44.500

There's a lot of small things I enjoyed about The Last Exorcism. The documentary style suits the material, the buildup is nice, the location and lighting were effective and the cast works pretty well. More creepy than scary though. The ending, while quite a shift from what came before, actually didn't bother me that much. Had sort of a Call of Cthulhu rpg feel to it.

This film deserves credit for showing far more restraint than I would have assumed based on the trailer(which I contend is the new record holder for the most uses of the bone cracking sound effect in a span of 3 minutes). It also does a good job of unraveling it's story without completely tipping it's hand. But Patrick Fabian is never convincing as an Evangelical preacher who has lost his faith and this movie's third act is a mess.

Starts out interesting and promising, but the more it progresses, the more idiotic it becomes, not to even to mention the ending which made my brains explode with the amount of stupid.

It's hard to fairly judge this movie without comparing it to The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, which it's very similar to, but I thought it was actually pretty entertaining.

The Last Exorcism is occasionally creepy, but never downright scary. It has some genuinely good moments, like most of the time Ashley Bell gets to contort herself in various ways, but the mockumentary style of shooting ends up undermining most of that good effort. There are also too many points where nothing much happens, and also a very abrupt and unsatisfactory concluding scene. It's okay, but it's not great, and it also ends up being kind of silly, instead of frightening.

Solid if gimmicky fun. If you loved the ending, you probably have great taste. I want Ashley Bell to be in more movies. Similar to: The Village, The Wicker Man, Cloverfield.

Really unbelievable... ... shit.

I found this to be an enjoyable watch.The documentary style was well done and the acting was good.

Interesting film that started off fairly slow, started to get really good, but ended up with a sloppy finish. I didn't realize it was going to be one of those 'shaky-cam' films which can sometimes work well but other times fall flat, and it seemed to work well most of the time here. Horror wise there are a few decent scenes but not enough to really keep fans of the genre pleased. There are quite a few exorcism films around and while this one was good, its not up there with the best.

Despite the horror-poster and the build-up of the opening scenes, in the end the filmmakers seem to have wanted to give the impression that this movie rises above the level of a typical horror movie. The result, unfortunately, simply lacks either tension or shocks, fizzling out and leaving the viewer feeling like a victim of bad faith marketing. In short, it has the odour of a very cynical, but not very imaginative, moneymaking exercise.

Okay Movie

"A horror film for the Christian fundamentalist set, The Last Exorcism employs the aesthetic of The Blair Witch Project for a musty demonic-possession tale that promotes strict, anti-modern doctrinal faith as the most righteous path." - Nick Schager

My biggest problem with this was that just as the plot picks up and starts to get interesting the whole thing abruptly ends without any real explanation. I was left wanting so many answers, which can work for some things, but it feels more cop out than artistic decision. Apart from that you have a pretty standard found footage film, few scary moments and plenty of influence from the exorcist, which is of course the films strongest point.

The first 9/10ths are great. It has interesting characters and is rife with symbolism. Its full of horror/thriller tropes but so is all horror and this at least uses them well. It comes to an interesting and satisfying conclusion and then bam. The last two minutes. Oh god those lost two minutes ruin the whole thing. So full of plot holes and really just so contrived. Still. Hard to write the whole thing off.

The ending is terrific; it strengthens the conceptual side of everything that comes before. (It's kind of a reverse House of the Devil, beginning as it does from the current found footage craze and working backwards, though with more meaningful commentary on the genre.) I particularly enjoyed the carefully crafted, quite charming vision-of-death collages, and the cartoon cat drawing. I was really hoping for cross-stitching at some point.

This movie contains a good performance by Patrick Fabian. The character Fabian plays is the most interesting one in this movie. The movie is hard to see what is going on in spots. The ending is lame and the movie totally falls apart in the final third.

Overall Enjoyment: 25/40, Plot/Themes: 15/20, Cinematography/Direction: 10/20, Acting/Writing: 15/20 Most of the time found footage movies have bland poorly developed characters. The main character in this film is well-written, well-acted, believable, and very charismatic. The parts in-between the scares are actually fun in this one, because the protagonist is so amusing.

Not scary at all

I liked the way it started very comfortably and built up the tension very slowly. I enjoyed watching it and thought it was worthy as an exorcism movie, and it did build up to a considerable level of emotional intensity. But I was a bit disappointed because I had expected to be a lot more terrified than I was. I expected a new masterpiece, a new Excorcist, and the movie seemed to be promising that throughout. If your expectations aren't that high you might like it more than I did.

Reminds me of Rosemary's baby.

This was like Paranormal Activity meets The Village. In other words, utter shit. Characters were retarded, the plot is lazy and things that don't make sense or explained are just left behind for the sake of an ambiguous ending. It turned out to be really more stupid than expected. Also, the girl is a look-a-like to Michael Cera. On the bright side, hated it less than Paranormal.

The Last Exorcism is not ineffective. It does manage to create an atmosphere of pending doom. Still, whatever anticipation the viewer may experience during the first act is then rewarded with a pastiche of The Blair Witch Project, The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby. A good scare requires the element of surprise, so for your movie to be genuinely scary you have to be willing to invest a little originality. Also, low-budget documentary style and a string section original soundtrack are either/or.

It's an ok movie for most of its running time. The first 30 minutes are really good and the actors (Patrick Fabian) are very convincing but it gets highly predictable afterwards and the last 5 minutes are just terrible.

First 95% of the movie: B+. Ending: C-. I actually disliked it more when I first saw it, but after a week to let it settle I think it wasn't that bad, just not on par with the rest of the movie.

Okay, lets start with the good. It is interesting to watch. The documentary style is great, surprisingly, and makes certain moments much greater than they have any real right to be. Now the bad. The plot is contrived beyond belief, and the ending is just ridiculous. It packs a terrific punch, coming literally out of nowhere, but when you sit back and think about it...it's just stupid. Another flaw is the fact it isn't very scary. It is disturbing and disgusting, but not frightening. Meh.

Me, 10 minutes before the end: "Hey, this ain't half bad!" Me, at the end: :-O

This was one of the most well-put-together horror flicks of recent memory for me. It has a great premise and the execution to match. The scares were very real, the slow-built tension was just palpable in a way that only great horror flicks can deliver. I wasn't a fan of the ending at first; when it first happened, I was underwhelmed to the point that I was afraid it had ruined the movie. Very scary, very raw and realistic, doesn't rely too too heavily on jump-scares... just a superb horror.