A troubled minister
named Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian)
doesn't believe in posessions or demons
but performs phony exorcisms in order to
support his family. He wants to quit
doing this but agrees to perform one last
exorcism for a film crew in which he goes
to a farm owned by a religious and
superstitious man named Louis Sweetzer
(Louis Harthum) in which he tells Cotton
about his slaughtered animals claiming
that his daughter named Nell (Ashley
Bell) is apparently responsible for but
another sibling named Caleb (Caleb Landry
Jones) seems to catch on that Cotton is a
phony and makes him feel unwelcome.
Cotton does his phony exorcism and gets
paid but yet he finds Nell at his hotel
acting sick and twisted and suggests to
Louis that she needs to go see a doctor
about her behavior but yet is forced to
perform an exorcism for real since she
has been doing deadly deeds around the
farm as well as making different sounds
with her voice.
With all of this Cotton and his crew are
pinned to try and make poor Nell better
even if they are risking their lives in
order to do so.
I was excited when
I heard that this was a found footage
horror style in which I've been a fan on most
of them since I saw the Blair
Witch Project and it was a real
treat to watch for sure.
During the beginning it shows the lead
character Cotton Marcus discussing in not
believing in demons or possessions as
well as him being funny at his church
which looked pretty fun making you want
to go to church to see his humor in what
he does. Plus showing his father doing
some work on the history of fallen angels
which seems to be a nice study on the
purposes of these. Then we see others
being questioned on Cotton's work like
his family in which this almost seemed
like a documentary on a preachers belief
which made me wonder as to where the
horror is here but it does get better.
Cotton decides to go to a farm area in
which the family residing there claims
that their daughter is possessed since
some of their cattle has been slaughtered
which seems to leave the film off to a
nice horror start especially with a nasty
kid named Caleb making them feel
unwelcome which seemed quite
intimidating.
There's some good peaceful moments with
Cotton talking to the girl named Nell who
seems to try and be sane and together
which you wonder if she really is
possessed since she is so gentlelike and
calm as well as talking to him about her
Mom and how she misses her. I found the
writing on this was brought together
perfectly and believeably done.
This seemed to be a nice warm up before
some terror starts and then later on
Cotton performs an exorcism which looked
a little too comedic but then you see
other clips of what he did to make it
seem like an exorcism which would think
to yourself "What a scumbag for
conning this family just for money"
Then it starts to get terrifying making
the audience thinking that something is
definetely going to happen for real and
it does with this girl which looks
intense as well as showing a deadly
drawing on a cat with blood as well as
different voices speaking from inside a
room when a door is shit which is another
nice chilling moment to watch on the big
screen. The film had to add a baby cry
too since that seems to be commonly used
in a flick like this one but this time
Cotton and the other film investigators
finds out by what is really happening
there.
Yet there's a scene where Nell uses the
camera to close into a cat and bashes it
to death in which I am sick of having a
cat being killed in a horror movie. It
seems so common in the films today.
However this seems to be a drawing card
to the story.
There's more great stuff like Nell
speaking differently and the possessive
demon in her body trying to trick Cotton
and his gang about leaving this poor girl
alone in which the voice sounded
incredibly done and evil sounding. It
seemed to work on the screen without a
doubt.
Then there's a real spooky scene near the
end of the film which will be a surprise
for the viewers but it will psych you out
big time.
Bottom line is this is a shocking
mocumentary which seems to be incredibly
effective and not seeming phony like at
all. It could be an inspiration to future
mocumentary horror flicks like Blair
Witch Project was in the very
beginning. I hope a sequel will happen
since it left a door open for one.
The acting is very
well done as lead actor Patrick
Fabian (Cotton Marcus) seemed to
bring alot of humor in his role as a
minister in his local area along with
really getting to the point by what he
says discussing his job. He also shows a
nice patient behavior in his role too in
which he brought alot into his role
without a doubt. He performs very well when he discusses
about exorcisms and demonic possessions
in which he looks believeable when he
talks to the camera about all of it.
There's also nice witty moments on him
preaching at a church which shows some
good timing too.
Ashley Bell (Nell Sweetzer) really
did her part as a possessed teenage girl
showing a softness to her part in the
beginning and acting timid but tame along
with showing some nice crying emotions
too in which she brings this across well
making out that there's nothing
possessive about her but then she really
knew on how to go into a demonic rage
with everything that she did with her
snarly behavior and evil expressions too. She does well going in a rage
and trying to attack and go wild.
I'd say that she was the best in the
whole cast and can go far with acting
after watching her in this film.
Louis
Harthum (Louis Sweetzer) was very
good with his role as a family man
running a farm in which he showed a good
stern behavior when he needed to as well
as acting unusual with his lifestyle on
superstitions seeming to study this role
very well along with a nice rough look on
him. A nice moment with him aggressively scolding his onscreen son which looked believeable on a strange
father at a farm towards his son. He totally fit the part well.
Caleb Landry Jones (Caleb Sweetzer)
knew on how to portray his role as a
redneck kid acting out of it when he
talks and really came across as quite
intimidating with his threatening
attitude in which he was a nice key role
to the story of this flick. He certainly
brought across a perfectly unfriendly
appeal to everyone which was impressive. In a scene we see him getting nasty towards some of his fellow actors which looked
pretty convincing on how he was performed
to do so. There's a nice approach by him coming up towards his fellow actor and
giving him threats which seemed
intimidating and realistic on a redneck
kid towards another person.
A horse's insides
are torn out
A cat is slaughtered but the shots are
quick
A guys face is stabbed
The music is nicely done
and will surprise you just when most
scene's in this film are quiet you do
hear the odd accoustic guitar playing for
the pleasant moments. Plus there's great
high intense violin squealing for when
the tense scene's happen mainly for the
possesive moments. There's also many
groaning sounds along with scraping
noises and some wood banging sound
effects too which sounded superbly done
in which was composed by Nathan Barr. |
