The Last Exorcism (2010)

This movie is possibly the best horror film of 2010. And as many of my friends know, that’s high praise. I love horror films, and it is extremely hard to scare me without the cheap jump scares. Most films that scare most of my friends have never scared me. Two of my most referenced examples of this are The Ring and Paranormal Activity, neither of which scared me. I still did like The Ring, and if you’ve ever had a conversation with me about movies, you’ll know how much I hate Paranormal Activity. And that is one of the reasons I was concerned with seeing The Last Exorcism. Like Paranormal Activity (and the exceptional Cloverfield), it is filmed in a pseudo-documentary stance, or easier known as the ‘found footage’ genre. The film’s plot contains a preacher/exorcist who knows that exorcisms are frauds, and so he brings along two documentarians to film his scam, in order to explain the truth to the world. The first half-hour or so of this film is extremely slow, and it wouldn’t have worked without the characters that the film did have. The characters actually have real emotions, unlike most of the films in this sub-genre. And then, there is another half-hour where things start to pick up a little bit, but doesn’t have as strong of characters, relying on the scares that aren’t there. This is downright the slowest part of the film. And then, the scares come in plenty. The documentary trio goes to a farm where a man’s daughter seems to be possessed by the devil. The movie’s great trick is that you really don’t know if the girl is possessed or if she’s traumatized or crazy (both sides of the argument are helped throughout more information being revealed in the film, and I will not spoil any of them), and this keeps up even at the end of the film, which is a shocker. Like Cloverfield, there is an ending that doesn’t leave you many answers, but is just perfect enough. The ending left me in awe of the entire film. And that is what a horror film should do. It should have a slow buildup, then get really scary, and leave you speechless at the end. The Last Exorcism is the most perfect horror film, or horror story, in a while (and no, Let the Right One In/Let Me In is not a horror story. It is a supernatural drama). But yeah. The film is very disturbing, and probably should not have been rated PG-13. Anyone that really takes religion extremely serious (and I am a Christian, but suspension of disbelief is important in film) will get extremely offended. Child activist groups, families, fathers, mothers, mostly all people will be offended. Even I was offended a little bit by the film, and I do not get offended easily. This is not a ‘family’ horror film, despite the PG-13 rating. A good ‘family’ horror film is Poltergeist. Rent that. But if you can accept the difference between fiction and reality, and want to get REALLY scared, pick up The Last Exorcism. It is just about the scariest movie of the year.
9/10