Well, folks, like I said, it was going to take a whole lot to keep me away from The Last Exorcism, opening today.  And when I went in, terribly eager, thoughts of the delightfully spooky Exorcism of Emily Rose ringing in my head, you can imagine how difficult it was to walk out of it disappointed.

The Last Exorcism follows Cotton Marcus, a former child preacher turned regular preacher, who’s suffering a bit of a crisis of faith following the premature birth of his son. He’s a master with sleight of hand and parlor tricks, which he uses to great effect, but his mastery with winning his flock with games has left him disillusioned: he’s focused so much on the sizzle that he forgot about the steak.  But when he gets a message that he’s needed for an exorcism–which was his major side business–he goes out loaded for (entirely fake) bear. He brings a video crew with him to film this, his last exorcism. When the problem turns out to be more than pop psychology and stagecraft can handle, it’s left to Reverend Play-Pretend to find his faith…or lose his life.

There were plenty of problems with this one–regular inconsistencies (Marcus starts out by asserting that you can’t believe in God without believing in demons, then follows that up by saying he doesn’t believe in demons but still believes in God), a bunch of places where the script slows down, way too much focus on Marcus’ stagecraft methods, and the inescapable fact that Ashley Bell, the woman they had playing the possessed Nell, looks a LOT like Michael Cera.  And the ending is a bit too abrupt–by the time you’ve realized, along with Marcus, that the whole thing is just a bit too convenient they’re about ready to stop the movie.

But that doesn’t stop The Last Exorcism from offering up a lot of pure, bonafide creepy scenes and some good old fashioned jump scares.  And yes, the last ten minutes or so are probably a little too Blair Witch Project for their own good (I spent a lot of time laughing at the screen and whimpering “I wanna say sorry…to my mom…and to Josh’s mom…”), but the whole effect is still pretty creepy.

The Last Exorcism can’t hold a candle to The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, but it’s still got plenty to like on its own.  It’s a disappointment, but it’s still a fair movie. The Screenhead Ten Scale hands it a six out of ten for doing well, if flawed, on its own, whether or not it stacks up to its competition.