The Last Exorcism

This film is not going to win any award for originality. You can spot the influences easily. The Last Exorcism tells the story of a jaded preacher, a holy man who's lost his faith. He agrees to perform one last exorcism in front of documentary cameras to prove just how bogus such events are.

Cut to remote USA's bible-bashing backwoods and a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, where a single father believes his teenage daughter is possessed by a demon. The preacher does him thing, making the trickery obvious to camera. The problem for him is that there might actually be something in this one.

This film has one major problem it never manages to overcome. The front of the DVD box proclaims this is “the scariest movie you'll see all year”. Well it's not a bad movie but it doesn't even come close to that claim. Yes, there are some horror moments, most disturbing being some finger breaking, but scary – not so much.

The majority of the film's component parts are all second (or third, fourth…) hand. Plot set up = The Exorcist. Jerky camera work = Blair Witch Project. Setting could be from a host of southern backwoods horrors. There's a slight feeling of bits of Angel Heart, Rosemary's Baby and a host of others. But the focus on the pastor losing faith helps to raise the film about just being a copyfest. You won't watch it twice though.

Page updated 25 March, 2011