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naomi_jaySo, last night we went to see The Last Exorcism, which was about five minutes away from being an awesome exorcism film (and God knows, Hollywood is sorely lacking good exorcism films). Beware, the spoilers are great with this one.
So, our hero is Reverend Cotton Marcus, a preacher living in Baton Rouge, who's been performing exorcisms since childhood. He's presented as a charistmatic (but manipulative) individual, able to preach to his congregation about banana bread and still get a chorus of amens. I kind of thought that said more about the congregation than him, but never mind. Banana bread is great, after all. After the premature birth and near-death of his disabled son, Cotton undergoes a crisis of faith, which is solidified ten years later when he reads of a boy killed during an exorcism. He determines to leave exorcism behind after performing one more on camera in order to expose the whole ritual as a fraud. The documentary crew chat to him about his intentions, asking him if he considers himself a fraud. He replies no, he's simply been performing a service that people need in a way they need it, which would be much more convincing if he wasn't going about making a film to prove the whole thing's a big fat lie.
Anyway. He plucks a letter at random from a pile of exorcism requests, and we find ourselves on our merry way to Ivanwood, a small Deep South town full of gossipy locals, who are only too happy to regale Cotton and the crew with tales of UFOs. Cotton and the crew make their way to the Sweetzer farm, encountering angry young Caleb Sweetzer on the way, who tells them to fuck off and throws stones at the van. Despite this, they find the Sweetzer farm, which is of course run-down and creepy, and meet Lewis Sweetzer, who is also run-down and creepy. He explains that his sixteen-year-old daughter, Nell, is possessed and spends her nights mutilating cattle. Cotton, obviously, is sceptical, and thinks Caleb may be the real culprit. Nell is presented as a devout and innocent (jn every sense of the word) young girl, isolated since her mother's death two years earlier. Lewis pulled her out of school at this time and home-schools her, not even allowing her to attend the local Sunday school because *gasp* they let the kids listen to non-church music there!!! Lewis's presentation as a hardcore religious nut is, I guess, crucial to the plot, but a bit heavy-handed, as is Nell's presentation as childishly naive.
Anyway. Cotton arranges a test to see if Nell is truly possessed, which involves making her put her feet in a bowl of water. He slips something into the water to make it bubble, which is more than enough to convince Lewis and Nell that she's housing a demon. Caleb susses Cotton out, but seems pleased to discover he's actually a fakey faker. This is as close to foreshadowing the ending as the film gets, so enjoy that bit. Cotton picks a demon at random from his handy book of demons and tells Lewis this is the defiler possessing his daughter, and that only death can release her. Death or an exorcism, obviously. They set up for the ritual, Cotton showing the camera crew the various tricks he uses to stage the exorcism, including attaching wires to picture frames in the bedroom so he can shake them. Luckily for him, nobody ever walks into these wires.
That night, the exorcism is performed with much theatre and melodrama, leaving poor Nell a nervous wreck and Lewis convinced his daughter has been purified and promising to stop drinking and be a better man, amen. Cotton and the crew leave and shack up at a nearby motel for the night. The camera switches off, only to flash back on and reveal Nell, in a catatonic state, sitting on Cotton's motel bed later that night. Cotton declares she just showed up, despite having no idea they were there. Nell then starts trying to get her freak on with Iris, the documentary maker, who doesn't seem bothered enough at all by this outburst of weird behaviour. They get Nell to hospital, with Cotton reasoning her real problem is an undiagnosed mental condition. They can't get her tested for that without Lewis's permission, however. And when Lewis does show up, he just carts Nell home and tells Cotton to get thee gone.
Cotton can't leave it be though, so he approaches the local pastor, Manley, to see if he can persuade Lewis that Nell needs mental help. Manley agrees to come if Lewis allows him, since they fell out when Lewis pulled Nell from Sunday school. Cotton and the crew follow Lewis home, only to find Nell has sliced Caleb's pretty face with a knife and been chained up in her room. Lewis takes Caleb to hospital, after Caleb slips Cotton a note warning him not to leave Nell alone with Lewis. Cotton unchains Nell and everyone tries to sleep. They fail, however, due to the cries of a baby echoing through the house. Exploration reveals only Nell, who then tries to drown a doll in the sink, freaks out, and has to be locked in her room again. The crew find a picture of a bloodied, mutilated cat, which Nell denies drawing. At some point, the cameraman hears Nell talking with a man in her room about killing them all, but when they check, she's alone in there and just gazing around creepily.
