SYNOPSIS:
When he arrives on the rural Louisiana farm of Louis Sweetzer, the Reverend Cotton Marcus expects to perform just another routine "exorcism" on a disturbed religious fanatic. An earnest fundamentalist, Sweetzer has contacted the charismatic preacher as a last resort, certain his teenage daughter Nell is possessed by a demon who must be exorcized before their terrifying ordeal ends in unimaginable tragedy.
Buckling under the weight of his conscience after years of parting desperate believers from their money, Cotton and his crew plan to film a confessionary documentary of this, his last exorcism. But upon his arrival at the already blood-drenched family farm, it is soon clear that nothing could have prepared him for the true evil he encounters there. Now, too late to turn back, Reverend Marcus' own beliefs are shaken to the core as he and his crew must find a way to save Nell - and themselves - before it is too late.
MOVIE REVIEW:
“Above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one” – Ephesians 6: 16
Faith is a funny thing. In order to believe, you need to have faith. But in order to have faith, you need to first believe in it. The logic may be circular, but perhaps it’ll be clearer once we apply this to the belief in the existence of the Devil. In order to believe its existence, you need to have faith, for it doesn’t manifest in physical form. But in order to have faith, you need to first believe that it is possible to believe without seeing.
Christians know that faith can sometimes be elusive- we want to have faith, to believe in God and his works, but it just isn’t always possible to summon the courage and the willpower to believe. “The Last Exorcism” is first and foremost a movie about a crisis of faith, as experienced by Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), an exorcist who no longer believes in the existence of the Devil or such a thing as exorcism. If he continues to do it, it is only because he is delivering a service in the way people want him to.
Marcus is now on a quest to expose exorcism as a scam, and has enlisted a documentary crew to follow him on his latest expedition to a backwoods house in rural Louisiana where a father believes the death of his livestock is the work of his possessed teenage daughter Nell. It is through this perspective that director Daniel Stamm tells Huck Butko and Andrew Garland’s story, thus smartly inventing an excuse to apply the faux documentary technique to a movie about demonic possession. Too many filmmakers have tried using it as no more than a gimmick, and only a handful have managed to make it work, e.g. The Blair Witch Project, REC and Paranormal Activity.
Fortunately Stamm’s movie belongs to that short list, using the single-camera viewpoint to great effect in order to bring his viewer up close into the eerie proceedings. And boy does it get creepy- Stamm slowly but surely builds up the atmosphere of dread and foreboding, as Cotton performs a sham exorcism which fails to assuage the young girl, before resorting to scientific explanations and recommending psychiatric help. Butko and Garland also weaves the tension between faith and science into their story, which makes for a mesmerising watch.
Of course, they eventually take sides, racing towards a gripping finale whose twist of events had many viewers dissatisfied. It isn’t a comfortable resolution- think along the lines of what happened at the end of “Blair Witch” and “Paranormal Activity” and you’ll get the idea- but this reviewer for one is glad that Butko and Garland didn’t just settle for something convenient, instead choosing a controversial but no less plausible end worthy of its backwater setting.
Special mention must go to newcomer Ashley Bell, whose performance as the seemingly possessed girl is nothing less than riveting. Apparently, Bell did all the twisting and writhing and screaming all by herself, thanks in part to her yoga training. Fabian also deserves credit for his dynamic performance as the Reverend, transforming from the confident unbeliever to the doubtful believer over the movie.
But it is ultimately the movie’s meaty spiritual discussions on faith that will make it stay with you, for very often we are ourselves questioning the very existence of the Devil, and by extension the veracity of exorcism. Just because we don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not out there- and “The Last Exorcism” proves to be a strong reinforcer of this adage. To Christians too, it holds an important lesson about remembering the very real existence of the Devil- after all, how could one profess to believe in Jesus Christ when one doesn’t believe in his holy mission against evil?
SPECIAL FEATURES :
NIL.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Audio is available in both Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1- though the 5.1 track offers little else by way of the rear speakers except for the soundtrack. The visual transfer preserves the clean digital
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Gabriel Chong
Posted
on 8 March 2011
|
