The Last Exorcism

The Last Exorcism
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Daniel Stamm
Produced by	Marc Abraham Thomas Bliss Eli Roth Eric Newman
Written by	Huck Botko Andrew Gurland
Starring	Patrick Fabian Ashley Bell Iris Bahr
Music by	Nathan Barr
Cinematography	Zoltan Honti
Editing by	Daniel Stamm
Studio	Strike Entertainment StudioCanal Arcade Pictures
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release date(s)	August 27, 2010 (2010-08-27)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.8 million
Box office	$67,738,090

The Last Exorcism is a 2010 American found footage supernatural horror film directed and edited by Daniel Stamm. It stars Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, and Louis Herthum.

The film is told from the perspective of a disillusioned evangelical minister, who after years of performing exorcisms decides to participate in a documentary chronicling his last exorcism while exposing the fraud of his ministry. After receiving a letter from a farmer asking for help in driving out the devil, he meets the farmer's afflicted daughter.

Plot

The Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with his wife (Shanna Forestall) and son. Marcus is accustomed to performing exorcisms on "possessed" individuals, but when he reads of an autistic child being killed during an exorcism, he comes to realize the potential danger of fraudulent exorcisms. He agrees to take part in a documentary designed to expose exorcism as a fraud, working with a film crew consisting of producer/director Iris Reisen (Iris Bahr) and cameraman Daniel Moskowitz (Adam Grimes). At random, he chooses an exorcism request sent by farmer Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum), who claims his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed by a powerful demon named Abalam. Prior to the exorcism, Marcus plants hidden speakers and electronic props, so he can bamboozle the family into believing he is driving out a demon. After the ritual, Marcus and his film crew leave, believing they have cured her of a mental state that was misdiagnosed as a possession.

That night, Nell mysteriously appears in Marcus' hotel room. In an effort to prove his point, Marcus takes Nell to the hospital for testing. The doctor concludes that Nell is in perfect physical condition. Marcus goes to see Louis' former pastor, Pastor Manley, and asks him questions regarding Nell and Louis. Pastor Manley informs Marcus that he has not had contact with the Sweetzers for a long time. In the morning, her father takes her home and chains her to her bed for slicing her brother, Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones), in the face. While Louis takes Caleb to the hospital, Marcus and the camera crew further investigate Nell and the home. They release Nell from her chains. That night there is a disturbance in the house, and Marcus and the crew hear the cries of a baby. They find Nell standing in a hallway. When they try to confront her, she goes into a bathroom, where she is found submerging a baby doll in water. After she comes out of her trance, the crew finds a drawing of a dead and bloodied cat.

That night Nell steals their camera and goes into her father's barn where she corners a cat, beating it to death with the camera. She returns to the house and raises the camera over Marcus's head. The rest of the crew stops her, unaware of what has transpired. They discover two more paintings of Nell's. The first depicts someone who appears to be Cotton standing before a large flame, holding up a crucifix. The second shows what appears to be the dead bodies of all three visitors to the Sweetzer farm: Cotton being consumed by the flame he battled in the other picture, Iris hacked to pieces with an axe, and Dan decapitated. Louis comes home and hears an answering machine message from the hospital stating that Nell is pregnant. Marcus accuses Louis of incest, which he denies, insisting that Nell is a virgin and has been defiled by the demon possessing her. Tempers flare as Marcus insists that Nell needs psychotherapy instead of another exorcism. Louis orders the crew to vacate his property. While contemplating whether they should take Nell, they hear noises upstairs. They discover that Nell has climbed atop her dresser. As they try to calm her, she slashes Marcus's hand with a knife and runs outside. The crew decides to leave; as they enter their van, they see Nell sitting on the porch. As Marcus approaches Nell, she tackles him. The struggle leads inside as Louis chases them with a shotgun. In order to keep Louis from killing Nell, Marcus agrees to attempt another exorcism.

Marcus confronts the entity that has possessed Nell, which introduces itself as Abalam, the same demon Marcus had spoken to Louis about. Abalam agrees to release Nell from the possession but only if Marcus can remain silent for ten seconds. Abalam begins breaking Nell's fingers as it counts out loud. After counting to three and breaking three of her fingers Marcus yells for Abalam to stop. Abalam then asks Marcus if he wants a "blowing job." Marcus realizes that a demon would know the actual name of the sex act and concludes that Nell is actually a very disturbed girl pretending to be possessed. Nell then tells them of Logan, the boy who supposedly impregnated her. Marcus arranges for Pastor Manley to come to the house to provide solace to the Sweetzers as Marcus prepares to leave. On their way home, Marcus and the film crew detour to the coffee shop where Logan works. Logan tells the crew that the only contact he had with Nell was a brief conversation six months ago at a party that was held at Pastor Manley's home. Logan admits that he is gay and, therefore, did not had sex with her. Marcus and the film crew leave the cafe and begin to drive out of town. They begin to question Nell's story, and Marcus realizes that Pastor Manley was lying about having not seen Nell for two years. Marcus turns the van around and returns to the Sweetzer farmhouse. They enter the house to find numerous pentagrams and a mixture of Pagan, Christian, Jewish, Satanic, and secular symbols scrawled on the walls, but Nell and Louis are missing.

