Found Footage February Day 20 The Last Exorcism!!!

Day 20

The Last Exorcism

Growing up, I had a very odd interest group. Like if they kept a record of the books I used to check out when I was in 6th grade up until my junior year? My reading habits were broken down to these interest groups.

1.       Magick, the occult, witchcraft, black magic, Alister Crowley

2.       Demons, summoning, the devils bible, satanism, exorcisms, ghost and hauntings

3.       Cannibalism, serial killers, true life crime, unsolved murders

4.       UFO’s and alien abduction

5.       Sharks, oceanography, fish

I was an interesting kid growing up.

Most of my interest came about from horror movies getting me interesting in these things, Also hearing at an early age about things like The Donnor Party, ALIVE, and such were interesting to me since no one really liked talking about those things. And JAWS is to blame for my fear of the ocean and absolute obsession with sharks and what swims under us, it honestly nearly pushed me into going to college to become an oceanographer because I wanted to be like Hooper, have my own cool boat, studying sharks and fish for a living.

The exorcist did the same for me with my near obsession with evil. Well good and evil, Religions, spirituality etc.

Possession became a huge focus and something I enjoyed reading about and found intensely interesting, So much so to the point one year, for Xenu knows what reason. My parents finally bought for me one Christmas off of my list, The Roman Ritual. One of the only religious text out there with the rites of performing an exorcism.

Not saying I had the thought of becoming a freelance exorcist, but I do have the church stuff backing me soooo, gimme a call? No.

Anyway yes, The Last Exorcism. Not exactly a world changing movie when it came out, but still a film that ends up on a lot of peoples list for its creepiness, story, and actual ties to the “Based on True Events” and actually meaning it.

The contents of the film are absolute bullshit, yes. But there was a story of a possessed girl, out in the country and it did result in an exorcism. They just decided to turn it into a found footage film and amp it up as high as they could.

We’ve had a few films already dealing with evil, and priest of questionable faith, so whats another on the list eh?

Well without further ado. Let’s kick this baby in the teeth and get right into it!

The Film

Baton Rouge Louisiana, the HEART of the devils country! But not really. It’s the home town of our eccentric, spirited, magic loving priest Cotton Marcus, played by the absolutely wonderful character actor Patrick Fabian, who most might know now from the show Better Call Saul as one of the best characters, Howard Hamlin.

He’s an energetic fun priest who’s more of a showboat than he is anything else. He prides himself on the fact he is so good with his words, and so charming he could preach anything and people would praise it. He proves this by including in his sermon a recipe for Banana bread, one of my favorite things in the entire world, and not only does he manage to work it into his shouting in the church, but everyone gives him an amen and cheers him for it. But he’s not a conman. Not by any means. He just likes the flair and the strength of the word. He likes how preaching and getting out in front of people, just gets them excited, puts them in the palm of his hand, it’s like a bit of a drug habit just, a lot less cheap, from a certain point of view.

It’s important mostly for the fact we learn his father was a preacher who handled crowds just as well if not better than his son did, but with a different hand and approach. But still a strong respect for one another, we also learn inside his fathers office, that his dad was accustomed to fighting demons, as he opens his safe and displays proudly for all of us to see, a large leatherbound book, complete with a locking strap. The Hortus Deliciarum. “This book describes, the various types of demons, how to identify them, and how to get rid of them.” His father has performed over 150 exorcisms. He tells us how his son Cotton comes from generations of exorcist. This book has been in their family for many, many generations, and serves them on their quest for helping the faithful to be relieved of unwanted guest after their souls.

Our story begins when our friendly priest is out and about enjoying a jamba juice and he gets a mysterious envelope that says “Open right now, or suffer in hell”, actually no, it just says please open as soon as possible. Actually no it doesn’t say please, it just rudely says “Open as soon as possible”, so he ignored it. No one tells Cotton what to do!

But he does, eventually. Just on his time schedule. Because first we have to learn about his mission. What it is he’s after, and why we are here filming him in the first place.

As it turns out? He’s not proud of being part of a tradition of exorcist. It scares him actually. Not because it means demons know his families legacy and will do battle with him until his dying day. But because he fears for people’s lives who believe in possession. He doesn’t like or support the idea that there are people out there, sick people who are willing to accept the idea of spirits moving into them and priest accidentally killing people during these exorcism’s and claiming they are now free or that it was too late because the ‘evil’ had taken them. He feels it’s a dangerous game played off of people and their faith that should be exposed.

So he wants to show how possession is more a state of mind and something easily fixed with theatricality over binding someone to their bed and putting a bag over their head. Makes sense, he believes its gods work and he’s cool with showing this camera crew how he can sell the idea of an exorcism to simple worried townsfolk and help them through some light trickery.

How can this possibly go wrong.

I love this actor. The guy is just a fun personality all around and this character is great fun. He’s entirely set exposing the bullshit, and having fun showing how living where he does, in an area as he puts it ‘stuck in time’, breeds spooky stories and belief in evil. To prove his point they interview random people quickly, whom all have their own stories of aliens, cults, demons, and supposedly the gates of hell itself. Which just make him smirk so happily to be proven right.

Now he’s not poking and bullying the people. He’s polite about it, but he is trying to make his point that ignorance breeds fear, and these people absolutely look the part. It’s a bit of fun before we get down to the real journey of the film, which we are quickly headed.

