Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr

Directed by: Daniel Stamn

At first, I was pretty skeptical of seeing, “The Last Exorcism”. I didn’t think it would be any good, ’cause I figured it would be another rip off of the “Blare Witch Project”. Since, I’m a big fan of horror flicks, and a big fan of the Exorcist movies, I decided to check this one out anyway. Other than seeing a movie, I did a little shopping for myself. I picked up “Mafia II” video game for the PS3 so I’m looking forward to playing that this weekend. I also picked up a few other things, that was about it. Anyways, on with my review:

Plot/Synopsis: This film tells a story about a priest named, Rev. Marcus (Patrick Fabian’s character), and he’s about to go on a mission to save this young girl’s life who is possessed by a demon. Rev. Marcus, announced this was going to be his Last Exorcism ’cause he doesn’t want to do it anymore, so he agrees to let this be filmed into a documentary. Rev. Marcus and his filming partner, Iris, goes to visit the Sweetzer family, where they live at a small farm house. Their 16 year old daughter, Nell Sweetzer (played by Ashley Bell) has been acting very strange, one day she’s very happy and the next day she’s all psycho and evil. Rev. Marcus’s only job is to help save Nell from this demon, so she can go back to her happy life with her family.

Again, I am seeing mixed opinions of this movie. It’s a love or hate type of thing. My thoughts? Well, I hated the “Blare Witch Project”, “Paranormal Activity” was pretty cool, and “Quarantine” was impressive, but I personally thought, “The Last Exorcism” was the best one of them all. It’s the perfect horror film. It didn’t need to be R rated. PG-13 is exactly what it needs. I thought the film kept me at the edge of my seat throughout the movie. The film actually made it more believable that people being possessed by demon’s could happen for real when everyone knows it’s fiction. Don’t get the wrong idea, that this is a sequel from the earlier Exorcist films. It’s not. This is a standalone movie. A spin off from the Exorcist films, so this film is completely original. I’m sure it was inspired by the first “Exorcist” movie, of course, but the writers of this movie wanted their own story.

It was a pretty unpredictable film. Yes, I was actually a little freaked at some scenes. I don’t want to spoil things but to give you an example, you see Nell kills animals. She’ll do all kinds of freaky things, like the part where she tries to have lesbian sex with Iris in front of Rev. Marcus. Things like that. Just a couple of hints. Nell is definitely no Regan that’s for sure. Regan did some pretty crazy and nasty things, yeah, but Nell is 10x’s worse.The thing about this movie is that the movie is not really about Nell being possessed. It seemed the movie was focusing more on Satanism and devil worship. That’s what the whole film was about really. You’ll know when you’ll see the film’s shocking and twisted ending. The ending was really nasty. I’m not going to talk about the ending. I don’t want to spoil anything. I think there is going to be a sequel of course, ’cause the movie seemed to end right there, not completing the full story.

I was very impressed with the movie. That’s what today’s horror should be all about. Low budget cameras, making it more believable and real. I thought the “Last Exorcism” was definitely one of the best new horror films, I’ve seen in a long time. The acting, writing, filming, etc. was all good. Maybe I’ll talk about the ending in a spoiler post later on if you dare to read.

Score for “The Last Exorcism” = **** (4 stars as in “Excellent”)

Kev