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‘The Last Exorcism’ Director Enjoys Viewers’ Debate Over Conclusion

Director Daniel Stamm explains the controversial ending to the #2 movie in country this week. By Adam Rosenberg Ashley Bell in “The Last Exorcism” Photo: Lionsgate SPOILER WARNING: Before you read past this point, be warned: This article discusses the end of “The Last Exorcism” in depth, so stop reading if you intend to see the movie and don’t want to know how it ends. Director Daniel Stamm’s mock documentary concludes on an open-ended note. As predicted earlier in the film by Nell’s (Ashley Bell) paintings, the cinematographer gets his head chopped off, the producer is hacked to pieces and the preacher, Cotton (Patrick Fabian), his faith seemingly restored, walks into the flame to ward off Hell, his cross held high and his ultimate fate left unclear. That ending has spurred quite a bit of discussion among many who have seen it. MTV News talked to Stamm about that response and his reaction to it. “I don’t mind the passion that the discussion has spurred,” he said. “I’m getting threats now, which is a whole new thing for me. People are [tweeting] me, telling me to jump headfirst off the Empire State Building, really hateful [comments], which I can only take as a compliment. Which movie do you care about so much that you get so hateful and so passionate about it?” Of the dialogue that’s sprung up, the director admits that he understands where the dissenters are coming from. “I think that a lot of the people that are upset by the movie [feel] that they are paying for you to enlighten their world a little bit with an answer about what’s going on around them,” he said. “They want a statement that is clear. That is a very legitimate position to me, but that is not what the movie does. The movie leaves you with a question. And it was very true to the format of the documentary style that you don’t understand everything. ” By “staying true to the documentary style,” Stamm is referring specifically to the death of the camera operator in the film’s final scene. “Yes, it’s abrupt, because your point of view is gone, you’ll never find out what happened after that. There is no scene that neatly ties it all together and explains it all to you because that’s not how it would go down. I think the rest of the movie is naturalistic enough … that it would be a complete betrayal of the movie [to tie things together].” He appreciates that the film’s conclusion has a very definable impact on the scale of the story, from an intimate gathering of concerned individuals and one troubled little girl to a community full of Devil-worshipping Satanists. “I understand that people are maybe overwhelmed by the openness of the ending, but at the same time … I can’t think of a different ending to this movie. I think it completely does it justice and I think it does the characters justice.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Last Exorcism.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .

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‘The Last Exorcism’ Director Enjoys Viewers’ Debate Over Conclusion

‘The Last Exorcism’: The Reviews Are In!

Critics praise the film’s story and actors, but not everyone is impressed. By Eric Ditzian Ashley Bell in “The Last Exorcism” Photo: Lionsgate Not all of us on the MTV Movies team are horror fans. Some have admitted in public that knife-wielding maniacs and rivers of blood freak us out. What a delight, then, to find “The Last Exorcism.” Though, honestly, there is nothing delightful about this low-budget flick, which delivers plenty of tense jolts and sweaty-palmed anticipation, forcing us scaredy-cats to hide our eyes. It’s just that “Last Exorcism” is such a delightful surprise. The film is a character-driven drama tethered to everyday reality by its faux-documentary style. The disillusioned preacher, the frightened small-town teen — these are people to whom we can relate, for whom we can come to care. We’ll take this sort of horror flick any day over the torture porn of something like “Hostel” or the paint-by-numbers scares of so many ongoing franchises. Not everyone agrees. The film has received largely positive reviews, but many dissenters remain. Still, “Last Exorcism” is expected to compete with the crime thriller “Takers” for the #1 spot at this weekend’s box office. Here is what the critics are saying about “Last Exorcism”: The Story “[The film is a] portrait of preacher Cotton Marcus (smoothly played by Patrick Fabian). Having performed fake exorcisms since he was a child, the clean-cut family man, undergoing an apparent crisis of conscience, is planning to cop to the 25-year charade by letting a documentary crew in on all the tricks of his trade. But soon after they show up at the rural Louisiana home of a strict fundamentalist farmer (Louis Herthum), it becomes readily apparent that his tormented, wide-eyed teen daughter (an impressive Ashley Bell) is going to require much more than just sideshow sleight of hand.” — Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter The Performances “Both Fabian and Bell are outstanding. Yes, Marcus is kind of a creep, preying on the beliefs of others for his own gain. But Fabian makes him likable anyway, someone who’s willing to take us inside the game, even if it’s at his own expense. His character loves the camera, and it returns the feeling. Fabian makes him a show-off but not a boor. Bell is even better. How could a girl this sweet do the things for which she’s supposedly responsible? Is she really possessed? Is she disturbed? Sometimes a simple smile can more thoroughly creep you out than all the head-spinning and pea-soup puking in the world.” — Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic The Scares “The suspense is finely crafted. ‘The Last Exorcism’ doesn’t rely on cheap shock effects but locates scares in weird images — many of which cut deep because the camera is caught out of position, or isn’t in focus, or is far from the action. Director Daniel Stamm stimulates the imagination rather than shunt it aside: The horror genre is all about exercising restraint in the presence of the unrestrained.” — Kyle Smith, New York Post The Dissenters “The pieces are all there: Marcus’ desire to atone for decades of bamboozling, the utterly screwed-up Sweetzers, weighty questions about the costs of spiritual solace delivered cheaply or disingenuously. But despite mostly solid performances (particularly by Fabian, who quickly gets you rooting for the slick Marcus) and a satisfying, slow-building tension, things fly apart rather than come together. It’s like director Daniel Stamm and his crew realized they were treading awfully close to making a film with real depth and edge that horror audiences might hate, and they just couldn’t pull the trigger. This explains a final sequence that spectacularly squanders all the potentially stimulating material from the previous 86 minutes. There may once have been a good and a bad film fighting for the soul of ‘The Last Exorcism,’ but in its final moments, cinema’s dark forces triumph emphatically.” — Jesse Singal, The Boston Globe The Final Word “Possessed by suspense, talent, brains and a gothic sense of humor, ‘The Last Exorcism’ makes first-rate use of religious doubt and religious extremism to concoct a novel horror-thriller clever enough to seduce unbelievers while satisfying the bloodlust of its congregation/fanbase. While spasmodic handheld camerawork has become increasingly tiresome as a shock device-cum-convention, it’s deployed here with enormous restraint and skill by d.p. Zoltan Honti, and helmer Daniel Stamm knows when to trim the visual frills and stick to the demonic vs. the divine. Expect collection plates to fill up for the August 27 release, and to hear hosannas from Lionsgate.” — John Anderson, Variety Share your “Last Exorcism” reviews in the comments! Check out everything we’ve got on “The Last Exorcism.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .

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‘The Last Exorcism’: The Reviews Are In!