The Last Exorcism
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. |
| The Last Exorcism | |
|---|---|
| File:Lastexposter.jpg Promotional poster | |
| Directed by | Daniel Stamm |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Zoltan Honti |
| Edited by | Daniel Stamm |
| Music by | Nathan Barr |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
Release date |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | Template:FilmUS |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.8 million[1] |
| Box office | $33,522,575[2] |
The Last Exorcism is a 2010 American mockumentary horror film directed and edited by Daniel Stamm.[3] It stars Patrick Fabian, Iris Bahr and Louis Herthum.[4]
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.[5][6] The tagline and premise of the movie is "If you believe in God, then you must believe in the Devil."
Plot
Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife and son. Raised as an evangelical pastor by his father, he has been accustomed to performing exorcisms on "possessed" individuals. However, his faith has waned after reading of an autistic child being killed during an exorcism, reminding him of his own son, who also has a disability. He comes to realize that he attributes the healing of his son to science, and not to Jesus Christ. 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 Dan Moskowitz (Adam Grimes). At random, he chooses a plea letter from an individual seeking an exorcism leading him to the farmhouse of Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum), a man who claims to have a possessed daughter named Nell (Ashley Bell). Prior to the exorcism ritual, Marcus arranges Nell's room with hidden speakers and electronic props so that 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 being misdiagnosed as a demonic possession.
Later that night, as the team sleeps at a nearby hotel, Nell mysteriously appears in Reverend Marcus' room. The team tries to contact Louis in order to get permission to film her—but to no avail. Wishing to prove his point, Marcus admits Nell to the hospital for testing in hopes of getting a medical or psychological diagnosis proving that demonic possession was not the cause of her illness. However, the doctor concludes that Nell is in perfect physical state. In the morning, her father arrives and takes her home and chains her in her room for slicing her brother Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones) in the face. While Louis takes Caleb to the hospital, Marcus and the camera crew stay to further investigate Nell and the home. They discover the chained Nell and release her. Later that night, there is a disturbance in the house, and Marcus and the crew hear the cries of a baby. They head upstairs to find Nell standing in the middle of the hallway. As they try to confront her, she evades them and heads into the 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.
Later that night, while Marcus and the crew are asleep, Nell steals their camera and goes into her room and places the camera on the dresser as she pulls and distorts her face. Nell then goes into her father's barn where she corners a cat and beats it to death with the camera. She returns to the house and enters the room where Marcus and the film crew are sleeping. She stands over Marcus and raises the camera over her head, ostensibly to beat him to death with it. The rest of the crew wakes up and stops her, unaware of what had just transpired. They soon 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 was shown battling in the other picture, Iris hacked to pieces with an axe, and Dave decapitated.
Louis comes home and listens to 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 in fact been defiled by the demon that possessed her. Tempers flare as Marcus insists that Nell is mentally disturbed and needs psychotherapy instead of another exorcism. Louis gives Marcus and the film crew five minutes to vacate his property. While contemplating whether they should remove Nell from the home, crashing noises are heard upstairs. They go upstairs into Nell's room and discover she has climbed up on top of her dresser. As they try to calm her down, she slashes Marcus's hand with a knife and runs outside. The crew follows her but lose her. They soon decide to leave, and, as they enter their van, they see Nell sitting on her porch. While approaching her, Nell tackles Marcus and attempts to harm him. The struggle leads inside as Louis chases them with a shotgun. In a desperate attempt to keep Louis from killing Nell, Marcus reluctantly agrees to attempt another exorcism.
They relocate to the barn where Nell had killed the cat. Marcus attempts to bring out the demon to confront it. The demon comes out and reveals Nell is in fact possessed. Upon confronting Nell with this, she breaks down and admits to having sex with a boy named Logan and committing her violent acts out of shame of her pregnancy.
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 ever had with Nell was a brief conversation at the Sweetzer's estranged Protestant minister's house six months ago; he also insinuates that he is gay and, therefore, would never have had sex with her. Confused, Marcus and the film crew return to the Sweetzer's farmhouse. They enter Nell's room to find numerous pentagrams and other demonic symbols scrawled on the walls, but Nell and her family are absent from the house. Marcus and the film crew wander into the woods where they see a large fire and a congregation of hooded occultists, led by Pastor Manley (Tony Bentley), the Sweetzer's estranged Protestant minister. Nell's father is shown bound and gagged on a pole while the others pray around an altar, which Nell is shown to be tied on top of. Marcus and the film crew watch as Nell gives birth to an inhuman entity. Manley grabs the entity and throws it into the fire, which causes the fire to grow rapidly while disembodied demonic voices grow louder. Marcus grabs his cross and rushes towards the fire in a last-ditch attempt to save Nell; his ultimate fate is not shown. Iris and Dave are soon discovered and make a run for it. As they run, Iris is tackled by a member of the occult congregation, who then murders her with an axe, cutting her to pieces. Dave keeps running. While he pauses to catch his breath, Caleb suddenly emerges from the woods and chops off Dave's head. The camera subsequently falls to the ground, and the scene fades to black.
