The Last Exorcism (MA). Director: Daniel Stamm. Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones, Adam Grimes. 87 minutes
In a 1999 interview with online horror magazine Dark Planet, American author William Peter Blatty described his 1971 demonic possession novel The Exorcist as being 'about the eternal questions ... why are we here? what are we supposed to be doing? why do we die? is there a God?' The Exorcist 'approached this last question, which is at the heart of all the others, by seeking to confirm the existence of 'demons' and the power of religious faith to deal with them'.
It's true that although this horror novel's account of the demonic possession of a young girl is disturbing, The Exorcist upholds an essentially fundamentalist, even romantic vision of religious (particularly Catholic) experience. Its central character, Fr Damien Karas, is a wearily compassionate, agnostic Jesuit. His encounters with demonic forces during the events portrayed in the novel restore his belief in the metaphysical dimension of his faith. This ultimately reconnects him to the knowledge that selflessness is the cornerstone of grace.
The Last Exorcism is a pseudo-documentary that puts Blatty's thesis to work in a much greyer context. This a cautionary tale that decries fanaticism and blind cynicism equally.
The filmmakers substitute for the jaded Jesuit a troubled Middle American preacher, Cotton Marcus (Fabian), who is being followed by a two-person film crew including director Iris (Bahr) and cameraman Daniel (Grimes).
This former child preacher is a born showman, skilled at playing the room in order to stoke religious fervour. His sermons are peppered with sleight-of-hand tricks that elicit oohs and ahs among the halleluiahs. To demonstrate the power of hype over substance, he bets Iris that he can babble his mother's banana bread recipe amid his frenzied preaching, without anyone noticing. When he does so, it is with a discreet grin at the camera.
In truth, Cotton has lost his faith, although he's been reluctant to let go of the role he was born and raised to do. Not just sermons, either: this affable shyster has also been performing sham exorcisms. He describes this as a 'service' similar to what Karas in The Exorcist might call an 'autosuggestive shock cure'. He claims he is meeting a psychological, not a spiritual, need.
But he's ready to drop the act, and has invited Iris to document what will be his final exorcism.