Movie Monday -- The Last Exorcism

So, since I saw The Rite last weekend, I thought I'd give this movie a go. I remember when it was released that it looked like it might be kinda good, but I wasn't sure.

Well, if you have an hour and a half to kill, you might consider renting this movie. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it does contain some jump-out-of-your-seat scary parts.

The premise -- this is filmed like The Blair Witch Project, in that it appears to be an actual documentary. A cameraman and sound person follow minister, Cotton Marcus, to the Sweetzer farm down in Louisiana where the Dad has written to Cotton, pleading the minister to help his daughter, Nell.

What's really interesting is that Cotton doesn't believe that demons really inhabit or possess humans. He's been performing exorcism for years, simply because he feels that they help the "possessed" -- after the exorcism, the possessed no longer have problems, thus, what Cotton does must be a good form of therapy. He has a bag of tricks that he brings to the Sweetzer farm, and it appears to be another routine exorcism. You feel a bit for the family, who pays good money to Cotton for what they think is a true service, when really, it's a very unusual form of psychotherapy.

BUT -- when Nell shows up at Cotton's hotel room on the night she was exorcised, well -- there's more to this case than meets the eye. We follow Cotton and the camera crew back and forth from the Sweetzer farm to hospital and former preacher's house, all the while Cotton insists that Nell needs a doctor, not an exorcist. Things get really scary for the camera crew when Nell draws pics of them, chopped to bits, and she's filmed killing a cat (sorry, spoiler there, but I wish someone had warned me -- poor cat!).

Just when things get good and a little scary and intense, the ending descends into a bit of WTF-ery. Nothing is tied up -- it's definitely a Blair Witch ending. But like I said, if you've got a bit of time to spare and you want to jump out of your seat a few times, you should give this flick a go. And then write me and tell me what you think of the ending!