It’s the first of a few fun interactions as our group feel lost on their way to this farm house so they decide to ask a passing truck for directions, which introduces us to Caleb, the brother of our dear possessed lady. Of course he is more than happy to help give these fine people and their cameras directions to his families house, he tells them the way back to the highway where they came from and offers his sincere wishes for them to get the hell out of there and leave his family be. Needless to say this boy does not want to be a star in a documentary.

But thankfully our group is not so easily swayed, though perhaps they should’ve been and they could possibly end up living longer for it. But we are here, and we have a movie to make happen. So we meet the father of this backwoods bunch, Louis. He seems a very fair man and caring father. His main concern is however the thing keeping us here, the cameras. He doesn’t want his family, let alone his daughter becoming some televised freak show or making them look like backwoods idiots, which is understandable but again. THE POINT OF OUR MOVIE!!

But thankfully we have the acting skills of Patrick Fabian, and when he speaks. You listen. So he convinces dad to be cool with the cameras and embrace documentary film stardom.

Which brings us now to the star of this exorcism, Nell Sweetzer.

Nell is just an absolute cut out picture of what you’d find in the dictionary under backwoods pure innocence, or small town murder victim if you watch the ID channel none stop. Seriously she is fun. She’s the exact image of what the priest was talking about. Where you have a very sweet, polite soft spoken, devoted to the word of god bible loving lady, who thinks Jesus is pretty darn swell.

She’s a lot of fun, and I love the vibes they’re giving us. Right off the bat her father is showing to the priest and us, that every time he loses cattle, something or someone is out killing his cattle in some fashion. His daughter ends up a screaming mess with…blood all over her night gown. BUT only on cattle murder days.

It’s pretty damn shocking and what the ever loving fuck. Because you’d think waking up in a pool of blood like that every couple of days might be cause for concern or you know, warrant calling a GODDAMN DOCTOR?!! MAYBE!

But no, instead. We pray. #blessed

Honestly the story is really solidly built. I like the foundations they are laying out for everyone. As we sit down with Nell and get her input on things going on, we learn she believes she may have killed those cattle, how? Who knows. But she feels it’s the only thing that makes sense given she’d keep waking up covered in blood. The actress is great as Nell and you can read on her face right away that even though she’s thankful for her family, Jesus being so cool, and the simple life. She takes evil very seriously, and honestly does feel she could be the source of what’s been going on, even if she can’t recall ever having done it, and no one is telling her she DID do it, she’s just going off her gut and well. The evidence. When she talks to Cotton about what’s been happening you can see her working things out in her mind and not so much seeming afraid? As she is worried and confused.

Her father is the same way and kudos to his actor. We learn from him that their mother died not long ago from cancer. That she and Nell were incredibly close and Nell saw her as her best friend. The loss hit the family hard in different ways and is the cause for how they are now. For the father he felt that his wives faith is what helped him get through her loss, so he decided to honor her memory by raising their kids in a very traditional Christian sense. So he took their daughter and put her into bible school, even taking her out and moving her to another when he discovered they were teaching the students about none Christian music. You immediately pick up what it is he’s cooking, and it’s being an overly protective father of his baby and using his wife’s faith as a shield to protect him and his family from absolutely falling apart. It’s nearly to a point you could see him losing his shit and either beating the kids if they don’t go with his planned therapy or the possibility he himself is the cause for Nell believing she’s possessed, as he even makes the statement to Cotton, “No matter how protective I’ve been of her, evil still got her.”

Caleb is no exception either, We learn from Nell that he took their mom’s passing especially hard. She believes he’s confused now and angry. He stopped believing in god, blamed them for their mother’s death, hates religion and fights with the dad whenever he tries forcing it on them, which again is understandable given well. When you believed praying worked and would always keep your family safe and things together for you, only to have someone you love taken from you and faced with this feeling that none of that stuff mattered. That you could pray every day for someone to get better, and when they unfortunately don’t and pass. Well yeah, it’s a hard pill to swallow. For a lot of people.

It's a good family dynamic, it’s believable and I like how it’s setup. With Nell seeming to be the one centerpiece that normally should hold the family together, but now serves as a painful reminder of the mother/wife they lost, and her still having that innocent connection and belief in a higher power her mother had, believing it will help them and eventually they will all be better. But the other two members of her family absolutely having lost that. It’s tough man, and can only mean good things will come!

So after talking to the family, getting a feel for them and where they stand, getting all he could from the dad and Nell. It’s time to begin putting on his show.

He breaks down for us easy explanations for the things Nell is going through. Her father mentioned having to take away her mother’s crucifix as it burned her anytime she wore it, relating it to an allergic reaction to the metal, the temperature changes, night terrors. All of it within the realm of explanation and not at all tied to demony goodness. With his bag of tricks in hand and the basics of the case known? It’s time for a show mother truckers!!

We wanted a show, and oh boy are we getting a show. Cotton is giving a basic exam of the girl and using mild trickery to make it seem like there’s a bit of a panic internally with her because of his presence there. He’s choosing his words carefully in such a way that he knows Nell is nervous, and when you tell someone not to be nervous WHILE making them nervous. Well you know what happens.

The real fun comes from his doing a very not so nice trick on Nell, when he ask that her feet be placed in a small container of water. He ask everyone to bow their heads, close their eyes and pray with him. Which all family present do, Except for Caleb. He’s watching Cotton because he doesn’t like or trust him what so ever, he even went as far as threatening him earlier that, if his sister ends up hurt in any way, he’ll kill him. Nice kid.

So Caleb catches Cotton as he reaches in his pocket, which he does for the camera really. And pulls out a tablet of something which he tosses into the footbath. As soon as he does and he begins making a big vocal speech about asking God for a sign if they should proceed with an exorcism, Sure enough the water starts bubbling, the temp is changing and Nell is in a state of shock, same as her father.

It’s a dangerous trick not in how he did what he did, I mean Caleb could call him out as being a fraud if he wanted and absolutely point out to his father what he saw and prove it. But he doesn’t. Actually Caleb is now fine with Cotton BECAUSE he knows the guy is a fraud and absolutely won’t hurt his sister. No, Cottons trickery is more dangerous in the idea that it implies. Any time you imply trickery to sell an image, even if for good intentions, should things go south? Should your magic bag of tricks NOT heal someone? They could effectively make things worse, and if you play with the mind of a religious nut, well. You get what you get. Fun times ahead!

Dad is seeing with his own eyes that his daughters foot bath has become a hot tub of satan, and is now ready to believe anything Cotton tells him. So Cotton waste no time and whips out onto the table his girthy, heavy, solid book of demons. Immediately naming the demon he ‘thinks’ wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Is currently occupying his daughter. That demons name is Abalam.

Whom Cotton sells to Nell’s father as being the most powerful demon in the entire book of demons. A demon so bad and powerful that even Satan himself is like “Damn homie, you an evil sumbitch”, the scary spooky no good thing about this demon is that “Death is the only salvation”, as the demon devours the flesh of the innocent, and possesses pure souls only for his nefarious purposes.

Well even if Death is the only salvation, there IS hope. An Exorcism. How convenient!!

I love it, and again the setup is great. He’s a great salesmen, he’s proving his point, everyone except Caleb is absolutely eating out of his hand and they believe whole heartedly he can save Nell’s soul. He’s confident enough in what he does that he knows exactly what tricks to pull out and when. He readies her room for the exorcism, he lays out plans for more illusions and tricks from his bag of demon fighting to help sell the show even further, and the one thing. The one thing that remains creepy and questionable. Is Caleb.

As Cotton prepares for the exorcism and sits outside with his film crew. The boy who earlier threatened the priest, and showed nothing but contempt to him and his film crew? Is now light spirited, happy and welcoming. He flat out says what should be worrying to Cotton, “You’re a fraud. I know you are a fake, so we’re all good now.”

That sounds…..RATHER worrying. But who cares!

We got an exorcism to get to!!!

It’s almost hard to review this because you just want to stop and watch it, I love it. The exorcism is split into two parts. We have the camera crew filming him exorcising the demon from Nell, and we intercut it with scenes of the crew being shown by Cotton, all the tricks he plans to use with selling this show. Including speakers he’s placed around the room, hooked up to his iPod with a demon play list of growls, howls, snarls and hells mix tape straight from Kazaa.

You remember Kazaa right? Limewire? If you do? Put your fist up to the monitor and know I am doing the same and giving you a fist bump.

So aside demon playlist through speakers, we also have a pretty shitty trick, we have two rings used as conduits, sending mild shocks to Nell’s temples, thanks to wire being run from each sleeve to the rings he’s wearing on his thumbs, feeding tiny jolts to the girl to help sell the pains of a demon trying to escape her as he preaches the holy world above her. But my favorite trick, comes at the end of his exorcism, where he pulls a James Brown and collapses, declaring he can’t do it. He just can’t remove the demon. So everyone must beg him to do it, and he gets on his knees, begging God and the Demon to take him. For god to put that demon in himself, and the demon to enter into him so he can save Nell, and as he collapses to the floor once more, He declares ‘it is done, the demon is gone, it went into me and it couldn’t stand the honky tonk lovin of the Lord”, and with that he presses a button on his stylish cross and the cross lets out a puff of smoke and or incense. Exhuming the demons angry spirit.

The entire thing is a great show, his preaching is almost purposefully bad to the point you’d almost expect Caleb or someone to burst out laughing, but they hold it together. All of this is book ended with the best possibly scene to tie in televangelism with faith. We cut to the father thanking Cotton for his service, as Cotton is counting out a stack of twenties that Nell’s father has paid him to perform his service.  I mean holy hell man. It’s perfect.

But, Cotton does do at least one real thing,and an actually helpful thing. Earlier on Caleb told him how he feels the big problem in the house to worry about, is their father. He hints at Cotton that their dad ever since the passing of his wife, has become an alcoholic, and that’s made him both weak, prone to anger, as well as feeble minded. Making Caleb feel like he’s the only one who has his shit together.

So what does Cotton do? He stops counting the money which he even joked “I don’t need to count it”, and has a conversation with ‘THA LAWD!!” Jesus our lord has a prophecy for him, and that prophecy is to embrace his pain and loss, to show emotion, not to keep it bottled up inside, but to let it out and NOT to drink all his emotions, to lay off the fire water of hell and embrace the cran grape juice from the lords fields.

It’s a nice gesture and use of superior trickery, let’s hope just like the faked exorcism that it pays off for them in the playoffs.

Spoilers, IT WON’T!! HOW THE HELL CAN ANY OF THAT PAY OFF!!

Well that again is the point and the question I raised earlier. You can trick people some of the time, with your personality and charm, shouting out what sounds like holy words and some people are desperate enough to believe it. But when it doesn’t work how you intended, or worse, like it seems to be the case here. What if that person actually is possessed? Well then you have yourself a problem you need to answer for.

Shortly after collecting his money, Cotton told Louise that he would be checking into a hotel and heading home the next day. That night as we say goodnight to one another, The camera crew is called by Cotton to get the hell up to his room. Apparently nell has walked 5 miles from her home and sat herself on his bed, in her night gown. She’s unresponsive and staring off in a daze. We’ve all seen enough demon possession films by now to know this behavior is never a good sign. But I do give the film credit as it was not yet made during the ‘lets cause static on the camera recording’ when in the presence of demons. What they do instead? Is add a very Exorcist like soundtrack of sharp violins as we see Nell in her daze begin to try undoing her nightgown, and as the female crew member tries to stop her and lay the girl down, Nell begins licking and kissing the womans arm and shoulder. As if things couldn’t get weirder, Nell sits up, and while staring off contemplating life, the universe, and everything. She begins to slowly drool out vomit.

SO, time for a trip to the Hospital!

Once there, we see Cotton the parent, not Cotton the priest. He tried calling Louise and no one answered. He’s asking the doctors to run test on her and make sure she’s okay. Just like you’d expect from a possessed person, the test results come back normal. Cotton wants to go a step above and have them do some psychological test. Unfortunately they can’t without the signature and authorization of a parent.

Finally they get the father down to the hospital and he’s there to collect his daughter. But he absolutely doesn’t want, need or is willing to even hear anything the doctor tries to tell him. He even ignores Cotton as he tells him to get psychological testing done on his daughter. He’s bringing her back to the farm for Jesus healing.

Once they get her back home, Cotton, who I almost want to call Peter Popoff at this point. He is trying to reason with Louise and attempts telling him that he feels it is important, especially after the exorcism to have the doctors just do a few quick psychological test on Nell, just to make sure she’s okay. He’s really trying, but the dad does the worst thing you could hope for when you are faking what you presented yourself to be. He’s quoting scripture and looking for Cotton to agree with him that God says in his super cool kids book to turn away from medicine and trust in the lord, and that all she needs is more Jesus to be right.

It’s just, sad man. You can see the frustration on his face hearing this. He is genuinely worried about Nell and wants to make sure she is okay, this is exactly the horror he worried about with exorcism’s and how this girl really could have a mental problem, easily fixed by doctors and treated, but because of the families religious background. They believe its all a test of god, a demon. He COULD just tell him “Listen bitch, get her tested, get her mind right! Get your head. Out of your ass. And get her some help!”

Buuuuut, if he does, then he has to expose himself as a fraud, because it raises the question from Louise of “Well why? You said the demon was banished, we saw you do it, saw the smoke from the cross. Didn’t it work?” and if you have to reveal yourself as a trickster to a devoted faithful farmer, whom just paid you a couple hundred dollars for a dog and pony show to save his girl well. It’s not exactly a good situation. So Cotton shuts his pie hole, not because he’s a bad person mind you. But he does actually need this money, and it is absolutely causing a conflict in his head. Earlier that night he talked to his wife who was worried they hadn’t paid for their son to get a hearing aid to help him, and he assured her they had, he talked to the camera about not having health insurance so we get a clearer sad image as to why he was doing all this. So he absolutely needs that poor farmers money, but It’s for once weighing down on his soul.

It’s good stuff and absolutely comes off in the film, I dig it.

So what does Cotton do? He’s going to seek the help of another priest. A local priest. This is great.

He’s hoping to execute a holy assist. He goes to a local ministry and informs the priest of what is going on. How he believes Nell needs psychiatric testing but he needs a fellow priest to back him up on this suggestion when he offers it to Louis. The priest is more than happy to help.

Buuuuuuut, he can’t. Really.

Not because he’s a prick either. But because Louis and him have some history. See, this was the priest teaching modern music and not just old time religious music in his bible school. So he is the one Louis yelled at and pulled his daughter out of that class so he could instead home school her on apparently incredibly old time religion.

He does however tell Cotton that, if he can get Louis to agree on letting him come over to the farm and see Nell, he will happily side with Cotton, even more so, he just so happens to know a clinical psychologist they could use and have at the ready. This. This is a solid working plan.

So off to the farm of crazy religion!

Where everything is just going to shit in every horrible way it could.

We find Louis outside the house chasing after a crying Nell, he is begging him that she wants her mother back. Louis stares at Cotton and his crew and tells them to stop filming him as he escorts her back into the house and to her room. Meanwhile once inside, we notice Caleb has blood all over his face. His father apparently broke his nose in a fit of rage. Over what? We can only guess.

Well Cotton manages to get Louis to take his son in the family truck and into town so he can get to a doctor, giving him and his team time alone with Nell. Needless to say. Shits starting to get real, real fast.

As they approach Nells room, they discover her father has, chained her to the bed. Not chained like, a dog chain, or leashed. No. We are talking heavy duty weighted chains over her feet, shackling her to the bed. Couple that with Nell crying about how she’s bad, and you get a serious textbook look at trauma and an abusive household.

 But it only gets worse.

Or better. It depends if we’re alike or not. C’mon this is for our entertainment damnit!

They cut the chains off of Nell and Cotton with his crew gather outside the room keeping watch over Nell. Which doesn’t go so well. They’re all suddenly startled as they hear of all things, a baby crying. They rush off and are met with a truly for once creepy sight. Nell standing in a defensive posture in the middle of a hallway staring at them. Without warning she swiftly turns and walks off toward her bathroom. Where we hear baby crying again and see what looks like, well. Nell giving a baby doll “babies first bath” in a tub of water. They wrestle the porcelain doll free and get Nell back to bed. They play back the recording to try and understand what exactly they heard. Only to discover, they heard some really messed up shit man!

They got recording of Nell speaking on Latin. Which she doesn’t know and her father certainly didn’t know. They also do in fact hear the sounds of a baby crying and then Nell screaming. This is all bad and if these people stopped being logical, they would realize rather quickly and simply. THEY GOT DEMONS!!!

DE

MONS

Which honestly made me start laughing. Not the fact Nell and all of them are in absolute danger. But the sudden idea I had for a film. Imagine a demon possession film, But with muppets. Not THEE muppets, like I’m not talkin about Kermit the Frog removing a demon from Gonzo’s chicken wife Camilla, I’m talkin like Jim Henson’s Storyteller style demons. Get some felt puppet demons in this movie and you got the making of something magical.

I also am copyrighting this idea.

Well it’s time again for that age old wisdom bomb. How could things get any worse!

Well for once, Nosey Nora the camera crew lady, is alerted to a few messages left on Louis’s phone, which just all happen to be from the local doctor they saw. Those messages are telling the dad how, Nell’s vomiting and nausea are common in her state, as she is pregnant and to give her some pepto bismol, and that’ll help her out.

SO.

Nell is preggo!

Well firstly Mazel tov

Secondly NELL IS PREGNANT?!!

The same girl who moments ago was showing off her mothering skills by drowning a baby doll in the tub? Well that’s going to be a great parent right there.

Then of course there is also the question of, who the hell is the father?!

So far our only likely candidates are…well. They aren’t good. We have Caleb, and we have Louis.

Sooooooo incest baby…

OR.

Demon baby.

One of these. Is only slightly better than the other.

OF COURSE BOTH ARE FUCKED UP!

This family needs Jesus! And a high pressure enema from a pressure washer.

Also demon or not, Nell needs her ass beaten. Well maybe not beaten since she is pregnant, you gotta mind the baby.

So maybe she just needs a series of hard slaps.

Not because I advocate violence toward women or the young. I don’t. Unless its in a life or death situation. She needs the slaps for the demon. We are slapping the demon. Why?

Because of course, these fuckers had to ruin a good thing.

Nell likes to have visions of things to come. She makes artwork of these and displays them. One such painting she did, was of a white fluffy kitty cat, with blood all over its tummy and ground.

Naturally we get just that, so yes. I am upset. Don’t hurt kitty cat man. You just don’t.

So as our crew take an hour power nap, Nell is awake, stripping, and grabbing their camera. Heading out to the barn where she finds a white fluffy kitty cat, and…well yeah. Proceeds to bash the camera into the cat. Cracking and bloodying the lens.

She then walks off into the house and hovers over Mr. Cotton who she seems intent to bash with the bloodied camera. Until our camera lady says “hey wtf bitch.” Snapping Nell out of her phase, and Bringing Cotton quickly out of his sleep state. Seeing a naked woman covered in blood standing menacingly over you will sober you up rather quickly.

They once again calm Nell down. Investigate their camera, but no one is reviewing the footage. However they can put things together themselves. As we see them look over new additions to Nell’s wall of art.

We have of course the barn cat artwork, but beside that, we have mild spoilers potentially. We see a shadow man holding a cross, approaching a large bonfire, and in the next work of art, we have the camera lady chopped into pieces and bleeding, we have the sound guy with his head severed from his body, and we have Cotton, on fire.

Everything is turning out roses!

Needless to say at this point, our soundman is telling Cotton this house, this family, and everyone else can fuck right off a cliff. He finds it, mildly difficult to stay in a house, where some girl is drawing him with his head cut off. Which is rather understandable.

But everyone assures him that things will be okay, take it easy, and chill out.

Of course will things get better?

I mean….come on, man.

So Nell has killed an animal, or animals, let us not forget the cattle. She is pregnant and tried drowning a doll in a bath tub. We also have her speaking in latin. AND they are hearing her, alone in her room speaking with someone who isn’t there. All of this is screamin demon, at least it WOULD be, to an actual exorcist. But what we have here, is a documentary crew scared out of their pantaloons, and a preacher who tricks people out of their money to help provide for his own family, as a means to help people without harming them.

But just wait, there’s more!

Dad is back! Where is Caleb? Don’t know. But Louis is back and they are playing the message for him of the doctor informing him of the pregnancy. Apparently Papa didn’t know about this, and his response is golden.

“The book was right, the demon defiled my daughter. Your book was right. You told me it would do this.”

Which is true, he did. And now more than ever Cotton is regretting his amazing salesman ship and for not considering his words more carefully.

It’s a beautiful contrast of two forces working together, and why I love Cotton’s character.

On the one hand, we have a demon very obviously in control of Nell, and Cotton is being forced to face the reality that the lies he sells to help people, is also just as likely to hurt those people. The demon is gladly exploiting this and he’s having the face it.

