Last, But Not Least

Today, I went to see the new film The Last Exorcism. The short explanation would be to say it's like a cross between The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Blair Witch Project. But quality-wise, I'd put it somewhere in between the two.

The film is a fake documentary about a southern preacher who performs exorcisms. I hesitate to mention this next plot point, but it is revealed in the first minutes of the film. Still, skip the rest of this paragraph if you're avoiding spoilers. The truth is he's a charlatan, a phony who has decided to expose exorcisms as fake, and has agreed to be followed by a documentary crew for the purpose of doing just that. He's going to perform one last exorcism and let the cameras in on exactly what tricks he's employing.

The real strength of the film, to me, is how it carefully walks the line between supernatural and realism. If you want to give yourself over to the notion of demonic possession to be entertained, you can go that route. If you want to explore the psychological problems in a deeply troubled family that might lead a young teenage girl to think she's possessed, you can go that route too.

In fact, the whole documentary aspect of the film is actually very interesting. It seems a gimmick at first, following in the footsteps of the Blair Witch, Quarantine, and Cloverfield. But the preacher turns out to be a textured, interesting character. The family has drama bubbling beneath the surface. Even the two documentary filmmaker characters become interesting personalities in the film. I could imagine actually watching this on some TV channel, and being quite enthralled.

But unfortunately, the film isn't quite able to cross the finish line. The careful balance of "is she possessed or not?" is blown apart in the last five minutes, and a sudden and odd "Hollywood" vibe intrudes as though from some other movie entirely. It no longer feels like a credible documentary; it feels like the fake documentary it is. What's more, there's at least one gaping hole in the logic of how everything wraps up that sort of undermines the entire tale. I do think that one could craft a movie leading to this ending, but this movie wasn't it. Furthermore, I was quite liking the movie leading up to it, and would rather have seen some other ending more appropriate to it.

In any case, credit a fine cast of unknowns for doing such great work. Of particular note is the lead, Patrick Fabian. He's a working actor of many, many years who has appeared as a guest star on more television shows than I could count. Nice to see him finally get a lead role in something here, and he does an excellent job with it.

Overall, I'd call the movie a B-. It's definitely worth seeing if you're into the horror/suspense genre, even if it doesn't end as well as it begins.