The Last Exorcism
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''The Last Exorcism'' is a 2010 American found footage
supernatural horror film Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of horror film and supernatural film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common them ...
directed by
Daniel Stamm Daniel Stamm (born April 20, 1976, in Hamburg), is a German film filmmaker. He is best known for directing the horror films ''The Last Exorcism'' (2010), ''13 Sins'' (2014) and ''Prey for the Devil ''Prey for the Devil'' is a 2022 American supe ...
. It stars
Patrick Fabian Patrick Fabian (born December 7, 1964) is an American film, stage, and television actor. He is known for his role as attorney Howard Hamlin in ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). His film roles include '' End Game'' (2006), ''The Last Exorcism' ...
, Ashley Bell,
Iris Bahr Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants *Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional enti ...
,
Caleb Landry Jones Caleb Landry Jones (born December 7, 1989) is an American actor and musician, known for his roles as Banshee in '' X-Men: First Class'', Jeremy Armitage in ''Get Out'', Red Welby in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'', Ty Carter in ''The ...
, and
Louis Herthum Louis Herthum (born July 5, 1956) is an American actor and producer. Herthum has worked as a stage, television, and film actor, and he has also appeared in national television commercials. He is best known for his recurring role as Dep. Andy Broom ...
. After years of performing
exorcism Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be ...
s, a disillusioned
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
minister 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 A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
, he meets the farmer's afflicted daughter. The film received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing more than $67 million against a $1.8 million budget. A sequel, ''
The Last Exorcism Part II ''The Last Exorcism Part II'' is a 2013 American supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly. It stars Ashley Bell, Julia Garner, Spencer Treat Clark, and Louis Herthum. It is a sequel to ''The Last Exorcism'', and was re ...
'', was released on March 1, 2013.


Plot

Filmmakers Iris and Daniel document Cotton Marcus, a reverend living in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...
, who seeks to delegitimize exorcisms. Marcus, who lost his faith after the birth of his disabled son, is accustomed to performing fake exorcisms on individuals who believe they are possessed. He accepts an exorcism request sent by Louis Sweetzer, a farmer who claims his livestock are being slaughtered by his daughter Nell; Louis suspects that Nell is possessed by
Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...
. Marcus arrives and claims Nell is possessed by
Abalam Paimon is a spirit named in early grimoires. These include '' The Lesser Key of Solomon'' (in the '' Ars Goetia''), Johann Weyer's '' Pseudomonarchia Daemonum'', Collin de Plancy's ''Dictionnaire Infernal'', the ''Livre des Esperitz'' (as "'' ...
, a powerful demon who defiles the innocent. Using a variety of sound equipment to conduct the phony exorcism, he convinces Nell and her family that he has driven out the demon and leaves, believing he and his crew have cured her of a mental state that was misdiagnosed as
possession Possession may refer to: Law * Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance * Drug possession, a crime * Ownership * ...
. Later that night, Nell inexplicably appears in Marcus's motel room, visibly unwell. Marcus takes Nell to the hospital for tests, which conclude that she is in perfect physical condition. He tries to convince Louis to allow Nell to undergo psychiatric testing, but he refuses. Marcus goes to see Louis's former pastor, Joseph Manley, who informs him that he has not seen Nell for three years. In the morning, Louis takes Nell home but chains her to the bed after she cuts her brother Caleb's face with a knife. Marcus frees Nell from her restraints and later finds her trying to drown a doll while seemingly sleepwalking. When the hospital calls back to inform that Nell is pregnant, Iris accuses Louis of
incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...
, which Marcus rejects. That night, Nell steals their camera and goes into her father's barn, where she brutally smashes a cat to death. Iris and Daniel discover her morbid paintings; in addition to the death of the cat, they depict Marcus standing before a large flame with a crucifix, Iris dismembered, and Daniel decapitated. Marcus confronts Louis about Nell's pregnancy; Louis insists that Nell is a virgin and has been impregnated by the demon. Offended at Marcus's insistence that a demon is not involved, Louis demands that the crew leave and alludes to intending to kill Nell. The crew tries to escape with Nell, who attacks Marcus before Louis threatens to shoot her. Marcus offers to attempt a second exorcism to dissuade him as Nell begs Louis to kill her. During the exorcism, Nell suddenly manifests into "Abalam" and agrees to release Nell only if Marcus can remain silent for ten seconds. Each second, Nell breaks one of her fingers. After three, Marcus yells for Abalam to stop; Abalam asks Marcus if he wants a " blowing job.” Marcus challenges that a demon would know the actual name of the sex act and concludes that Nell is not possessed, but a disturbed and ashamed girl. Nell anguishes over losing her virginity to a boy named Logan, which Louis again rejects. Marcus and the crew meet Logan, who explains that he is gay and the only contact he had with Nell was a brief conversation at Manley's house six months ago; the crew realizes Manley was lying about having not seen Nell. They return to the Sweetzer farmhouse, which they find empty and covered with numerous
occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
and
countercultural A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
symbols on its walls. The group follows the sound of voices into the woods, where they see a large fire and a congregation of hooded cultists led by Manley. Louis is bound, gagged and blindfolded while hooded figures pray around an altar, atop which Nell is bound. She gives birth to an inhuman child. Manley throws the child into the fire, which causes the fire to grow rapidly as demonic roars emanate. Marcus, his faith restored, grabs his cross and rushes towards the fire to combat the evil. Iris and Daniel flee, and Iris is subdued by members of the congregation and killed with an axe. Daniel continues to run before Caleb decapitates him, and the camera falls.