While the crew sleep, Nell steals the camera and wanders around the farm being freaky-ass, and then beating a cat to death with the camera. She then returns to the house to give Cotton the same treatment, only for the crew to intervene. They then find more pictures, depicting them all dead, dismembered, burnt, etc. Yet nobody thinks it's time to leave. Instead they listen to Lewis's voicemail, as you do, and hear a message from the hospital reporting that Nell is pregnant. At this point Iris is all j'accuse! and decides Lewis is raping his daughter and they should take Nell and get the hell away.
Instead they confront Lewis on his return. He insists that Nell is a virgin and the demon has impregnated her. He demands another exorcism; Cotton suggests psychotherapy instead, which goes down badly. While they discuss it in a calm and rational manner with guns, they hear violent noises and screams from Nell's room, and find she's climbed up onto her wardrobe. When he lifts her down, Nell attacks Cotton and Lewis is all "I'mma gonna git ma gun!" to kill her and thus relieve her. Cotton readily agrees to perform another exorcism at this stage, which is big of him.
For some reason, Nell spends the rest of the day in the barn, and that night Cotton performs his second exorcism. It goes badly, with Nell's demon apparently emerging to contort her body into weird-ass positions. I've got to give big props to Ashley Bell; she can do some awesome stuff with her joints. Anyway, the demon is all "ha ha, I'm going to break all Nell's fingers!" and Cotton is all "you're not a demon!" and the demon is all "STFU and watch me break Nell's fingers!" and then she offers Lewis a "blowing job" and Cotton is "AHA! If you were a demon, you'd know that's not what it's called! Nell is an innocent!" At this point Nell breaks down screaming that she's not innocent, and everyone concludes her "possession" is actually a psychosis triggered by her shame at having had sex and got pregnant. Nell, referring to herself in the third person, confesses to having had sex with a local boy named Logan. Manley arrives, confirms he knows Logan, and everyone's all "huzzahs! Nell has been saved!" and Cotton and the crew leave.
On their way home, they pass the cafe Logan works at, and Cotton insists on going to see him. I'm not sure why, maybe to be all righteous at him? Which would be fine if Cotton himself weren't a liar and a charlatan, but never mind. Anyway, Logan's all "I didn't do it! I'm gay! I only met her once at Manley's house! And I'm gay!" Everyone ponders why Nell lied and why Manley was throwing house parties for local teenagers, and Cotton insists on going back to the Sweetzer farm because he just can't leave well enough alone.
INTERMISSION!
Now, at this point in the film, I was having a great time. The director had done a great job of building the tension by escalating Nell's attacks and casting doubt as to whether this was a real possession or psychosis. I couldn't wait to see how it was going to play out, and honestly I would have been happy with either resolution, or even an ambiguous ending where Nell's condition was never made clear. Ashley Bell and Patrick Fabian played their roles to perfection, and I was genuinely excited about the whole scenario.
Thus, I consider the ending a massive, massive fail. Look away now if you don't want it spoiled.
WE NOW RETURN TO THE SHOW!
On returning to the house later in the evening, the crew find it deserted and painted with occult symbols. Outside, Cotton is convinced he can hear screaming and they all run into the woods, only to stumble open the local Satanic group, lead by Pastor Manley. Lewis is chained to a pole and blindfolded, and Nell is atop an altar, giving birth. The ... child? ... is covered in blood, so you can't see it clearly, but Cotton helpfully announces that it's not human, so now we know. Manley throws the child on a fire, which immediately goes all Balrog, and everyone chants demonically. Cotton rushes towards the fire screaming prayers and that's the last we see of him. The crew, more sensibly, run away, but the Iris is cut down by a couple of Satanists with scythes, who scream "let's kill her!" in case the audience didn't figure out what was happening. The cameraman gets a bit further before Caleb appears literally from nowhere and chops of his head. (So, you know, he was glad Cotton was a fraud because it wouldn't interfere with his Satany plans, I suppose. Plans which remain unclear to me.). We fade to black. Fin.
Why do I consider this an epic fail? BECAUSE THE SATANISTS CAME OUT OF FREAKING NOWHERE! I saw nothing prior to that scene that indicated this was even a remote possibility for an ending. No foreshadowing, no hints, no clues. It felt lazy and I felt cheated. It was like the writers got so far then couldn't figure out an ending, so fuck it, why not Satanists? Why not demon babies that we then burn for no apparent reason since we all then just run off screaming? Why not just make some shit up and completely blow apart the clever, sophistocated film we've just made? And hey, why not stereotypical baby-burning Satanists to go along with the stereotypical stupid or lying Christians we've presented? Because at the end of the day, all religion is basically stupid, right? So who'll care? The audience won't mind if we slap on a cartoon version of occultism and then confuse it with the bollocky Satanic-panic brand of Satanism that ran riot in the 80s, anymore than they'll mind if we portray all Christians to be either superstitious morons or conmen.
