With the film hitting theaters today, here's a reprint of our review from the Fantasia Film Festival.
Ever since "The Exorcist," the genre as a whole has really been nothing but a series of diminishing returns and lesser imitations. In his now classic film, William Friedkin perfected in his first time out all the touchstones that continue to mark the genre, including the test of faith it presents to men of the cloth and the eye-opening symptoms of demon possession -- vomiting, cursing, head spinning, body contortions, over the top sexuality -- that really haven't been topped since Linda Blair's head-spinning performance. Undoubtedly, the filmmakers of "The Last Exorcism" had quite the task ahead of them if they hoped to make even a noticeable dent in the genre that is littered with also-cames and has-beens. Full credit due then to screenwriters Huck Buckland and Andrew Gurland for finding a different spin on the exorcism film.
Filmed as a documentary, the story follows Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a young preacher in Baton Rouge who is unapologetically without faith. He was trained by his father at the age of 10 to become a child preacher who was touched by the hand of God, in an effort to bring in more people to their parish. The gambit worked, and ever since, Marcus has been giving theatrical sermons of which he doesn't believe a single word. That said, Marcus doesn't believe he's being deceptive as he feels his words do offer healing and consolation to those who come to church each week needing to hear them. So in his own weird way, he's doing God's work.
When it comes to exorcism Marcus reveals that, down South, a history of culture and superstition has made it prime breeding ground for the practice. He admits that exorcism is very healthy business, and he has done them since he was ordained, however, following the death of a local child at the hands of another preacher, he has stopped doing them. Marcus has agreed to the documentary so that he can expose the dangerous practice of exorcism and hopefully put a stop to practitioners who put their subjects in danger. In order to document what a preacher generally encounters when hired to perform an exorcism, Marcus agrees to do one last job (hence the title, duh). But as you might guess, his usual bag of tricks come up against something he never expected.
The subject for his final performance is one he chooses at random from the stack of requests he usually gets: a girl named Nell (Ashley Bell), who, according to her father Louis (Louis Herthum), is possessed. It appears Nell has been killing livestock during nightly demonic spells, but when she wakes up, she can't remember doing it. The only evidence is her blood stained clothes and bedsheets. Moreover, she can no longer wear the cross around her neck as the crucifix burns her skin. Marcus, who has arrived with his documentary team in tow, goes through the motions with the family and agrees to perform an exorcism, but speaking privately to the camera, he has rationalizations for the dead animals (an alligator) and the cross (an allergy to nickel).
Of the many holds not barred in a recent interview with Gerard Depardieu for Austrian magazine Profil, the most widely reported has been his burn of compatriot Juliette Binoche. (Translations taken from Lizzy Davies' Guardian article except where otherwise specified):
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