The Last Exorcism (2010)

Director: Daniel Stamm

Starring: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr

A troubled evangelical minister agrees to let his last exorcism be filmed by a documentary crew.

The deliberate blurring and out of focus effects seemed forced to make them believable as found footage film. Yet, they had an excellent quality camera, so it is not believable. For someone owning such an expensive camera they sure do film like an amateur, and that was a bit annoying.

The problem I have with found footage films is that you always know the fate of the characters beforehand: they’re going to die. Yes, to put it bluntly. Otherwise it wouldn’t serve a purpose being found footage, would it? Here it is even predicted how they will die, and sure enough they die exactly as predicted, so there were very little surprises.

Patrick Fabian plays Reverend Cotton Marcus, who has lost most of his faith and belief in the church, and is now an exorcism fraudster. Showing his tricks upfront was effective and made it more interesting when things really started getting out of hand, and beyond his control. The acting in general was very good, but especially Ashley Bell as the possessed girl.

The film won awards for Best Horror, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Feature Film.  It was also a huge box office sensation, earning $67.7 million on an $1.8 million budget.