Ed's Review Dot Com

Strike Entertainment, Studi0Canal

Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones, Tony Bentley, John Wright Jr.,  Shanna Forrestall, Justin Shafer

I think a lot of people will be disappointed in this film.  It had a lot of potential for horror buffs, but it just doesn’t deliver.  This is the story of the son of a pentecostal minister who trained his son to be a preacher from the time he was a little child.   After lots of preparation he is unleashed at the ripe old age of 10 on Daddy’s congregation.  He’s a huckster and will do anything to raise money for the family.  He’s done lots of exorcisms, but not because they were needed, but because it seems to help the family who believes that is what is needed.  But after a very unfortunate event leaves a child dead, and after having his own family, he decides to prove that it’s all  bunk, and sets out on one last exorcism to prove to the world via a documentary showing how it’s all fake.  He has all the tricks and knows what to say.  So he randomly checks the mail and finds a plea from a remote Louisiana farmer who is looking for help with slaughtered farm animals.   Off we go to watch over the shoulder as he performs this fake exorcism of a 16 year old girl.

Things never go as planned, and even though the ending is foreshadowed, it still comes as a surprise…….that they would choose such a cheesy ending.  Certainly this movie would benefit from being brought back in and a new ending shot and the original ending dumped!   The general murmur of the crowd at the end was a combination of “Is this over?” and “What just happened?”   I have heard comparisons to Blair Witch, and in some ways those comparisons are fair, but the shaky camera which made some hate Blair Witch Project, District 9, and Cloverfield,  this, though shaky, wasn’t near as much, nor as bad.   The problem was the lost footage ending that is getting really old now.   You get really cheated at the end, and it builds to a climax that never arrives. 

The acting is good, mostly because of Ashley Bell who was totally convincing as a sweet little child/evil demon that hasn’t been seen since Linda Blair pulled it off in The Exorcist decades ago.   Actually even the documentary crew, the father, and the preacher and his family were all very well developed too, and the actors did fine.  The problem is the weakness of the story.  It’s fairly long (or it feels fairly long) but spends most of the time on the fakery and a crisis of faith, that doesn’t leave time for an ending which is rushed and it was like someone said,  “Oh crap, look how long this is, we better wrap this up fast, we’re almost out of film stock. 

So my opinion is that the hype and the preview gave the impression of an awesome horror film, that didn’t deliver.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog