'The Last Exorcism'

'The Last Exorcism' (PG-13) (3 stars)

Writers: Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland
Director: Daniel Stamm
Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Calen Landry Jones, Louis Herthum

"The Last Exorcism" continues a pretty cool trend lately that is a great alternative to the "Saw" movies and torture porn crap. Movies like "Paranormal Activity" and "The House of the Devil" (best horror movie in ten years) have started a new wave of horror movies which are low budget movies with little gore and more scares. These movies create more suspense and build a story instead of just cheap bloodletting. "The Last Exorcism" is an entertaining and creepy horror thriller in the tradition of "The Exorcist". It is nowhere as scary but it does create a good sense of dread and terror. The movie is done in the style of a documentary as we follow evangelical minister Cotton Marcus and his camera crew to a possessed teenage girl who lives on a farm. Cotton explains to us that his father did multiple exorcisms and that he never believed they were more than just a show. Now he wants to prove that this so called case is phony like the others. The father of this girl has reported that the girl has killed farm animals and has also drawn disturbing pictures of dead family members. The movie starts off very well as Cotton, played very well by Patrick Fabian, talks to us about his feelings and he is very funny and charming. When he finally arrives at the farm he meets the girl's brother who is very creepy and sinister and tells Cotton to go back to where he came from. The kid is played by Caleb Landry Jones and this actor is perfectly sinister and jerky.

The acting by unknown actors is very good here and the director Daniel Stamm keeps the story moving and keeps us involved. The girl is sweetly played by Ashley Bell and she has the right mixture of innocence and pluckiness. We actually care about her and we also care about Cotton. As Cotton finds out that this might all be more serious than he thought the movie gets creepier and more suspenseful. There are some great little shocks and scenes that are eerily effective. The movie builds to an ending that at first seemed to me to be a letdown. A day after I saw the movie and talked to a friend of mine we both agreed that the movie worked well enough for us until the ending that we enjoyed it. Then I thought back to some of the great shockers of the 70's and realized the ending is just about right for this type of movie. "The Last Exorcism" gets the job done and creates an effective horror thriller that doesn't go overboard. You get exactly what you expect from a movie like this and I expect fans of this type of movie will be satisfied.