The Last Exorcism (2010)

The saying goes, there are no atheists in foxholes. In The Last Exorcism, there aren’t any atheists at backwoods farms where creepily double-jointed teenage girls live, either.

At the start of the film, we meet Louisiana preacher Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) through a documentary film lens. Having been groomed for the pulpit since he was in knee socks–he comes from a long line of Bible-thumping exorcists–Cotton is a charismatic charmer with an easygoing smile and a flair for the theatrical. But he’s also deeply cynical. In one breath, he explains to the film crew, which includes interviewer Iris (Iris Bahr) that you can’t believe in the God of the Christian Bible and not also believe in demons. In the very next breath, he admits that he thinks demons are fiction. It doesn’t take a syllogism genius to figure out that one out.

Cotton has agreed to have the film crew chronicle one of his phony exorcisms, which he performs to make money to support his wife and deaf son, before he gives up the holy roller lifestyle for good. He’s summoned to the farm of Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum), a widower who lives with his teenage son (Caleb Landry Jones) and daughter, Nell (Ashley Bell). The 16-year-old girl has been having blackouts after which she appears in a bloodied nightgown near the disemboweled bodies of daddy’s cattle. Cotton performs his mock exorcism, replete with trick wires and a hidden Ipod of “demonic” sounds. But instead of being healed by the power of suggestion, little Nell just gets weirder.

Don’t be fooled, though. The Last Exorcism is not the terror ride that the trailers try to sell you, even if it is filmed in the pseudo documentary style that has become a supernatural thriller convention. (See also last year’s Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield from the year before, and the granddaddy of motion sickness, The Blair Witch Project.) Instead, director Daniel Stamm’s film from a script by Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland is a slow-paced meditation on religious extremism and the loss of faith. The metaphor is furthered by the inclusion of post-Katrina Louisiana–a haunted and haunting place–as its backdrop. The ramshackle farmhouse in which much of the filming takes place still shows the stains from floodwaters. If there is any place where faith has been challenged, shaken, and retrenched, it’s the outskirts of New Orleans.

That story would have been as interesting as any white-knuckle scary movie if the devil had been in the details. But German-born Stamm gets many of those wrong. At one point, the camera pans the Sweetzer home to reveal paintings of Jesus, both Catholic and Protestant versions of the crucifix, and a statue of the Virgin Mary. It may be true that this part of the country is home to a wider variety of religions than others but an evangelical Christian would never have statues of the Virgin Mary in his home. Of course, the idol is meant to stand in for poor, defiled, little Nell but its inappropriateness makes it seem all the more ham-fisted.

Also, why does Nell, who has been home-schooled and cut off from all things secular, have a framed painting of Vivien Leigh in all her Scarlet O’Hara frippery on her bedroom wall? It may seem like nitpicking, but that picture gets almost as much screen time as anything truly scary does.

Yes, even with all that I just said about social commentary, I was still looking to be, you know, scared. After all, The Exorcist’s message about the dangers of the sexual liberation of Linda Blair’s not-a-girl, not-yet-a-woman doesn’t prevent that film from giving me a week’s worth of nightmares every time I see it. The most terrifying aspect of this film is what Ms. Bell can do with her body. At one point, she literally bends over backwards to walk toward a barn door. I’ve heard that no special effects were used to simulate her “possessed” behavior. If that’s true, that girl has one hell of a yoga practice going.

Ultimately, The Last Exorcism is too schizophrenic a film to offer much in the way of genuine thrills. Is it about backwoods farm folk hurting their children? Is it about a disturbed attention-seeking little girl? Is it a confirmation of a huckster preacher’s loss of faith? Or is Satan really afoot? As the thoughtful front half of the film gives way to a second half that includes both the traditional horror movie soundtrack of strings and snare drums and one really ridiculous CG-aided twist (the only CG anywhere in the film), it’s clear that the filmmakers have no idea. And neither will you.