Whorticulture.com movie review of The Last Exorcism, directed by Eli Roth
The Last Exorcism
The Last Exorcism was introduced to us by a theater employee who asked for a show of hands: “How many of you saw The Blair Witch?” he asked. I raised my hand begrudgingly, while many seemed to raise their hand eagerly. “Now, how many of you did it scare the pants off of?” I quickly lowered my hand. “So now, how many of you saw Paranormal State?” I re-raised my hand. “How many of you did it terrify?” I took my hand down. “Well,” he concluded, “this movie is like The Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity had a baby.”
“Great,” I thought. “This is a sign that it’s going to be terrible.” I imagined writing this review with my tail between my legs, sad at myself for not getting the hint.
Then Eli Roth came on the screen, informing us that we were some of the first in the world to see this movie. He explained that it was driven entirely by word of mouth, which isn’t really true, because I’ve seen way more commercials for this than I did for Paranormal Activity (which was known for being entirely driven by word of mouth), and I only heard about it via the commercials. He asked us to tweet about it, and tweet him personally (as well as Lions Gate) and tell them what we thought. Don’t worry, Mr. Roth, I most certainly did.
So the basic plot of the movie is this. You have this preacher named Cotton. Cotton was raised to be “touched by the holy spirit,” so much so, that he doesn’t even really know if he has genuine faith or if it’s just that indoctrinated into him. Cotton is a showman. He readily admits that he’s basically a fraud, and that most of what he does is all for show. That adds a sadness to him, but he’s a pretty funny, likable character all around (even if he is a fraud). He decides to get out of the exorcism business after seeing an article about a 10 year old boy who was suffocated during an exorcism, and he can’t in good conscience continue to do what he does, in the chance that he might hurt someone. What you have, then, is a movie about a film crew filming (you guessed it), his last exorcism.
And off he goes. He has no idea what he’s in for.
This movie has comedy much on par with Bill Maher’s Religulous. The audience exploded in laughter quite often in the first half of the movie (the second half having a much more serious tone).
It also touts some of the best horror-suspense I’ve seen in a long, long time. I was literally grabbing onto my boyfriend, balling my hand into a fist so tight that my knuckles and wrist began to ache, and chewing on my thumb nail. This just does not happen to me. I’m far too jaded for that to happen, and yet there I was, jumping and cowering with the rest of the crowd.
It’s not easy for a movie to combine horror and comedy. I can really only think of one other movie I feel accomplished this so seamlessly, and that’s Shaun of the Dead. But I digress.
Here I am, 95% through the movie and incredibly excited about writing this review. I have two friends on twitter to whom I can't wait to proclaim my love of this movie…
And then, it happened. A terrible, cliché, and downright disappointing ending. Horror fans will recognize it right away as cliché. In fact, they’ll immediately think of the other, more famous movie that already did it in the 1970’s. I can’t really go into what was wrong with the ending without giving too much away, but I can say this in very loose terms. The ending makes a lot of the rest of the movie questionable at best (in the sort of “so wait, if that’s the case, how did this happen?” kind of way), and it’s WAY too abrupt. I mean, is this the new vein in movies? It seems like I say this a lot, that it ended too prematurely. All this serves to do is open up a ton of questions with the viewer, but it feels like maybe Eli Roth and the other makers of this movie were just too lazy to give it a better ending. “No, it’ll leave ‘em guessing.”
All I’m really guessing at is why you ruined this movie.
I don’t even want to rate it. It’s a 9, maybe a 9.5 until the last 5 – 10 minutes. Then it drops down to a 6, and that’s being generous. I’m so, so disappointed.
I do want to add, though, that this movie is a lot like the movie Signs. That movie is about aliens, sure, but it's got a much deeper plot of Mel Gibson losing his faith with the passing of his wife and then regaining it when he learns to see the signs (I hate titular lines). That's why I like Signs. There's something touching and beautiful about it. And the same goes for this movie. So I do appreciate that aspect of it. But I still think the ending sucks pretty hard.
ReplyDeleteI'm still excited to watch it. I'll try to see it this weekend and share my thoughts on here.
ReplyDeletei'll post a comment after MogulArmy watches the film
ReplyDeleteThe ending didn't suck. More on that later.
ReplyDeleteThere was so much hype surrounding this movie that I worried it would never live up to expectations. This was one rare case where the hype finally lived up to the finished product.
Not to spoil anything but I have to share my two favorite moments from the movie.
-Best line: "Reverend, what about a blowing job?"
