The Last Exorcism (2010) – Film Summary and Review
The Last Exorcism is a found footage, mockumentary-style film about a disillusioned Anglican preacher and exorcist named Cotton Marcus. Cotton comes from a long line of preachers and cast out his first demon when he was just 10 years old.
When he was older, Cotton realised that he did not believe in God, the Devil, or possession but carried on with the show because he knew that the people who came to him were believers and he thought he was delivering a service to those who needed it, in a way that they needed it, and one way or another it worked. It paid well too.
Cotton reached a turning point when he read about an autistic child who was killed during an exorcism. This shocked him so much he decided to ‘expose exorcism for the scam that it really is’ by performing one last exorcism and allowing a film crew to film it. Unfortunately for Cotton and the camera crew, his last exorcism proves to be a little more complicated than expected.
The subject of the exorcism, Nell Sweetzer, appears to be a sweet girl, but her father Louis is convinced that she has the Devil in her and is killing his livestock. Nell cannot remember disembowelling any cattle, but the amount of blood that it splattered on her nightdress does tend to point the finger of suspicion in her direction.
Cotton goes ahead with his fake exorcism and, ever the professional, makes the process appear so convincing that everyone believes that Nell is cured. Cotton believes it as well. He goes on believing it until Nell turns up a few hours later in his hotel room. How she got there or even knew where to find him, is a complete mystery, even to Nell.
After this unexpected turn of events, Cotton suggests that Louis get some medical help for his daughter, but stethoscopes are not renowned for their success rate when it comes to casting out evil spirits and Louis is so convinced Nell is possessed that he tells Cotton that he will save Nell himself. This convinces the preacher to repeat the exorcism because Louis’ kind of exorcism would involve a shotgun.
This time Cotton takes things more seriously and attempts a real exorcism while Nell busies herself snapping the bones in her fingers and manages to bend her back in ways that backs are just not meant to bend. Once again though, it appears that Cotton has got to the bottom of the problem, but he is wrong. Things are not what they seem and by the time Cotton realizes this, it may just be too late for all concerned.
The Last Exorcism starts off pretty slow. For the first 10 minutes, it really does seem like you are watching a very boring documentary about a born-again atheist who wants to spill the beans about the trade that he hates. The story starts to pick up when Cotton arrives at the Sweetzer Farm and much of the action takes place between the two exorcisms.
It turns out that Nell is pregnant and at one point she tries to drown her doll in the bath, something which is perhaps not the best indication of her fitness for motherhood. The doll must feel that way too judging by all of the screaming and crying it would seem to be doing. It’s a strange doll all right and Nell is a strange girl and the Last Exorcism is a strange film, but once you get the boring bit at the beginning out of the way it is pretty okay. The ending? It’s not bad, but it falls a long way short of being brilliant and it leaves a few questions unanswered. Isn’t that always the way with these found footage-type of films? The camera can only show the viewer what it has seen and it always stops filming when the last man (or woman) dies.
But is The Last Exorcism the scariest movie of 2010? At the time of its release, it was marketed alongside this promise but the film hasn’t got a chance of living up to the hype. The Last Exorcism might make you jump a few times, and will probably surprise you in places, but is it a serious contender for the scariest movie? I don’t think so.