Day 6

The Last Exorcism (2010)

Directed by Daniel Stamm

I’ll be honest, movies like The Last Exorcism are why I started this annual marathon, finding great movies I haven’t seen is always awesome. Anyway, this film is a found footage-style mockumentary about an Evangelical pastor who, although he started his career in the church at a young age and has performed countless exorcisms, has lost his faith and now seeks to help shine a light on how exorcisms are performed in modern times and how they may not have any spiritual benefit beyond the placebo effect. The film crew takes us to a rural community in Louisiana where a father is convinced that his daughter is in need of an exorcism, one that our pastor is more than fit to deliver. I’m not a huge fan of possession movies, and I’m even less of a fan of exorcism movies, but The Last Exorcism is a damn fine movie that I’m so happy I watched. If I can pull back for a second, the purpose of these movie marathons was always to find movies that had slipped by me and that’s exactly what The Last Exorcism was, a tense, character driven horror romp that manages to keep its ambiguity just long enough to get you completely hooked before it goes in for the kill.

There’s so much I liked about this movie that it’s hard to articulate everything going on but I will try. The Last Exorcism perfectly takes advantage of the found footage style, giving us a cast of believable and sympathetic characters who all feel like real people in a weird situation, while at the same time being interesting people in their own right. Something this film does amazingly is how it both world-builds and foreshadows, establishing so much and setting up so much without giving it all away off the bat, it’s clever and makes for a rewarding viewing experience that I’m sure will hold up for subsequent viewings. The only thing that gives me pause is the ending. While I like the ending visually and it definitely feels foreshadowed, I can’t help but feel a little weird about the last scene. I can’t say more without spoiling the movie so let me stop there and say that yes, I recommend the movie and even the bits that I wasn’t as fond of make for an interesting discussion. Track this down!