-the Banana Bread Sermon
The movie was well cast, especially the actor playing Reverend Cotton Marcus. He was at turns humorous, condescending, lost and a reluctant hero. The plot is deceivingly simple but well written & acted so the viewer is drawn in and cares about what happens to the protagonist. At the core is one man's struggle with his loss of faith--as stated in comments above, similar to Mel Gibson's character in Signs.
The Last Exorcism is well directed and paced out. I agree the movie boasts some of the best thriller-suspension moments I have seen in years. I think this is due to the excellent casting of Nell, her face changes from innocent ingenue to possessed villain within the same scene. The suspense builds up to a solid ending. For true horror fans, it may seem too obvious or a cop out. I don't think this is the case. It was redemption for Cotton's character. The return to faith under conditions where most people would run away. Call me sentimental but it gave me warm fuzzies despite the decapitation and maiming happening.
I'm giving it 9 out of 10 stars.
The Banana Bread Sermon is one of my favorite parts. My other favorite part was when they thought she was in her room talking to someone, and no one was there, and just as they shut the door she smiled at the camera with the creepiest smile I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteBut how can you say the ending didn't suck? It was abrupt, like they ran out of good ideas. I mean, what happened to Prof. Lasky-- I mean Cotton? Sorry, I can't get over the fact that it's freaking Professor Lasky. Not that he wasn't great in this movie. He was. But DEAR GOD the ending! I mean, they just killed everybody. BAM. Over. There's zero resolution, zero chemistry. It just turned into a bad rendition of the Blair Witch Project.
Not that there aren't aspects to the ending I don't appreciate. I appreciate that the brother was in on it. It gives his character depth that went unnoticed previously. We assume that the woman was chopped to pieces and the man was decapitated because of the previously shown paintings, but the scene gives the viewer no satisfaction, the same with Cotton running into the fire. And it opened up WAY too many questions.
And I thought the "blowing job" thing was cheap, trite, and in there just for shock value.
OMG! He was Professor Laksy? Wow, I didn't even catch that. The movie would have been all kinds of awesome if Tiffani-Amber Theissen had been cast as Nell (I kid, I kid).
ReplyDeleteDespite the end of the film reeking of Blair Witch Project, I liked the ending. I only like it because Cotton finds his faith & that warms my cold, black heart. Otherwise, it was cliched but I don't know how else it could have ended.
I think the ending was deliberately left open ended to make way for the inevitable sequel(s) which will follow. The sequels will probably suck but I will watch based on the strength of this movie.
I do think the movie was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC until it went all Blair Witch/Rosemary's Baby. And really I think the Cotton part of the ending was fine. It was the camera guy/producer lady (wait, was she a producer? It's been too long now. Was she a sound lady? Anyway, you know who I mean) I had the most issue with.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how it could have been different. But speaking of sequels, I don't know how they'll pull one off. I mean, obviously Abalam or whatever is unleashed on the world because I really doubt Cotton was able to fight the baby demon/fire monster thing. So a sequel would be a COMPLETELY different thing, you know?
So the more time that passes, the more I like this movie. I just wish the last few scenes wouldn't have sucked, because that's what I was left with and it really shaped my overall impression of the movie.
And YES OMG IT'S PROFESSOR LASKY. I'm so glad I didn't realize that until after. It would have DESTROYED the movie for me.
"Reverend, what about a blowing job?" I don't want to spoil why this quote is there. It was a bit of a twist, in a way. You'll get it when you've seen the movie.
ReplyDeleteThe film was pretty good, even though it was hyped non-stop all over Twitter and on T.V.
Not knowing what would be in the film, I was expecting it to be like other Exorcism movies. I was expecting the same scenarios as the older movies and well, this film was a bit different. The Last Exorcism seemed more of a Thriller Horror-Comedy. The suspense of the film kept me on edge the whole time (minus the stupid girl sitting behind me, on the phone) wondering what's going to happen next.
The cast of The Last Exorcism was really good. Cotton Marcus (the character) and Nell (the character) played their roles really well. I did not expect a pastor into be funny and outgoing. You would expect him to take his role, a pastor, seriously. Especially when you see him later on during the exorcism he rigs Nell's bedroom to convince the family that they were haunted and Cotton finally got rid of the 'demon.'
Nell, the girl was creepy. Period.
The ending, I was expecting the end to be a massacre inside the house. The girl and everyone getting killed by a priest and his wife. I did not expect a Cult to occur at the end. The film ended with a ritual of burning the demon baby and the cast being mutilated by what Nell had predicted.
9/10