[7.00/10] The Last Exorcism (2010) [100th Horror Review]

The Last Exorcism (2010)
[100th Horror Review]

After the huge success of pseudo-documentary horrors such as "[REC]", "The Blair Witch Project" and last year's "Paranormal Activity", Daniel Stamm's "The Last Exorcism" is yet another horror flick shot in documentary style. Although not as convincing and believable as the above mentioned films, because it obviously used two cameras placed at two different angles, it was still hugely entertaining and utterly creepy at times. The story revolves around a troubled evangelical minister, Fabian, who agrees to let his last exorcism be filmed by a documentary crew, where a possessed young brings him face to face with the devil himself. What was most surprising about this film is that the story was the most interesting aspect. It's more of a drama/mystery with a substantial amount of horror elements, rather than pure horror flick. "The Last Exorcism" was a rather slow building film, but one who effectively created tension and suspense, simply through excellent storytelling and well-written (and well-acted) characters. The actors in "The Last Exorcism" did an incredible job, especially the charismatic Patrick Fabian as Cotton, who carried almost the entire movie on his shoulders. Ashley Belle was impressive as the sweet and innocent-looking Nell, though compared to Linda Blair from "The Exorcist", she wasn't as convincing during her 'possessed' scenes. Caleb Landry Jones also delivered an excellent performance as Nell's angry brother, Caleb Sweetzer. He was downright scary and also very believable. The other supporting actors gave decent performances. Although the ending was ambiguous, it didn't ruin the film for me, because it actually had a good foreshadowing leading up to this climax. For me, "The Last Exorcism", ended up as great character-driven horror/drama, that also succeeded as a mockumentary, because of its strong characters and storytelling, and its intense atmosphere. Certainly not one of the best horror films ever made, but still a good effort.

• My Rating: 7.00/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 71% (6.2/10)
• IMDb: 5.9/10