Marcus and the film crew wander into the woods, where they see a large fire and a congregation of hooded cultists led by Pastor Manley. Louis is bound and gagged on a pole while hooded figures pray around an altar, which Nell is tied on top of. Marcus and the film crew watch as Nell gives birth to an inhuman child. Manley throws it into the fire, which causes the fire to grow rapidly while demonic roars emanate from within. At that moment, Marcus' faith is resolved as he grabs his cross and rushes towards the fire in a frenzied attempt to combat the evil. Iris and Daniel are discovered and run away. Iris is tackled by a member of the congregation, who kills her with an axe. Daniel tries to escape through the woods, but when he pauses to catch his breath, Caleb appears and decapitates him. The camera collapses to the ground, and, after a few seconds of stillness and silence, the credits roll.

Cast

• Patrick Fabian as Cotton Marcus
• Ashley Bell as Nell Sweetzer
• Iris Bahr as Iris Reisen
• Adam Grimes as Daniel Moskowitz
• Louis Herthum as Louis Sweetzer
• Caleb Landry Jones as Caleb Sweetzer
• Tony Bentley as Pastor Manley
• Shanna Forrestall as Mrs. Marcus
• Becky Fly as Becky
• Denise Lee as Nurse
• Logan Craig Reid as Logan
• Jamie Alyson Caudle as Satanic worshipper
• Allen Boudreaux as Satanic worshipper

Production

The Last Exorcism was directed by German independent filmmaker Daniel Stamm and produced by Eric Newman, Eli Roth, Marc Abraham, and Thomas A. Bliss. The film was shot using shaky camera, it was also shot in 'found footage' (Stamm has previously directed A Necessary Death, another 'found footage' film). Strike Entertainment and StudioCanal hold the theatrical rights.

Release

The film was slated to be a part of the South by Southwest Film Festival 2010. However, on February 12, 2010, Lionsgate purchased the rights for the US Distribution and pulled the film from the SXSW fest and set the release of the film for August 27, 2010.

The film had its world premiere at the LA Film Festival on June 24, 2010 and was here introduced by Eli Roth and Daniel Stamm. Members of the cast were also introduced on stage, Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones, Iris Bahr, and Tony Bentley. The Last Exorcism was the last screened film on August 30, 2010 on the Film4 FrightFest 2010.

Bloody Disgusting hosted the screening of the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International and the second screening on 24 July 2010 is narrated by Eli Roth.

Poster controversy

It was announced that a poster for the film was banned in public UK places, due to the nature of the poster (described as "offensive", "distressing", and "unsuitable for public viewing") which received 77 complaints, of which two people claimed the girl in the poster seemed to have "suffered a sexual assault". It was then decided the advert was not allowed to be seen again in that format.

Viral campaign

The Last Exorcism used Chatroulette as the medium of its viral campaign involving a girl who pretends to unbutton her top seductively, then stops and turns into a monster. At the end, the URL of the film's official website is flashed on screen.

Home media

The Last Exorcism was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 4, 2011. The Blu-ray includes the DVD of the film and a digital copy as well.

Reception

Critical

The Last Exorcism has received generally positive reviews from critics, garnering a 73% "Fresh" rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 142 reviews, with the site's consensus being "It doesn't fully deliver on the chilly promise of its Blair Witch-style premise, but The Last Exorcism offers a surprising number of clever thrills. " The film received a 63 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". At Yahoo! Movies the film currently holds a B- based on twelve reviews.

Box office

The Last Exorcism opened at #2 at the U.S. box office the weekend of August 27, 2010 behind Takers. It grossed $20,366,613 from 2,874 theaters in its first three days. The Last Exorcism had a budget of $1.8 million. The film remained in the top five, falling to number four in its second weekend. The film went on to gross $41 million domestically and $26.7 million foreign to total $67.7 million worldwide.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2011	People's Choice Award	Favorite Horror Movie		Nominated
	Independent Spirit Award	Best First Feature	Daniel Stamm
	MTV Movie Award	Best Scared-As-Shit Performance	Ashley Bell
	Empire Awards	Best Horror		Won

Sequel

On August 23, 2011, The Hollywood Reporter announced that a sequel is in the works, with its preliminary title, The Last Exorcism 2 bound to be changed before release. The film will be directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly, with Damien Chazelle (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench) providing the screenplay. Ashley Bell is set to reprise her role as Nell.

External links

• Official website
• The Last Exorcism at the Internet Movie Database
• The Last Exorcism at AllRovi
• The Last Exorcism at Box Office Mojo
• The Last Exorcism at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Last Exorcism at Metacritic
• The Last Exorcism on StudioCanal