Look, if that's the ending you want, build up to it. It wouldn't be hard. Have some of those UFO-fan locals mention the rumours of old occult ceremonies that used to happen back in the day. Have Cotton himself muse on stories he's heard about the area, or things he's seen in previous exorcisms. Have the film crew raise it as a possibility. Hell, have Caleb wear a pentagram necklace and drink goat's blood, I don't care! Just don't wham it in there without any precedent and rub your hands together gleefully over how clever and controversial you've been. That's what M Night Shyalaman does, and he's a cock too.
OR you could follow through on your original premise and have Nell revealed to be psychotic. I'd be happy with that. Or genuinely possessed. That would be good too. (I'll admit the demon baby ending kind of supports the genuinely possessed theory, but for all I know the child could have been deformed because it was ripped from it's mother's womb prematurely, since Nell never looks pregnant, so who knows?) Or leave it ambiguous. Show me a final scene of Nell in a straitjacket and padded room smiling evilly into the camera. That would also have worked fine.
(For what it's worth, I think Nell was genuinely possessed. There was too much evidence pointing that way for me accept psychosis. Although I guess being possessed might drive you insane?)
Anyway. The ending. Yeah. It changed the film completely. We go from thoughtful, tense study of exorcism and its impact on people's lives and faith, coupled with an intriguing is-she-isn't-she character study, to highly generic, highly undeveloped surprise Satanists! ending that utterly disappointed me. It was careless and lazy, and had nothing to do with the rest of the film. Really, really woeful.
I've decided to retcon the entire viewing experience and pretend the film ended with Cotton and the crew running into the woods towards the sound of screams. It's much better that way.
So, our hero is Reverend Cotton Marcus, a preacher living in Baton Rouge, who's been performing exorcisms since childhood. He's presented as a charistmatic (but manipulative) individual, able to preach to his congregation about banana bread and still get a chorus of amens. I kind of thought that said more about the congregation than him, but never mind. Banana bread is great, after all. After the premature birth and near-death of his disabled son, Cotton undergoes a crisis of faith, which is solidified ten years later when he reads of a boy killed during an exorcism. He determines to leave exorcism behind after performing one more on camera in order to expose the whole ritual as a fraud. The documentary crew chat to him about his intentions, asking him if he considers himself a fraud. He replies no, he's simply been performing a service that people need in a way they need it, which would be much more convincing if he wasn't going about making a film to prove the whole thing's a big fat lie.
Anyway. He plucks a letter at random from a pile of exorcism requests, and we find ourselves on our merry way to Ivanwood, a small Deep South town full of gossipy locals, who are only too happy to regale Cotton and the crew with tales of UFOs. Cotton and the crew make their way to the Sweetzer farm, encountering angry young Caleb Sweetzer on the way, who tells them to fuck off and throws stones at the van. Despite this, they find the Sweetzer farm, which is of course run-down and creepy, and meet Lewis Sweetzer, who is also run-down and creepy. He explains that his sixteen-year-old daughter, Nell, is possessed and spends her nights mutilating cattle. Cotton, obviously, is sceptical, and thinks Caleb may be the real culprit. Nell is presented as a devout and innocent (jn every sense of the word) young girl, isolated since her mother's death two years earlier. Lewis pulled her out of school at this time and home-schools her, not even allowing her to attend the local Sunday school because *gasp* they let the kids listen to non-church music there!!! Lewis's presentation as a hardcore religious nut is, I guess, crucial to the plot, but a bit heavy-handed, as is Nell's presentation as childishly naive.
Anyway. Cotton arranges a test to see if Nell is truly possessed, which involves making her put her feet in a bowl of water. He slips something into the water to make it bubble, which is more than enough to convince Lewis and Nell that she's housing a demon. Caleb susses Cotton out, but seems pleased to discover he's actually a fakey faker. This is as close to foreshadowing the ending as the film gets, so enjoy that bit. Cotton picks a demon at random from his handy book of demons and tells Lewis this is the defiler possessing his daughter, and that only death can release her. Death or an exorcism, obviously. They set up for the ritual, Cotton showing the camera crew the various tricks he uses to stage the exorcism, including attaching wires to picture frames in the bedroom so he can shake them. Luckily for him, nobody ever walks into these wires.
That night, the exorcism is performed with much theatre and melodrama, leaving poor Nell a nervous wreck and Lewis convinced his daughter has been purified and promising to stop drinking and be a better man, amen. Cotton and the crew leave and shack up at a nearby motel for the night. The camera switches off, only to flash back on and reveal Nell, in a catatonic state, sitting on Cotton's motel bed later that night. Cotton declares she just showed up, despite having no idea they were there. Nell then starts trying to get her freak on with Iris, the documentary maker, who doesn't seem bothered enough at all by this outburst of weird behaviour. They get Nell to hospital, with Cotton reasoning her real problem is an undiagnosed mental condition. They can't get her tested for that without Lewis's permission, however. And when Lewis does show up, he just carts Nell home and tells Cotton to get thee gone.
Cotton can't leave it be though, so he approaches the local pastor, Manley, to see if he can persuade Lewis that Nell needs mental help. Manley agrees to come if Lewis allows him, since they fell out when Lewis pulled Nell from Sunday school. Cotton and the crew follow Lewis home, only to find Nell has sliced Caleb's pretty face with a knife and been chained up in her room. Lewis takes Caleb to hospital, after Caleb slips Cotton a note warning him not to leave Nell alone with Lewis. Cotton unchains Nell and everyone tries to sleep. They fail, however, due to the cries of a baby echoing through the house. Exploration reveals only Nell, who then tries to drown a doll in the sink, freaks out, and has to be locked in her room again. The crew find a picture of a bloodied, mutilated cat, which Nell denies drawing. At some point, the cameraman hears Nell talking with a man in her room about killing them all, but when they check, she's alone in there and just gazing around creepily.
While the crew sleep, Nell steals the camera and wanders around the farm being freaky-ass, and then beating a cat to death with the camera. She then returns to the house to give Cotton the same treatment, only for the crew to intervene. They then find more pictures, depicting them all dead, dismembered, burnt, etc. Yet nobody thinks it's time to leave. Instead they listen to Lewis's voicemail, as you do, and hear a message from the hospital reporting that Nell is pregnant. At this point Iris is all j'accuse! and decides Lewis is raping his daughter and they should take Nell and get the hell away.
Instead they confront Lewis on his return. He insists that Nell is a virgin and the demon has impregnated her. He demands another exorcism; Cotton suggests psychotherapy instead, which goes down badly. While they discuss it in a calm and rational manner with guns, they hear violent noises and screams from Nell's room, and find she's climbed up onto her wardrobe. When he lifts her down, Nell attacks Cotton and Lewis is all "I'mma gonna git ma gun!" to kill her and thus relieve her. Cotton readily agrees to perform another exorcism at this stage, which is big of him.
For some reason, Nell spends the rest of the day in the barn, and that night Cotton performs his second exorcism. It goes badly, with Nell's demon apparently emerging to contort her body into weird-ass positions. I've got to give big props to Ashley Bell; she can do some awesome stuff with her joints. Anyway, the demon is all "ha ha, I'm going to break all Nell's fingers!" and Cotton is all "you're not a demon!" and the demon is all "STFU and watch me break Nell's fingers!" and then she offers Lewis a "blowing job" and Cotton is "AHA! If you were a demon, you'd know that's not what it's called! Nell is an innocent!" At this point Nell breaks down screaming that she's not innocent, and everyone concludes her "possession" is actually a psychosis triggered by her shame at having had sex and got pregnant. Nell, referring to herself in the third person, confesses to having had sex with a local boy named Logan. Manley arrives, confirms he knows Logan, and everyone's all "huzzahs! Nell has been saved!" and Cotton and the crew leave.
On their way home, they pass the cafe Logan works at, and Cotton insists on going to see him. I'm not sure why, maybe to be all righteous at him? Which would be fine if Cotton himself weren't a liar and a charlatan, but never mind. Anyway, Logan's all "I didn't do it! I'm gay! I only met her once at Manley's house! And I'm gay!" Everyone ponders why Nell lied and why Manley was throwing house parties for local teenagers, and Cotton insists on going back to the Sweetzer farm because he just can't leave well enough alone.
INTERMISSION!
Now, at this point in the film, I was having a great time. The director had done a great job of building the tension by escalating Nell's attacks and casting doubt as to whether this was a real possession or psychosis. I couldn't wait to see how it was going to play out, and honestly I would have been happy with either resolution, or even an ambiguous ending where Nell's condition was never made clear. Ashley Bell and Patrick Fabian played their roles to perfection, and I was genuinely excited about the whole scenario.
Thus, I consider the ending a massive, massive fail. Look away now if you don't want it spoiled.
WE NOW RETURN TO THE SHOW!
