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ON THIS DAY ON HORROR - August 27th

"THE LAST EXORCISM" released in 2010

Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) a disillusioned evangelical minister, who after years of performing exorcisms decides to participate in a documentary chronicling his last exorcism while exposing the fraud of his ministry. But Cotton is unprepared for when his last "exorcism", helping a possessed farm girl Nell (Ashley Bell), involves the very demons he claims to not exist turn out to be terrifyingly real, in this Eli Roth produced, found-footage chiller, The Last Exorcism!

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After the birth of his ill son, the Reverand Cotton Marcus (Fabian) loses his faith. Marcus, who is renowned for performing "exorcism's" (which are actually fake), accepts exorcism request sent by farmer Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum), and invites a documentary crew to join him in exposing the exorcism's he performs as a fraud.  Prior to the exorcism, Marcus bamboozles the family into believing he is driving out a demon, and after the ritual, Marcus and his film crew leave, believing they have cured Nell (Ashley Bell) of a mental state that was misdiagnosed as a possession. That night however, Nell appears in Marcus' motel room, apparently unwell. In the morning, Louis takes Nell home - after first taking her to be tested at the hospital - but chains her to her bed after she slices her brother Caleb's (Caleb Landry Jones) face with a knife! The crew then discover two more of her paintings. The first depicts Marcus standing before a large flame, holding up a crucifix. Also depicted is Iris cut into pieces, and Daniel decapitated. When everyone learns Nell is pregnant, Marcus accuses Louis of incest, which he denies, insisting that Nell is a virgin and has been defiled by a demon named Abalam.  Later, Nell slashes Marcus's hand with a pair of scissors and then flees. The crew decide to leave, and when they see Nell sitting on the porch, Marcus approaches her and she tackles him. Louis is about to kill Nell with his shotgun, while Nell is begging him to. To keep Louis from killing her, Marcus offers to attempt a second exorcism and finds himself confronting an evil he has never encountered in his entire career of performing exorcism's - a very real case of demonic possession!

Cotton Marcus: The bible is filled with demons. If you believe in God, you have to believe in the devil. Jesus himself was an exorcist. Therefore, if you are Christian and you believe in the bible, and you believe in Jesus Christ, you have to believe in demons.

Top:   Rev. Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) explains to his intention's for the documentary;

Above:   Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell)

Partly inspired by the 1972 documentary about fundamentalist huckster, Marjoe Gortner - Marjoe (1972) - screenwriters Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland spent three years writing the screenplay. It would then take another 10 years of development until the script came to the attention of horror director/producer Eli Roth. A rarity in film-making, The Last Exorcism (having changed the name of the script from "Cotton"), was in profit before filming even began! Producers Eli Roth, StudioCanal, and Strike Entertainment sold off a few key territories to finance the film based on the script, the producers' names and Roth's commitments to do publicity, raising $2 million and then making the film for $1.8 million. Originally writers Botko and Gurland were set to co-direct the film, but due to unknown reasons, the duo bowed out and director Daniel Stamm took over.

Shot in Louisiana, partly because of a generous tax credit, one of the most impressive scenes in the movie was the exorcism scene in the Sweetzer's barn. Actress Ashley Bell, who plays the possessed Nell Sweetzer, spent over a month researching her role, including the study of several manias. For the scene, she was given a pair of red Doc Martin boots not for any artistic reasons, but for the insurance company who refused to cover Bell for her exorcism scenes if she was running around barefoot. Interestingly, Ashley Bell did all the bends and contortions of her body on her own. No special effects were used because she has hypermobility (an exaggerated increase mobility or loose joints more flexible than ordinary), a very common problem which affect more than 15% of the world population. The Last Exorcism would also feature a real-life exorcist in the movie - a crew member's brother was a real exorcist, and was on set advising director Daniel Stamm. He makes an unbilled cameo in the film and can be seen to the left of Reverend Cotton Marcus when he delivers his sermon about the Prince of Lies.

[Cotton is performing the exorcism]
Nell Sweetzer: [possessed] Words! Words! Words! I'll tell you what. If you can keep quiet for ten seconds, I'll let the girl go.
Louis Sweetzer: Yes.
Cotton Marcus: Agreed.
Nell Sweetzer: One...
[Nell breaks her own finger]
Nell Sweetzer: Two...
[Nell breaks another finger]

Top:   The demon Abalam reveals itself as possessing Nell;

Above:   His faith restored, Cotton prepares to battle the demon!

The Last Exorcism sparked some controversy before it even opened 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, 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 magazine.

On it release, The Last Exorcism proved to be a box office hit, earning over ten times its budget ($1.8 million) and recouped all its marketing costs ($20 million) during its opening weekend in the US - eventually grossing nearly $70 million worldwide! With all it's box office success, The Last Exorcism was also a hit with the critics, with Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times writing, "An unusually restrained and genuinely eerie little movie perched at the intersection of faith, folklore and female puberty." Tom Huddleston of Time Out reviewed, "The credibility of faux-documentary filmmaking relies on clear plotting and convincing, semi-improvised acting." and Sean O'Connell (Washington Post), "Stamm creates an anxious psychological horror that's vaguely familiar yet refreshingly original".  Due to The Last Exorcism's critical and box-success, a sequel was quickly greenlit with Ashley Bell reprising her role of Nell Sweetzer for The Last Exorcism Part 2 (2013) - although it did not match the success of it's predecessor.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   72%