On the other side of this coin, we have the strong feeling of Cotton is a man who is being tested by a higher power. He is abusing others faith as a show he puts on, though harmless, it plays off of their faith to his benefit, and it largely feels like his choices, what he believed he was doing, his actions. They’re all being challenged right now. He has to face the reality of what he was doing and the harm it now is causing. It’s good stuff man, it’s pure jazz and I love it.

Louis is out of his damn mind. He believes whole heartedly that the book of demons Cotton showed him earlier, that what he read about that demon, is true. That the demon defiled his virginal daughter and put his seed inside her. Even worse, he is believing Cottons exact words that, Death is the only salvation for Nell…without an exorcism.”

So Louis is asking. Then pleading. Beggings, and finally threatening. For Cotton to “Save my daughter…or I will”

With that, it’s time to pucker up and get our shit out of this house.

Louis has made the decision that if they are not with him, and doing gods work to perform an exorcism. Then he will see them as trespassers on his property and…shoot them. He also is willing to kill his own daughter.

With their choices even more limited now, the group decides the best course of action for them, is to get Nell, load her up into their van and in Jesus’s name, rip ass down the highway and get her some serious help as far away from Daddy as possible.

Which of course.

Can only go well.

So yes, now is the time for action.

On all fronts.

Just as the group decides it’s time to grab Nell and get out of here. Dad is outside praying at his wife’s grave before he arms himself, and something has turned the power off in the house. Chandeliers are swaying, heavy footsteps are thudding, and Nell’s door won’t open as she screams inside. Coupled with the screaming is the off tune playing of Nell’s recorder, as well as demonic grunting. The group finally managed to work their way inside the room, only to find every painting and mirror off the walls. Baby dolls scattered over the bed, and no sign of Nell. Seeing an open window the group fears for the worst.

But thankfully Nell is totes okay. Depending on your definition of Okay. She’s crouched on top of her dresser, watching everyone like a feral animal.

We also learn she is armed with scissors. As she cuts Cotton across the hand as he tries to help her. She escapes the room, skittering across the floor like an animal. The group is, rightfully scared out of their minds, and still their pantaloons. Well it only gets better once they find out Nell is outside and T Posing. Well okay not really T posing. She’s doing her best impression of a crucified Jesus.

As if that weren’t enough however. We now have Louis shooting off his shotgun, as he promised. People are going to die.

EVIL DIES TONIGHT!

So with a shotgun at their heads, a dad off the wagon and off the reservation of sanity. The group decides, or rather Cotton decides to save everyone by telling Louis the one thing he wanted to hear in the first place. “I will perform another exorcism.”

The man is forced into a corner, to end up doing the exact thing he swore he’d never see done to another child, he’s going to conduct another exorcism, which is likely going to end with her death.

The group is not happy with this choice. But they all understand it. They had no alternative with a shotgun in their faces and this is the only way out. So perhaps they can formulate a plan by the time the exorcism is performed. Who knows?

The exorcism isn’t performed that night, oh no. They retire for the evening and Cotton is seen outside doing something he likely hadn’t done, let alone ‘felt’ in a long time. He’s praying, out in the rain. It’s not an act, and you can tell as he stands out there alone. He is reaching deep in himself for this. He needs all the help he can get and he has no idea what to do, what will happen.

This is, by far one of the better exorcism’s in a film that I’d seen in a long while. It is not pretty, or corny. It is far removed from the show we saw earlier on in the film. Nell is chained up in the barn, like an animal. Her dad stands by, armed, and Cotton approaches a confused, crying Nell. He’s trying to assure her, that he will free her this time, That he will not fail her and the exorcism will be a success. He just needs her to do the one thing she didn’t last time, and actually summon fourth the demon inside her. He's actually taking this as seriously as a heart attack now.

It’s creepy, it’s dangerous and I love it.

Nell goes from sniffling and afraid to contorting her body on the floor and staring at everyone like a wild animal in seconds. The demon has come fourth. And it’s perfectly done as the silence is broken with a very clear voice not having come from Nell before, “Reverend Marcus, I heard you didn’t believe in me.”

We are now properly being introduced, to the demon, the actual Abalam.

Or, so it seems…

Cotton and Abalam are sparing one another. It’s a good back and forth and especially at one point when the demon provokes Louis, prompting Cotton to tell him not to believe the demons lies. Abalam starts laughing and gives Cotton a knowing look, repeating ‘The “demons” lies.’, the camera flashes to Cotton’s hand and we see it shaking as he’s holding his bible and trying, on the fly to do an actual exorcism here. The problem is though he’s never believed in it, save the first time he did it as a kid at 10 years old. So here he is, facing an evil, reciting words that have no faith behind them. He’s struggling and it’s a huge contrast from earlier. Seeing him perform as a faith healer, to now trying to be just like his father an actual exorcist. All it serves though, is to annoy Abalam, “Words! Words, words, words, WORDS!” it strikes a deal with Cotton. If he can manage, to stay silent for 10 whole seconds. He will leave Nell alone and return to Hell. Obviously Cotton will take anything he can get. So he says hell yeah!

Only he didn’t count on each second counted down, to end up with Nell breaking a finger for each second that passes in silence. Soooo Cotton loses this deal after 3 seconds and Abalam laughs, happily stating “You lose, reverend.”

Cotton can’t do it. He is being called out by the demon, he knows he has no faith, that to him the words in the book are just that, words. They aren’t a sword and shield. He has no more tricks to save himself here or trick the girl, or demon. He tells Louis he can’t do any more, he can’t help her. Much like the first exorcism where he appeared exhausted and stated the same. Back then, Louis sobbed and pleaded for him to find the strength to save his daughter. This time? Louis is cocking his shotgun and ordering Cotton, “Save my daughter.”

