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Catholic movie review - The Last Exorcism |
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By John Mulderig - Catholic News Service
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Thursday, 26 August 2010 |
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." So says the haunted Prince of Denmark in the first act of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," and so the main character discovers in the middling fright fest "The Last Exorcism" (Lionsgate).
 Ashley Bell, front, Patrick Fabian, left, Louis Herthum and Caleb Landry Jones star in a scene from the movie "The Last Exorcism." CNS photo/Lionsgate
While the gore factor is kept comparatively low in director Daniel Stamm's Gothic outing, an ambiguous approach to faith and a dark occult atmosphere make this feature inappropriate for all but well-grounded and judicious adult viewers.
Preparing to perform the titular rite, as the film opens, is Baton
Rouge-based evangelical minister and self-confessed charlatan Cotton
Marcus (Patrick Fabian). Alarmed by news reports of a boy who was
injured during an exorcism, Cotton has decided to abandon the practice,
which he regards as nothing more than an opportunity to fleece
over-credulous believers.
To publicize the trickery behind his supposed confrontations with Satan,
Cotton has invited documentary filmmaker Iris Reisen (Iris Bahr) and
her cameraman to tag along for his swan song as he responds to the
anguished summons of fervent farmer Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum). The
farmer fears that his 16-year-old daughter, Nell (Ashley Bell), is
possessed.
Armed with elaborate special-effects gadgetry, including a crucifix that
gives off smoke at the press of a button, Cotton arrives at the
predictably spooky Sweetzer homestead and goes through the motions of
liberating Nell's soul. But he gets more than he bargained for when the
girl begins to show signs that she is indeed in the grip of something,
or someone, supernatural.
Though shaky on the details -- as an evangelical, for instance, Cotton
would be far more likely to make use of a plain cross than a crucifix in
his staged efforts to send the devil packing -- the script by Huck
Botko and Andrew Gurland does toy cleverly with the modern presumption
that all phenomena can be explained scientifically.
Mulderig is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.
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But the corrosive cynicism Cotton displays in the buildup to his
encounter with Nell, which includes scornful references to an "exorcism
academy" sponsored by the Vatican, will not sit well with Catholic
audiences. And the diabolical doings of the movie's climax are not for
the impressionable.
The film contains a complex treatment of religion, sacrilegious
activity, some gruesome images, at least two uses of profanity, brief
sexual talk and references to incest and homosexuality. The Catholic
News Service classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose
problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture
Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned.
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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