Cast
- Patrick Fabian as Cotton Marcus[7]
- Iris Bahr as Iris[8]
- Louis Herthum as Louis Sweetzer[9]
- Ashley Bell as Nell Sweetzer[10]
- Jamie Alyson Caudle as Satanic Worshiper[11]
- Tony Bentley as Gerad[12]
- Shanna Forrestall as Mrs. Cotton Marcus[13]
- Allen Boudreaux as Satanic Worshiper[14]
- Caleb Landry Jones as Caleb Sweetzer[15]
- Denise Lee as Nurse[16]
- Becky Fly as Becky[17]
- Logan Craig Reid as Logan[18]
- Cy Fahrenholtz as Congregation[19]
- Geraldine Glenn as Church parishioner
- Cynthia LeBlanc as Church Parishioner
- Elton LeBlanc as Church Parishioner
- Christine Standfill as Church Parishioner
- Sarah J. Thompson as Church goer
- Justin Shafer as Justin Marcus
Production
The Last Exorcism was directed by the German Independent filmmaker Daniel Stamm and produced by Eric Newman, Eli Roth,[20] Marc Abraham and Thomas A. Bliss. The film was shot using shaky camera, it was also shot in 'found footage' (Daniel Stamm has previously directed A Necessary Death, another 'found footage' film).[21] Strike Entertainment and StudioCanal hold the theatrical rights.[22]
Release
The film premiered on January 25, 2010 as part of the Sundance Film Festival and was part of the South by Southwest Film Festival 2010.[23] On February 12, 2010, Lionsgate saved the rights for the US Distribution[24] and set the release of the film for 27 August 2010.[25] The film ran on the LA Film Festival on 17 June 2010[26] and was here narrated by Eli Roth.[27] The Last Exorcism was the last screened film on August 30, 2010 on the Film4 FrightFest 2010.[28]
Bloody Disgusting hosted the screening of the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International[29] and the second screening on 24 July 2010 is narrated by Eli Roth.[30]
Viral campaign
The Last Exorcism uses 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.[31] At the end, the URL of the film's official website is flashed on screen.
Reception
Critical
The Last Exorcism has received generally positive reviews from critics, garnering a 71% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 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." [32] The film received a 63 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [33]
References
- ^ Fritz, Ben (August 26, 2010). "Movie projector: 'Avatar' re-release a wild card as 'Takers' and 'Last Exorcism' debut". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lastexorcism.htm
- ^ Roth's Cotton pic
- ^ Lionsgate Plans 'The Last Exorcism' for August
- ^ Lionsgate's 'The Last Exorcism' to Premiere at the LA Film Festival
- ^ Bloody Girl is Having a Bad Day in the Eli Roth Produced ‘Cotton’
- ^ Late Summer Debut for Last Exorcism
- ^ Hi-Res Look at Creepy Possessed Girl in Eli Roth's 'Cotton'!
- ^ First Look: First Photo from Eli Roth's Exorcism Film Cotton
- ^ Afm '09: First Ever Images From Eli Roth's 'Cotton'!!
- ^ 'Cotton' to Be Shown to Sundance, Full Casting Released
- ^ Back-breaking One Sheet Debut For 'The Last Exorcism'!
- ^ Two New Images: The Last Exorcism
- ^ Wicked New One-Sheet: The Last Exorcism
- ^ Trailer Debut: Lionsgate's The Last Exorcism
- ^ The Devil Finds New Host in 'The Last Exorcism' Trailer Debut!
- ^ The Last Exorcism Goes Viral – Visit the Church of St. Marks Online
- ^ Viral Marketing Campaign Begins For 'The Last Exorcism'
- ^ The Last Exorcism – Officlal Facebook
- ^ Eli Roth talks “Cabin Fever” Blu-ray, “Last Exorcism,” “Funhouse” remake and more!
- ^ Prepare Yourself for 'The Last Exorcism' – FEARNet
- ^ Two New Stills: The Last Exorcism
- ^ Possession at Full Mass in New Hi-Res 'Last Exorcism' Images
- ^ Lionsgate Acquires Us Rights for The Last Exorcism
- ^ Lionsgate Attends The Last Exorcism This August
- ^ LA Film Festival Premieres 'The Last Exorcism', Other Genre Fare
- ^ BC Catches Up With 'Producer' Eli Roth at the 'Last Exorcism' Premiere
- ^ 'Hatchet II' Opens, 'Last Exorcism' Closes Film 4 FrightFest Film Festival!
- ^ Bloody Disgusting Hosts Special San Diego Comic-Con Screening of 'The Last Exorcism'!
- ^ SDCC '10: BD Hosts Special Comic-Con Screening of 'The Last Exorcism'! -- SECOND SCREENING ADDED!
- ^ http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2010/08/20/chat_roulette
- ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_exorcism/
- ^ http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-last-exorcism