It’s incredibly tense and Cotton is absolutely in a trap. The demon is laughing and knows he’s fucked.

At least, until a bone is thrown to Cotton, as we hear Nell tease at him, “How about I give you a blowing job.”

A blowing. Job.

This catches the reverends attention, but NOT for the reasons you’d think. You pervos.

It’s how she said it. Blowing Job. He turns around and faces Nell, kneeling beside her and begins to taunt her. “What is that? Tell me what a blowing job is.” Nell begins looking upset and confused, as suddenly Cotton holds the upper hand. “A demon, a real demon would know what that is, and what its called. But a 16 year old girl wouldn’t have a clue. She wouldn’t know what it is let alone call it that.”

I, remembering high school would disagree with what he said, as a lot of us, male and female knew what things were, rather well. But anyway. His point is made, and Nell is upset. Screaming out defiantly as Cotton begins to accuse her of not being a demon, but an innocent girl. As Nell screams and tries to command powerfully “She is not an innocent girl!” she eventually breaks down, and faster than you can say Whoa black Betty, Abalam. The evil is gone, and it would appear. Possibly. That Cotton was right, and broke through to nell. That she wasn’t possessed, but traumatized as she was raped.

They return to the house, Nell in her room once more, and Cotton has her tell her father the story she’d relayed to him. That there is a café in town. Where a boy named Logan works, and that this boy took her for a ride in his car, out to a cornfield, and had sex with her. That he is the one who impregnated her, and that she was shamed by what had happened.

Cotton can finally unpucker his butthole knowing their lives are safe, and that level heads prevailed. He contacts the local priest once more, asking him to come over and comfort the family, the priest tells him he will contact the psychiatrist he’d recommended earlier, first thing in the morning. Cotton watches as the actual priest comes into the home, sits beside Nell on her bed and begins reciting from the bible. What’s more, is we even see the preacher put a hand on Louis shoulder, showing the two have mended what happened between them 2 years ago when he stopped coming to church and took his daughter out of the bible school.

So cheerful guitar plays in the background, as they take off in their car. And Cotton talks about having never seen anything in his life before like what he saw in that house. The bonding, the break through, how he felt having actually reached out and saved a life. Even if without faith like he’d used as a show tool before, he actually, legitimately feels good, and believes he saved someone, for the first time in ages.

So as happy music plays and the group drives off down the road, they pass a diner and remember Nell saying Logan the boy worked there, so they stop in for a bite to eat, as well as to confront Logan that, he is now the father of an expectant baby.

Only, Logan is swearing up and down to them that he did not sleep with Nell. He tells them that the two of them talked for a few minutes at a party held at Pastor Manley’s home last summer. He also tells the group that. Not only did he not sleep with her, as nice as she is he’s just not into girls.

So now, armed with this information, Cotton believes they need to return to the house. He has questions. Why would Nell lie to them, to get them out of the house, what purpose does it serve. He wants answers so off they go. Once they arrive, the house has no power still, and no one can be seen anywhere in the house. No priest or his assistant, no Louis. No one.

Alarmingly though, what they do find. Is all over the house, written on every wall, and ceiling. Are satanic symbols.

SO!

Party time I guess!!

Cotton steps outside to collect himself and as the camera crew join him. We are treated to our final act as Cotton tells them to quiet down as he hears something. Off in the distance, in the woods. He hears people.

Against the wishes of his crew who express a deep request to get the fuck out of there and out on the road, Cotton leads them off from the house and their cars, out to the open field. Where low and behold. We have a bonfire party. There are a LOT of people gathered out here, including the good preacher and his assistant from earlier. Conducting a satanic ritual. How lovely. Joining them as well, albeit against his will as he is blindfolded and gagged, tied up on his knees, is Louis. Whom is to be sacrificed.

Cotton has no words. He watches pastor Manley as he leads this ritual, and Nell, laid out on a table, is forced to give birth to a demon baby, declared by Manley to be Abalam itself. Raising the child for all to see, before he throws it into the bonfire. Hellish cries come out of the flames, and soon. Very soon. The bonfire transforms into a pyre reaching high into the sky. Cotton is gob smacked. Which is a word I’ve really not used before. But absolutely fits here. This man for the first time in his life is confronted with actual evil. Not a broken traumatized girl acting out, not someone who’s faith leads them to believe their mental state is caused by demons. But actual pure breathing evil.

It's a strong moment as he just can’t believe what it is he’s seeing, but there it is. So he does the only thing he feels deep down he can do, should do. The guy found his faith. Even if far too late. He found it, it came to the surface and he began praying in Latin, before taking hold of his trick crucifix and began stepping out from hiding to face the now incredibly large demon in the fire. Beginning an actual exorcism, ready to face down this demon.

We know its working because the demon Abalam, in his bonfire is growling out at Cotton and even looked frightened for a moment. Until the group of satanist set out on Cotton and the group. With that our camera lady and sound guy take off, but as we well know. Now that her earlier drawings are coming to pass. Camera girl is caught and chopped to death with a hatchet by a young man. Sound guy takes off stopping for no one and nothing, only stopping to finally catch his breath, hearing a twig snap he spins around and finds of all people, Caleb, his jaw bandaged. As he calls out the kids name, Caleb slices the mans head off with a sickle.