On returning to the house later in the evening, the crew find it deserted and painted with occult symbols. Outside, Cotton is convinced he can hear screaming and they all run into the woods, only to stumble open the local Satanic group, lead by Pastor Manley. Lewis is chained to a pole and blindfolded, and Nell is atop an altar, giving birth. The ... child? ... is covered in blood, so you can't see it clearly, but Cotton helpfully announces that it's not human, so now we know. Manley throws the child on a fire, which immediately goes all Balrog, and everyone chants demonically. Cotton rushes towards the fire screaming prayers and that's the last we see of him. The crew, more sensibly, run away, but the Iris is cut down by a couple of Satanists with scythes, who scream "let's kill her!" in case the audience didn't figure out what was happening. The cameraman gets a bit further before Caleb appears literally from nowhere and chops of his head. (So, you know, he was glad Cotton was a fraud because it wouldn't interfere with his Satany plans, I suppose. Plans which remain unclear to me.). We fade to black. Fin.
Why do I consider this an epic fail? BECAUSE THE SATANISTS CAME OUT OF FREAKING NOWHERE! I saw nothing prior to that scene that indicated this was even a remote possibility for an ending. No foreshadowing, no hints, no clues. It felt lazy and I felt cheated. It was like the writers got so far then couldn't figure out an ending, so fuck it, why not Satanists? Why not demon babies that we then burn for no apparent reason since we all then just run off screaming? Why not just make some shit up and completely blow apart the clever, sophistocated film we've just made? And hey, why not stereotypical baby-burning Satanists to go along with the stereotypical stupid or lying Christians we've presented? Because at the end of the day, all religion is basically stupid, right? So who'll care? The audience won't mind if we slap on a cartoon version of occultism and then confuse it with the bollocky Satanic-panic brand of Satanism that ran riot in the 80s, anymore than they'll mind if we portray all Christians to be either superstitious morons or conmen.
Look, if that's the ending you want, build up to it. It wouldn't be hard. Have some of those UFO-fan locals mention the rumours of old occult ceremonies that used to happen back in the day. Have Cotton himself muse on stories he's heard about the area, or things he's seen in previous exorcisms. Have the film crew raise it as a possibility. Hell, have Caleb wear a pentagram necklace and drink goat's blood, I don't care! Just don't wham it in there without any precedent and rub your hands together gleefully over how clever and controversial you've been. That's what M Night Shyalaman does, and he's a cock too.
OR you could follow through on your original premise and have Nell revealed to be psychotic. I'd be happy with that. Or genuinely possessed. That would be good too. (I'll admit the demon baby ending kind of supports the genuinely possessed theory, but for all I know the child could have been deformed because it was ripped from it's mother's womb prematurely, since Nell never looks pregnant, so who knows?) Or leave it ambiguous. Show me a final scene of Nell in a straitjacket and padded room smiling evilly into the camera. That would also have worked fine.
(For what it's worth, I think Nell was genuinely possessed. There was too much evidence pointing that way for me accept psychosis. Although I guess being possessed might drive you insane?)
Anyway. The ending. Yeah. It changed the film completely. We go from thoughtful, tense study of exorcism and its impact on people's lives and faith, coupled with an intriguing is-she-isn't-she character study, to highly generic, highly undeveloped surprise Satanists! ending that utterly disappointed me. It was careless and lazy, and had nothing to do with the rest of the film. Really, really woeful.
I've decided to retcon the entire viewing experience and pretend the film ended with Cotton and the crew running into the woods towards the sound of screams. It's much better that way.
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no subject
on 2010-09-13 11:11 am (UTC)I was kinda iffy on this movie, because you're right, it's been a while since we've had a decent exorcism movie -- and as much as I like Exorcism of Emily Rose, I really hate how they handled the ambiguity -- and this one's being touted as ZOMG SO GOOD TWIST ENDING YEY! But...it's the same kinda hype that went around Paranormal Activity, and I hated that from first to last. So when this is getting thrown around as so great, I am wary that they'll pull exactly this kind of shit, or wind up having it be omg child abuse instead (AN AMERICAN HAUNTING, I AM LOOKING AT YOU). WHY CAN'T THE CHARLATAN PREACHER ACCIDENTALLY SUMMON A DEMON AND THEN BE HOSHIT, I BETTER GETS ME SOME FAITH.
You and me have to go to Hollywood and write some smart horror movies where the heroine doesn't just run upstairs and scream a lot, evil is actually evil, and there's a reason for Satanists if they turn up. There's part of me that wants to write a parody where the Satanists are the good guys, because they know the spells and aren't afraid to kill a few animals/virgins to get shit done.
no subject
on 2010-09-13 12:09 pm (UTC)*Ahem* Yeah, skip this one and we'll start working on a horror script where things happen and are good! Instead of things happen and are baffling and anger-inducing!
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