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The Eli Roth-produced The Last Exorcism hasn't got much hype behind it, and that's a good thing. While last year's similarly pedigreed super-sleeper, Paranormal Activity, was so trumped up by nerd-blog buzz and word-of-mouth fawning that it left some scream queens disappointed, German director Daniel Stamm's little film premieres with the advantage of low-to-no expectations — a luxury, especially when you’re dealing with a movie as funny, skillful and chilling as this one. A documentary crew follows Baton Rouge's Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), an admitted huckster and exorcism "expert" who believes in the power of preaching but has no investment in its precepts. Completely at peace with taking mocking advantage of faith-based bumpkins who believe their loved ones have been possessed by demons, Marcus brings the cameras along to a rural Louisiana town, where sorrow-filled widower Louis (Louis Herthem) agonizes over the dead-eyed, violent behavior of his usually sweet-as-sweet-tea teen daughter Nell (Ashley Bell, wonderful and creepy as all hell). Marcus pulls out all his usual tricks (battery-operated, smoke-expelling crucifix!), collects his fee and heads on down the road — but then a catatonic dead-eyed Nell shows up in his motel room unannounced, leading the not-so-good reverend to second-guess his belief that "God-fearing" is synonymous with "goddamn stupid." Stamm's erratic handheld camera work is nothing we haven't seen before, and some of his bigger scares you’ll see coming, but all told this is a movie worth seeing — especially since you don't know much about it. —Drew Lazor

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Official Site: www.thelastexorcism.com

Rating:	PG-13
Director:	Daniel Stamm
Cast:	Patrick Fabian, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Ashley Bell, Jamie Alyson Caudle, Tony Bentley, Shanna Forrestall, Allen Boudreaux, Caleb Landry Jones, Denise Lee
Release Date:	August 27, 2010 (Nationwide)
Running Time:	100
Distributor:	Lionsgate
Producer:	Marc Abraham, Thomas A. Bliss, Eric Newman, Eli Roth
Genre:	Suspense/Thriller
Advisory:	for disturbing violent content and terror, some sexual references and thematic material