ROLL CREDITS!

The End

I remember when this movie came out, and I know people were freaked out but I didn’t believe it was that big a success. Financially it absolutely was. The move was made for around 1.8 million or so and grossed nearly 70 million total.  The sequel however did not do that well.

I honestly could not recall having seen this, but I owned a copy of it from its original release. So I must have, unless demons brought it to me like “Bro, you gotta check this out, crazy good. Peace out.”

I just couldn’t remember any of what I saw, and I’m glad for it. This was a lot of fun. The actors were great, the story amazing, and I feel that likely yeah I did see this long long ago when it came out, but I missed a lot. I mean it was, what. 13 years ago? So a lot of the films subtly was missed on me I imagine. I was a very different guy back then, believe me. I at one time thought Beowulf the deadeye cgi movie was amazing, same with 300. I have learned from my mistakes. I really have.

I love the story and its twist, how it goes back and fourth between what it ultimately circled back around too. A story about a priest smirking at faith and using it to help people with actual problems, believing he could stop the damage religion can bring to the desperate. Only to find himself thrown right into a true test of his faith, and the consequences for toying with the faith of others.

It was great seeing the story take shape from a simple faux exorcism, to the thought and finding of evidence that this could just be a severely traumatized girl, being unknowingly punished by a grieving father dealing with the loss of what gave his life purpose and caging his children in. Then circling back to just pure evil.

The fake ending we got before the night time bbq was a great twist, and if not for these films being ‘found’, I would’ve bought this being its ending. I mean between the sudden crumbling of Nell the demon, into Nell the broken girl, the story of her having met a boy and getting pregnant. How the preacher once shunned by the family had returned to help the family in its time of need. The growth Louis had to reach to accept the honest truth and that none of this had anything to do with religion, that he now had to be a father to his daughter. I mean right down to the music hitting those cues of this is all coming together and ending well. It really sold everything. Seeing this in theaters versus having a progress bar letting you know how much time you have left would’ve nailed that as the actual ending.

But they couldn’t leave you happy, they had to remind you what this was, and what the ride you signed on for was headed for. Which is did beautifully. Seeing Nell’s drawings show us the outcome of each character, it’s great. But also sad. I mean Cotton wasn’t a monster, you understood why he did what he did, the guy was cocky, absolutely. But he wasn’t taking advantage of people…completely.  Patrick Fabian was just an amazing part in this film. He absolutely sold the character and you feel bad for the guy at the end. Well you feel bad for how it ends for him, but I still loved the heroes moment he got when he found true faith and strength. Something that far earlier in this story could’ve helped them and stopped this. Possibly.

Ashley Bell also, she nailed HARD the innocent country girl almost startled by the sound of their own voice being heard, how we see that persona turn from that to confident, too creepy demon. As I recall people liked her a lot in the sequel as well. Just not…the sequel itself.

Everyone in this, their characters had depth to them and a lot to offer. They all could’ve gone one way or the other. It just felt that well done. Caleb, Louis, Nell. They worked as a family unit and each one had the perfect attitude their backstory gave them.

Caleb was especially great as the obvious snake in the grass. I mean the guy didn’t entirely hide his intent. He went from coming off as an overly protective brother, who feared Cotton would be one of those priest that Cotton despised and would hurt his sister, only to discover he was a fraud so Caleb felt relieved knowing he wouldn’t harm his sister, just trick his dumb dad and hopefully end his sisters drama.

When in reality, we now know Caleb feared Cotton because he thought he WAS the genuine article. He was afraid he would actually exercise the demon from his sister, and undo all the work Manley and his satanic cult group had done to birth Abalam. But when Caleb spots Cotton faking demonic signs. He is able to laugh at this and knows there’s nothing to fear. Abalam will be safe and this priest isn’t a threat to anyone. Until the end when it’s far too late.

Caleb Landry Jones who played Caleb did great, he deserves as much praise as Nell and Cotton in this. And it shows, the man has gone on to star in a few high profile horror and drama films.

We need more films like this, unfortunately we got films like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and worst of all The Devils Own. Which still has the worst ending of any found footage film ever.

Seriously if you do a found footage film, maybe don’t end it with “For more information on what happened after the movie, visit our website”

FYI, the site offered nothing for the ending of the movie, it just offered the chance to watch trailers for the movie. It’s still the only film I heard the audience groan at the end of.

Possession films will always be entertaining and interesting to me, and I will still hold out hope for more films to stand out like this one and others like it we’ve discovered this month, as well as wait for my muppet demons possession film to strike gold and allow me to retire and build my own theater where I can watch the original unaltered Star Wars on a big screen, uninterrupted, with my milk duds.

I loved this movie, I’m glad I got to apparently revisit it, and absolutely I can’t help but recommend it to others. As we begin our descent down into the last few films, I see the light at the end of the tunnel more clearly. My sanity has been tested and nearly broken several times. Watching, then reviewing, and then recording an audio review of one movie a day is…..something. But I am having fun and hope you all check out the audio reviews as well.

But for now, until tomorrow and whatever it may bring. If you find yourself in need of an exorcist, Call Creflo Dollar. The man is like the 50 cent of televangelist and when he punches you with the power of christ? That mans gonna save you, and save your money, from you. Don’t let priest punch you and call it healing, I can do that just as well, and I paid 20 dollars to be a priest. AMEN!