Cast


Release

The film was slated to be a part of the
South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
Film Festival 2010. On February 12, 2010,
Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...
purchased the rights for the US distribution and pulled the film from the festival. The release of the film was set for August 27, 2010. The film had its
world premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its f ...
at the
LA Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...
on June 24, 2010 and was here introduced by
Eli Roth Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, having directed the films '' Cabin Fever'' (2003) and ''Hoste ...
and Daniel Stamm. Members of the cast were also introduced on stage,
Patrick Fabian Patrick Fabian (born December 7, 1964) is an American film, stage, and television actor. He is known for his role as attorney Howard Hamlin in ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). His film roles include '' End Game'' (2006), ''The Last Exorcism' ...
, Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum,
Caleb Landry Jones Caleb Landry Jones (born December 7, 1989) is an American actor and musician, known for his roles as Banshee in '' X-Men: First Class'', Jeremy Armitage in ''Get Out'', Red Welby in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'', Ty Carter in ''The ...
,
Iris Bahr Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants *Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional enti ...
, and Tony Bentley. ''The Last Exorcism'' was the last screened film on August 30, 2010, on the
Film4 FrightFest FrightFest, also known as Arrow Video FrightFest is an annual film festival held in London and Glasgow. The festival holds three major events each year: a festival running five days over the UK late August Bank Holiday weekend, a Halloween event ...
2010.
Bloody Disgusting Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
hosted the screening of the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International and the second screening on 24 July 2010 is narrated by
Eli Roth Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, having directed the films '' Cabin Fever'' (2003) and ''Hoste ...
.


Poster controversy

In the UK, a poster image for the film showed a young girl, wearing a blood-spattered dress, bent over backwards below a crucifix. This poster received 77 complaints, the complainants describing it as "offensive", "distressing", and "unsuitable for public viewing". Two people also claimed the girl in the poster seemed to have suffered a
sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
, a complaint which was not upheld. The Advertising Standards Agency decided that the image could not be used on a publicly visible poster since that was an untargeted medium but was acceptable on the back cover of ''
Cineworld Cineworld Group plc is a British cinema operator headquartered in London, England. It is the world's second-largest cinema chain (after AMC Theatres), with 9,518 screens across 790 sites in 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Irela ...
'' magazine.


Viral campaign

''The Last Exorcism'' used
Chatroulette Chatroulette is an online chat website that pairs random users with a choice between two other users for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website begin an online chat (audio, and video) with another visitor. At any point, either user ...
as the medium of its viral campaign involving a girl who pretends to unbutton her top seductively, then stops and turns into a monster. At the end, the URL of the film's official website is flashed on screen.


