Thursday, December 30, 2010

The WTF List: The Last Exorcism (Review)

I decided to go with a WTF List instead of a regular review because I know most horror fans have seen this movie already. I'll admit, the promotion for this flick had me scratching my head. I figured it was a Blair Witch meets The Exorcist ripoff. Sure it had Eli Roth's name attached to but I figured it could wait.

Well the wait is over.

The Last Exorcism is one of the best horror movies of 2010 by far. Not because it had elements of Paranormal Activity or exorcism scares, but because somehow the mockumentary feels as real as real could be. Evangelism is clearly a scary thought in general, but when you you see how real the fakery can be and how people will believe in "the show", that's what's truly scary. The Last Exorcism amplifies this horror wise but the foundation is not without a chill to the bone factor as well.

The shot on video POV should have jumped the shark here but didn't. It reminded me of Lake Mungo, which is on my top 10 list as well. When done well these fake docs somehow get the jumpy jumping. It's a smart mock and I liked the mockery of religion. Sure it got a little cliched towards the end though it ended cleverly, it's a haunting feeling nevertheless.

On to the list!

1.) Our scammy Reverend is clearly an anti Father Merrin.
2.) Religion is really magic and banana nut cake.
3.) Cotton is clearly a vampire slayer
4.) You may be part Sweetzer and not even know it.
5.) I'm 100% sure a crystal meth tweekers killed those animals...or Chupacabra
6.) Nell looks like she drank too much Four Loko
7.) All magic has fishline in some way or another
8.) The camera guy actually does a decent job of pointing the camera to where I WANT him to point the camera
9.) But he keeps doing damn reaction shots..STOP IT!
10.) I tell ya, any girl wearing Doc Martens becomes 10x more hotter

11.) Jump scare, BOO scare, dark scare, BOO scare
12.) Sorry I don't bend that way
13.) The lack of CGI is giving me a happy
14.) You don't wanna hear it, but I think America has an incest problem
15.) The film likes to play with your belief vs science struggle. If you're acting crazy, your freakin crazy. For 90% of the movie you feel she's just mental. And that 10% makes you think. Though 9% of me still think's she's looney.
16.) Nothing ever good comes out of a bonfire and people dressed in cloaks and funny hats
17.) I'm one of those people that gets dizzy when the POV goes into nauseous mode
18.) Poor Cotton. He should have called the Vatican 911.
19.) Well he'll never be ahead of a corporation
20.) They don't even try to go all found footage. Imagine this was on A&E or Bio and portrayed as real. 40% of Americans would BELIEVE THIS IS REAL. Seriously...right?

The Last Exorcism is so bumping another flick from my Top 10 list. Dammit. I now have like 3 cinema verite flicks on my top 10. Somehow this feels wrong. But you gotta give credit to where it's due. The Last Exorcism is scamtastic heavenly fun.


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3 comments:

  1. An amazing flick for sure. And I agree 110% with #20.

    How did you feel about the ending? So much was made of it and I thought it was completely logical and the only way to go, given the larger context of the film.

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  2. It seemed to fit in with the overall theme. I want to believe there was nothing supernatural at all and that everybody was completely crazy...yknow like in real life.

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  3. You have to admit that this chick walk bent backwards all on her own was pretty freaky.

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