"....but this - this is old school."Just like last year's Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism could never hope to match the preceding hype. However, unlike Paranormal Activity, Daniel Stamm's movie is actually well made. The story is effectively constructed, building and developing potential narrative directions from emotional, psychological and horror angles which engages the audience, even if some of the more interesting and impactful possibilities are ultimately not fulfilled. Patrick Fabian gives a terrifically energetic central performance as the doubting pastor who agrees to having one final random request for an exorcism to be the subject of a documentary to disprove it once and for all - hence the excuse for the Blair Witch shaky-cam conceit which is used to good (if hardly original) effect for the most part. Indeed, the small cast delivers apt and tightly-controlled performances, giving the set-up a good level of authenticity. The ending will divide viewers, and in some ways takes away from a lot of the good work done up to that point. The Last Exorcism hints at a much darker and more satisfying film than this superficially entertaining and reasonably interesting film actually provides.
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