Home media

''The Last Exorcism'' was released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
and
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
on January 4, 2011. The Blu-ray includes the DVD of the film and a
digital copy A digital copy is a commercially distributed computer file containing a media product such as a film or music album. The term contrasts this computer file with the physical copy (typically a DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, or Ultra HD Blu-ray disc) with ...
as well.


Reception


Critical reception

''The Last Exorcism'' has received generally positive reviews from critics, garnering a 72% approval rating on
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 161 reviews and an average rating of 6.17/10. The site's consensus being "It doesn't fully deliver on the chilly promise of its ''
Blair Witch ''Blair Witch'' is an American horror media franchise created by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, distributed by Artisan Entertainment (now Lionsgate) and produced by Haxan Films that consists of three feature films and various additional ...
''-style premise, but ''The Last Exorcism'' offers a surprising number of clever thrills." The film received a 63 out of 100 on
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, indicating "generally favorable reviews". At
Yahoo! Movies Yahoo! Movies (formerly Upcoming Movies), provided by the Yahoo! network, is home to a large collection of information on movies, past and new releases, trailers and clips, box office information, and showtimes and movie theater information. Yaho ...
the film holds a B− based on twelve reviews. Jeannette Catsoulis of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote that the film was "An unusually restrained and genuinely eerie little movie perched at the intersection of faith, folklore and female puberty." On the other hand, Joe Neumaier of ''
New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' gave the film 1 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Some of Bell's contortionist tricks aren't nearly as frightening as the best moments in ''
Paranormal Activity Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...
''. Or, really, some of the better episodes of ''
Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animation, animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative List of Scooby-Doo media, media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the orig ...
.''"


Box office

''The Last Exorcism'' opened at #2 at the U.S. box office the weekend of August 27, 2010, behind ''
Takers ''Takers'' (formerly known as ''Bone Deep'') is a 2010 American heist action thriller film directed by John Luessenhop from a story and screenplay written by Luessenhop, Gabriel Casseus, Peter Allen, and Avery Duff. It features Matt Dillon, Pau ...
''. It grossed $20,366,613 from 2,874 theaters in its first three days. ''The Last Exorcism'' had a budget of $1.8 million. The film remained in the top five, falling to number four in its second weekend. The film went on to gross $41 million domestically and $26.7 million foreign to total $67.7 million worldwide.


Awards and nominations


Sequel

On August 23, 2011, ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' announced that a
sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
was in the works. On April 20, 2012, an audition sheet revealed the film's full title as ''Beginning of the End: The Last Exorcism II''. The film was directed by
Ed Gass-Donnelly Ed Gass-Donnelly (born August 17, 1977) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His first full-length film, ''This Beautiful City'', was released in 2008 and nominated for four Genies at the 29th Genie Awards. In January 2011 Gass ...
, with Damien Chazelle (''
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench ''Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench'' is a 2009 American independent black-and-white romantic musical film directed, written, produced, shot, and co-edited by Damien Chazelle in his feature directorial debut, and it recasts the MGM musical tradit ...
'') providing the screenplay. Ashley Bell reprises her role as Nell. On January 2, 2013, the poster for the film was released, revealing the final title to be ''
The Last Exorcism Part II ''The Last Exorcism Part II'' is a 2013 American supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly. It stars Ashley Bell, Julia Garner, Spencer Treat Clark, and Louis Herthum. It is a sequel to ''The Last Exorcism'', and was re ...
''. The film was also produced by
Eli Roth Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, having directed the films '' Cabin Fever'' (2003) and ''Hoste ...
.


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Last Exorcism, The 2010 films 2010 horror films 2010s supernatural films American supernatural horror films Baton Rouge, Louisiana Camcorder films Films about exorcism Films set in Louisiana Films shot in Louisiana Films shot in New Orleans Found footage films American mockumentary films StudioCanal films Vivendi franchises Films produced by Marc Abraham Films produced by Eli Roth Films scored by Nathan Barr 2010s English-language films Films directed by Daniel Stamm 2010s American films