As a film critic it’s hard not to be prejudged against films in advance based on previous experience of the genre or film makers. As such, I have to admit I approached The Last Exorcism with some trepidation, which is to say not so much fear of the content giving me the heebie jeebies, but rather the fact that it’s a ‘mockumentary’ in the style of The Blair Witch Project that is a thematic remake of the original Exorcist, suitable for 13 year olds* and produced by the director of Cabin Fever and Hostel. All the above led me to expect a bit of a car crash in terms of film making. (*the film is rated PG-13 in America and certificate 15 in the UK.)

I’m happy to report that actually The Last Exorcism is the best horror film I’ve seen this year and even with its tweenage rating, still extremely creepy and shocking. Like The Exorcist (1973), this film is about a priest who has lost his faith and is involved in the exorcism of a young girl; the girl in particular, Nell played by Ashley Bell amongst a uniformly excellent cast drawn from TV backgrounds, is another vulnerable ingénue very similar to Linda Blair in the original film. The manifestations of demonic possession in Nell’s character are also fairly similar, albeit without the 18 certificate language and genital mutilation, including manipulation of her limbs and body that would probably lead to paralysis or death in most people.

However, the film takes advantage of many viewers’ familiarity with the original film and subverts our expectations. Here the god fearing father is convinced the girl is possessed while the ‘priest’ is depicted as a charlatan / magician, who only undertakes the exorcism because he’d rather do it himself than see her hurt by someone with less experience (presumably he expects the ceremony to have some kind of beneficial psychological effect on her) and because he is being followed by a film crew.

The film also follows in the footsteps of other ‘handycam’ / found footage horror films from the last decade or so which began with The Last Broadcast (1998) and The Blair Witch Project (1999) and has become popular again in recent years with the likes of [Rec] (2007), Cloverfield (2008) and Paranormal Activity (2009). Luckily this is also an aspect of the film that is not only done well, but in fact didn’t put me off watching it, as some ‘handycam’ films including The Blair Witch Project have such violent and frequent camera movements that I actually find them difficult to watch from start to finish without feeling nauseous!

The film obviously covers some familiar ground and goes on to prove similar to devil worship films such as The Devil Rides Out (1968), Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) and To The Devil A Daughter (1976) – which, given these examples, seems a peculiarly British genre – and the film still seems surprisingly fresh. Perhaps this is because the initial setup – as the strangely likeable fake priest shows us not only his irreverence in sermons, including use of card tricks, but also the tools he uses in a fake exorcism including a hollow cross that emits smoke at the touch of a button – is comedic and makes you increasingly aware of the sense of impending doom as we meet the supposedly possessed girl and her family for the first time.

The original Exorcist made the demonic possession seem even stranger by setting it in a modern city with access to medical technology and diagnosis away from rural superstition; conversely by returning the exorcism to that setting and bringing a know-it-all ‘exorcist’ into that location, you can see a tragedy waiting to happen.

I’m not going to reveal any more of the plot, suffice to say that the film cleverly anticipates your expectations and subverts them on at least a couple of occasions, leading to several unsettling and genuinely scary scenes. More impressive still is a trope that seems common in a handful of this year’s movies – the ambiguous ending – as this film, ‘Inception’ and another imminent horror film, ‘After.Life’ all leave the audience wondering about the nature of the nature / reality of what they’ve just been watching plot-wise and in each case have managed to leave the film open to interpretation in a way that is more satisfying than frustrating. For a film that pretends to be a documentary, this seems a suitable approach to the footage, as for all the viral marketing in the world, you’ve got to be fairly dim to not realise it’s fiction – Ghostwatch notwithstanding!

In case you’re worried that I’m implying this film ends with a murky, indistinct glimpse of something off camera in the style of other horror mockumentaries, it doesn’t, this is a film that clearly shows you all the footage you need to see, but still leaves it open to interpretation.

As I left the cinema, a couple of other audience members were debating their interpretation regarding elements of the film’s plot and the theory I left with was different again (and somewhat more radical). In fact the poster which you may have seen advertising the film actually mis-markets the movie as it depicts a shot that doesn’t actually take place on screen (or rather it does, but the poster removes a very important element of the mise-en-scene, without which you might expect something this film doesn’t actually include). The same applies to the very clever viral marketing of the movie via chatroulette.com which again showed a more ‘Hollywood’ kind of possession compared to the one you see in the film.

That said I don’t think anyone who is a fan of the possession genre is going to be disappointed by this film and any criticism I might have of the film in general – the use of non diagetic sound, for example – is dependent on how you read the meaning of the film. En route to its disturbing conclusion, the film also raises the idea of how a vulnerable person might believe they have become possessed due to abuse and a closeted lifestyle which, even allowing for its occasional flippancy, makes the film more grounded than other examples of the genre, especially other recent po-faced possession movies like Shelter.

Suitably for a film about faith, I can only recommend this movie based on my own convictions. I believe it’s an entertaining, unnerving and in some respects, challenging film. However the aspects I admired about the film may also be qualities that put other people off from watching it, the revelations (in every sense of the word) in the final reel in particular. This is certainly a film that will inspire debate – feel free to leave comments below / on twitter (perhaps DM me if you want to discuss spoilers) – and if nothing else should be highly commended for proving you can still make a good horror film without filling the screen with gore or overtly controversial elements…