Sunday, August 29, 2010

a slacker-eye view at the movies: the last exorcism

I think if I had ever found out that Eli Roth was involved with this movie beforehand, I'd know a bit of what to expect. Oh wait, I did know this. More about this tidbit later.

I checked out the movie late opening night at some fairly popular theater. I made it a point to express that I don't normally buy into checking these types of movies out on opening night in order to avoid squealing adolescent girls and guys to try and act cool by startling said girls. It takes too much out of it, I guess, but I went anyway as my broke ass was invited to this event. It went just as expected, which made me generally dislike the movie as I tried to take it seriously whilst dissecting it.

The movie's most obvious detail is the style in which it was shot; it was shot documentary-style, as previously made popular by 1999's The Blair Witch Project. If you're prone to getting motion sickness by shaky cameras, then please look away for the entire movie. The Last Exorcism's pace brings back another memory to another of Eli Roth's works. Except he was directing that, not producing it. This film, his most famous to date, is Hostel, which should be seen for its premise alone. Basically the film's pace and style of shot is like this: Light-hearted beginning with a happy shot and tone (by shot I mean the film's picture), which descends at a slow rate into a gritty, dark and uncomfortable end. Most horror movies really don't take so long in depicting the good parts, which makes this type of approach a snooze-fest for the slow-witted or just ennui-stricken. I'll also add that the film's central character (Nell or whatever her name is) is played by Ashley Bell, not to be confused with Michael Cera - really.

The movie's plot is not one I'll divulge in detail for fear of just giving away the movie, but think Rosemary's Baby. I'm already bored of writing this.

This, my friends, has been a slacker's movie review.
Blah blah, see you later.

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