Saturday, October 12, 2024

The Last Exorcism (2010)

 


Director:                                     Daniel Stamm

Writing Credits:                          Huck Botco and

                                                        Andrew Gurland

Cinematography:                        Zoltan Honti

Music:                                         Nathan Barr

Editing:                                        Shilpa Sahi

Production Design:                     Andrew W. Bofinger

 

Cast

Cotton Marcus                          Patrick Fabian

Nell Sweetzer                            Ashley Bell

Louis Sweetzer                          Louis Herthum

Iris Bahr                                     Iris Reisen

Daniel Moskowitz                       Adam Grimes

Caleb Sweetzer                        Caleb Landry Jones

Pastor Manley                           Tony Bentley

Becky Fly                                  Becky Davis

                                            


There is a spoiler for the end of the film.  

This is a review of “The Last Exorcism”, which I like.  It is not a review of “The Last Exorcism, Part 2” which I am embarrassed to admit I rented. At least I only spent $1.20 for the rental, however I would love to receive a refund.  If I ever meet any of the producers of “Part 2” I will insist they fork it over.  The title doesn’t even make sense – think about it. “Part 2” sucks on toast and will not receive any further acknowledgement from me.

 

When I saw the words “The Last Exorcism” on the poster advertising this movie before its release I thought, “Really?  Do you promise?”  In spite of my love of horror in general and exorcism movies in particular I skipped this one.  Most horror movies today are so silly and poorly made that they are at the very least disappointing, and at worst I would cheerfully make a pact with Satan if it would get me out of the theater a little faster.   I finally succumbed to devilish temptation and caught up with “The Last Exorcism” recently on DVD and now I am sorry that I ignored it in the theater.  It’s pretty terrific – 90% of it, at least. For me the ending is a bit of a head scratching let down.

 

In this pseudo-documentary we meet Cotton Marcus, a bible thumping evangelical minister, his wife and young son. He has been a minister since he was a boy (preachers and exorcists run in the family) and is good at what he does.  Cotton has invited a film crew to follow him and document his work.  The twist is that Cotton lost his faith after his son’s medical condition was cured through the power of science, not through the power of God. Despite his lack of faith he has continued to perform exorcisms since it is the only way he knows to make a living. However he believes that exorcisms do much more harm than good and wants to expose the practice for the racket it is. His act  incorporates magic tricks to convince his customers of what they already believe, e.g. adding something to the water in which a victim had her feet in order to make it “boil”, using recorded demon voices, fishing line to manipulate the furniture and adding something to his crucifix to make it smoke. 


He gets most of his business through the mail; desperate people begging him to relieve them of the demons besieging their families. He responds to a plea from a farmer who believes his daughter Nell is possessed and killing his animals. Cotton sees this as a perfect opportunity to showcase his talent.

 

At the farm Cotton does his stuff and it appears to succeed until later when Nell turns up at his motel, deeply disturbed and suffering. A repeat exorcism is performed, though the possession is revealed to be a delusion on Nell’s part.  After a medical checkup finds she is pregnant Nell confesses that she was seduced by a local boy. The family’s former minister is called in to comfort and guide this broken family. Cotton et al leave secure that all will be well. Unfortunately, more information proves that the local boy could not have impregnated Nell, so Cotton is determined to find the truth.

  


  

Now for the SPOILER ALERT!!  and my re-write of the last scene of the movie.  The ending as is - Cotton and his crew return yet again to the farm.   They have come back to do… what, I don’t know.  Finding the house empty and satanic symbols drawn on the walls they head out to the field where a huge bonfire is burning.  The minister is there dressed in a hooded robe leading a satanic ritual surrounded by cultists.  Nell is lying on a table screaming while the minister’s assistant acts as midwife to a demon birth.  The red, spiked, screeching thing she appears to pull out of Nell is thrown into the bonfire which makes the flames burst into a huge conflagration.  Cotton and the crew are horrified by what they see and the crew sensibly (if somewhat belatedly) makes a run for it.  Cotton seems to find his faith and approaches the fire with his cross held high, calling out the demon to let the girl go. He and his crew are killed by the cultists….roll credits.  The finale leads us to the conclusion that everything we have witnessed has indeed been supernatural; the demon impregnated Nell and has been reborn or something, the cult has won, etc.

 



As a movie-goer I enjoy a supernatural story.  I don’t want the whole shebang to turn out to be a hoax and have a rational explanation.  Supernatural is fun, rational explanations are boring and a cop out (see "Mark of the Vampire”).  Having said that, I have a problem with the ending of this film.  It feels rushed and forced as if the writers had written themselves into a corner and had to come up with something, anything, to wrap up.  In this case it feels as if the supernatural explanation is the cop out. 

 Here is my rewrite. The minister shows us that he is just as much a con man as Cotton.  He uses tricks to make his congregation see what they want to see.  Nell may be pregnant but the demon ain’t the baby daddy.  The minister’s assistant pulls out a fake, bloody looking mess from somewhere and it or something else is thrown into the fire to make it blaze.  The people believe they have witnessed a miracle and very ironically our hero Cotton regains his faith and dies as a result of being hoodwinked by another con man who is just as good at his tricks as Cotton was at his. 

 I think this would make a more intelligent and satisfying conclusion to the drama.  Granted, it still leaves a few plot holes unexplained but I think I could live with that.  However, I won’t hold my breath waiting for Hollywood to call me. 

 

AND DON’T EVEN TALK TO ME ABOUT PART 2.

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