When I saw the trailer for The Last Exorcism, I wasn’t really given enough information to discern the full plot.  But the general idea seemed simple enough: a documentary crew films an exorcism, and finds more than they bargained for, ala The Blair Witch Project.  I wasn’t enthralled with that prospect, but one recent Sunday it was the best option available.

Actually, the storyline in The Last Exorcism is a bit more interesting than I thought.  Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) has been a preacher since he was ten years old.  He is a master at capturing the audience, combining his command of preaching with the showmanship of some magic tricks twisted to teach lessons about Jesus.  He even bets one of the documentary crew (one cameraman and one interviewer/producer) that he can throw in his mother’s banana bread recipe and the congregation will never notice.  He does, and they don’t. 

The problem for Cotton is that he isn’t even sure he believes in God anymore, and he is certain he has lost any belief in organized religion; it’s all show, and all for money.  In particular, he is now concerned about the practice of Christian exorcism.  “The Catholics get all the press, because they had the movie” he quips.  But a recent newspaper article detailing the death of a young boy during an exorcism has pushed his conscience over the edge.  And this is the purpose of the documentary crew: Cotton is prepared to have them join him on one last exorcism, so he can reveal all the tricks of the trade, and what a complete fraud it is.  In this way, he hopes, no other child will have to suffer the fate of the boy in the paper.

At random, he selects one letter asking for help, and travels with the crew to their rural Louisiana town.  There he meets Louis, the father who believes his teenage daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed by a demon, and has been slaughtering his livestock at night (with no memory of it the next day).  Nell is sweet and a believer, and while she doesn’t remember doing the acts she is accused of, all evidence seems to point to her; whether it is demonic possession or a simple case of violent sleepwalking is answered by Louis and his fundamentalist beliefs.  Nell’s brother Caleb, on the other hand, considers his father a dangerous drunk (since Mom died) and his sister an innocent victim.

Cotton and the crew perform an exorcism, complete with his various parlor tricks and gimmicks.  But, as you might expect, the story does not end there.  And soon it becomes a battle between Cotton and his unbeliever attitude – putting science over religion – and Louis and his deep fundamentalist beliefs.

There are some very funny moments, a few scary ones, and plenty of creepy ones in The Last Exorcism.  The very end of the film leaves a bit to be desired, but overall that doesn’t diminish the enjoyment of the ride.  This isn’t a great film, but it’s a fun one, and a nice change from the slasher and soft-porn horror films which are much more prevalent today.