THE LAST EXORCISM
US, 2010, 87 minutes. Colour.
Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones, Tony Bentley.
Directed by Daniel Stamm.
So much storytelling is fact told as fiction. With reality TV and the post Blair Witch Project genre, so many films are really fiction told as fact. The same here. While it does have one eye on The Exorcist and its story of demonic possession of a girl, the other eye is on the hand-held camera techniques that could make the initially unwary (but much less so now) believe that what they are seeing actually happened just as it is there on the screen.
Acknowledging the popular success of such terror films as Cloverfield, The Diary of the Living Dead and the Rec/Quarantine series as well as the alleged authenticity of the Paranormal Activity films, The Last Exorcist purports to give us interviews with the reverend Cotton Marcus, with his wife and son. It them makes us complicit with Marcus and his producer and cameraman as we visit a farm where Marcus will go through the ritual of an exorcism, get his fee and go on his way proving that possession’ is only a state of mind, heightened and/or hysterical and that God and the devil seem to have very little really to do with it. A one-time child prodigy of a preacher and with his first exorcism at ten (and his picture and the story proudly in the paper), he is a credit to his hyper-evangelical congregation-rouser of a pastor and a dab hand at raising alleluias himself.
But, with the birth of his deaf son, he has lost faith in what he is doing and just keeps going for the money to support his family.
So, (with the actor playing Marcus presenting a nice clean-cut image – we first see him shaving – a mixture of Michael Douglas and Robert Redford), the film is set to debunk possession, exorcisms and religion.
And he does it, with a few props to help things along and a few winks to the producer. He feels sorry for the 16 year old who seems to have been slaughtering cattle overnight and slashing her brother. He finds himself back at the farm where ‘legion’ seems to have come back to occupy the cleansed soul and body of the girl.
It gets quite complicated as he invokes the help of the local Lutheran pastor and his chubby assistant who is delighted she is in a movie. The father of the house has his problems when he discovers – you might have guessed it – that his daughter is pregnant. Plenty of suspicions as to the father, but...
Just when you might be suspecting that this is a case of real possession, the film-makers overdose on Rosemary’s Baby and give us a rather hurried ending which is big on shock but not on credibility, certainly as to how the film got rescued, edited and marketed at all. But, of course, that is not the point.
While there are references and biblical quotes, observations on Vatican exorcists and their increasing numbers, on how possession and exorcism are common to all denominations and religions, this is a religious film only in name. It does, of course, raise many questions about God and the devil, about faith and prayer, about superstition and credulity. But, the ending reminds us that this is just a movie concoction rather than, as it alleges to show, the real thing.
1. The use of the exorcism genre? The background of The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, paranormal activity? Audience expectations of this kind of alleged reality filming?
2. The importance of audience belief, disbelief? Religion, exorcism? The documentary style, the handheld camera, the film-makers being involved in making the film? The blending of the plot concoctions and realism, the sudden ending?
3. Realistic, Marcus and his house, his story, the church, his career, the photos and the newspaper items, his change of belief, his explanations? His planned expose, going to the farm? Establishing the realism of his work as an exorcist? His fraud in performing exorcisms?
4. Audience interest in religion, exorcisms, diabolical possession, its possibilities or not, the nature of devils, God’s role, the Catholic tradition, the Catholic books and references, Christianity and exorcisms?
5. The theology of the Devil, sending out the Devil? The film traditions?
6. The reality of exorcisms, in all religions, the Vatican, statistics, Catholic traditions? Other traditions?
7. Cotton Marcus as a character, the opening with his shaving, ordinary man, his household, love for his wife, the interviews, an interesting character, audience sympathies, the birth of his son? The difficulties, deaf? The threats to Cotton’s belief? His father and his enthusiasm, Cotton at ten, his sermon, exorcisms?
8. The discussion with the film-makers, their being off screen, the discussions, the banana, the winks, credulity?
9. Exorcisms performed as frauds – for the good results of those who believed they were authentic?
10. The decision to go to visit Louis Sweetzer, travelling, the group, the welcome, the daughter and her state, the blood, the cattle, her brother? The phenomena? The house, eerie? The ritual of the exorcism, the results? Cotton and his playing to the camera, tricks, winks? The camerawork?
11. The father and his children, Caleb and his hostility?
12. The situation becoming more serious, puzzling? The father-daughter relationship? The son? The Lutheran minister, the visits to his church, the discussions, exorcisms? His assistant – wanting to be in the film?
13. The decision to leave, their being trapped?
14. The satanic background – brought in at the last moments of the film? How credible? The Lutheran minister? The involvement of the family? The repercussions for Cotton and the film-makers?
15. The overall effect of the film, fraud and truth? Diabolical possession? The possibilities of exorcisms?
