very lame pay-off. It isn't the least bit scary, but the mockumentary style is occasionally inspired; the protagonist is more nuanced than usual, and, up until the worthless ending, the situation is more ambiguous than your typical horror movie.

So yeah, faint praise indeed.

B


This film was...interesting.

The more I thought about it, the more I came to like it after my initial viewing. My first thoughts were that it had a terrific first half and then it all went downhill, but looking back, it wasn't all that bad towards the end. I can understand the backlash about the ending somewhat, but it was fine by me afterall. At least it was actually surprising, though I would have prefered the had just ended after the girl's "confession" about having had sex.

Anyway, as I said before, the whole thing starts out as a really interesting affair. As a horror movie it isn't really good, but works very well as dark comedy. Patrick Fabian is terrific in the leading role of the deceiving minister. I really laughed hard at his first big fake exorcism scene or the scene in which he tells the congregation the banana pie recipe. That was some great stuff and then unfortunately the film took a really different turn. Of course that was to be expected, but I just wish it had remained more of a satire all the way because those were the moments in which the film really worked very well. The horror aspects were mostly been there/done that.

Of course I also had my usual issue with this film as with almost all of those point-of-view films...wouldn't every camera person at some point just drop the freakin' camera and start running away when scary/weird shit happens? I sure as hell would not film all the time. But that's just a fundamental gripe (solved rather well in [Rec]², though).

The Last Exorcism acts like any typical horror film and just does it even worse than usual. It is pathetic and cringing (not the good kind) to watch. Plus add in a ridiculous ending that offsets the film even more and you get Last Exorcism! No Stars

Did you think while watching it there was any chance that wouldn't happen in the end?
I watched the first third of this, all of the faux-mockery of exorcism, and found it shallow but interesting enough and fairly appealing. As soon as she showed up in the hotel room I left the room as I had no interest in the actual exorcism christian stuff. My girlfriend described the rest of the plot to me and it sounded insufferably inane.

I look forward to future reviews based on this method of experiencing films.

Do you really believe it strongly inhibited my ability to judge in this film's case?