Not The First But Hopefully Not The Last Exorcism

There’s no spoilers here I promise. Now…the “found footage” method of filming has begun its second life at the box office. The Last Exorcism marks another venture into this style of filmmaking, using probably the only genre it could thrive in, The Last Exorcism manages to establish that it has a lot going for it, but ultimately seems to give up on itself in the end.

Let me begin with what could be considered the pro’s for this movie. The exorcism plot is something that has been done, and done right. What sets this movie apart from its predecessors is the actually story that revolves around the act of the exorcism.

In this film, Reverend Cotton Marcus, who has been preaching since he was 10, begins to question his faith in his god, especially after reading an article about a botched exorcism that led to the death of an autistic child. Reminding Cotton of his own son, who is also autistic, leads Cotton to deciding he wants to prove that exorcisms, and in turn the church, are a sham. To do this, Cotton agrees to film an exorcism with a documentary crew in order to prove that exorcisms are fake. After choosing a random letter from his pile of what seems like exorcism requests, he takes off for the farm the people who wrote the letter live on.

The ultimate motivation for the character is the real difference in this movie. The movie constantly brings into question the validity of religion over science, which allows for the plot to not seem contrived or old.

However, while the movie has a strong opening act, it lacks follow through. The script, while good, was not always paced well. There were moments I found myself wondering if something interesting or scary was going to happen.

Scary was another thing the movie should not have marketed. The movie can best be described as tense. There were very few scares in fact, and they usually didn’t have any kind of buildup. This should have been a decided thriller, rather then considered a horror movie.

The pacing of the movie in general was also a bit slow. While all the scenes ultimately contribute to the story, the movie tries to explore other themes, which leave for large plot holes and ultimately cause the movie to slow down, as most of these plot holes aren’t resolved.

Probably the biggest complaint, and from what I’ve heard I’m not the only one, is the ending. It’s very “out-of-left-field” and that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Without giving anything away, I will just say the ending almost feels forced onto the audience. Like the writers couldn’t think of a coherent way to end the story so they pieced it together very quickly.

This movie really could have had something if it had tried to stay a little more self-contained and tried to use a better ending. However, in retrospect, I would definitely give the movie props for having a different approach to the story, and the acting was very good, considering the cast consists of mostly television actors. All in all worth a matinee price, maybe even dollar theatre.

My Opinion: 6.5/10

Piranha 3D…A Remake Cleverly Disguised As An Homage Film

Before I’m lambasted for having no credibility, I’ll start by saying I have seen thousands of movies, including most, if not all the films the homage is paid to in this movie. I realized after watching this movie that it is clearly not aimed towards the masses, as box office returns have proven, but this is none-the-less a movie that fans of 70’s and 80’s creature films, as well as a new mainstream niche audience.

Piranha is, as you guessed by the title, a remake of a 1978 movie by the same name. This film was made as a parody to capitalize on the success of the previous box office behemoth “Jaws”, which is ultimately the film the movie(s) pay its homage too. I have seen it, and in defense of it, I really enjoyed it. The film was followed 3 years later by a sequel Piranha 2: The Spawning. This movie, directed by a young and up-and-coming James Cameron(yes, the Avatar guy), was utter bullshit. Two words lend credence to this critique…flying piranhas…I shit you not. There was also a remake of the original as a made for TV movie in 1995. This remake, while good, was uninspired and therefore it gets no props.

In this new millennium, I usually hate remakes. There is always something the studio is doing to separate itself from the original that usually backfires. Piranha 3D, while not the greatest movie in the world, definitely does a great job of breaking away from this problem as well as assuring fans that remakes can be done properly for a few reasons. This movie has 4 great reasons as to why.

1. Richard Dreyfuss and Christopher Lloyd

We’ll start with Christopher Lloyd. He does appear in the movie, albeit briefly, channeling the unforgettable Doc Brown from Back To The Future into his performance. However, it is Richard Dreyfuss who makes more of an impact. His character, who both Dreyfuss and the producers of Piranha 3D have said on numerous occasions, is supposed to be Matt Hooper, his character from Jaws. The unexpected(although in a movie like this I guess it is to be expected) death of the character, which loosely shows how gory this movie will eventually become, can be considered a fitting, if not almost poetic ending to this characters 30 plus year life.

2. Cultural Relevance

In the original Piranha, the action also took place on a lake, although under different circumstances. In the original it is a group of kids at a lake based summer camp who are attacked, while now the action shifts to a Spring Break party on the lake, where there’s plenty of hot chicks and beer. The movie has no problems changing this setting, while applying what campy movies in the 2000’s all require in order to be released into theaters, copious amounts of nudity. The underwater ballet scene alone is worth the price of admission.

3. Gratuitous Amounts of Gore

The original Piranha had its share of blood. I’m a self admitted gore hound, and this movie definitely had me smiling ear to ear. This movie succeeds in recreating some of the originals most memorable kills(piranha’s eating the flesh and muscle off just the legs of an unlucky individual, leaving only exposed skeleton), as well as utilizing the wonders of new age special effects to create even more memorable kills, while in the process effectively setting itself apart from it’s predecessor.  I don’t want to spoil it, plus it would take too long to describe the most memorable kills.

4. Self Awareness

Look, this movie will not win any Oscars.

Ving Rhames Wins Oscar for Piranha 3D from Piranha 3D

However, the movie also knows not to take itself too seriously, and I believe this self-awareness really helped to make the film enjoyable. If it had tried to take itself too seriously, this would have been a major misfire. The plot is very campy, and obviously not the strongest in the world, yet it still manages to never let itself get to the point of being pretentious.

If you are a fan of remakes, you will be surprised that this is a very enjoyable movie. The homages are there, right down to the poster, the tone of the film fits it perfectly, a horror comedy, and overall it’s well shot. I’d recommend fans of monster movies and gory movies definitely see this, however be warned…This movie is in 3D. This to me is the only shortcoming. The 3D works somewhat, but at the same time it gave me a splitting headache and simply made me pay 3 extra dollars. I paid to get a headache. I’m an idiot.

My Opinion: 8/10