The Last Exorcism Part II
The sequel to the wildly popular found footage horror flick "The Last Exorcism" is an uninspired cash grab of the most useless variety.
"Part II" is a contrived mess rooted in cheap scares and a dedication to mediocrity. In the first film we find a disillusioned preacher who performs hoax exorcisms at an attempt to expose the ritual as being fraudulent. He eventually receives a call from Louis Sweetzer, a small-town farmer who claims his daughter Nell is possessed by a demon. Upon accepting Louis' request for an exorcism the preacher is soon brought into a situation that is well out of his hands. A satanic cult eventually kills anyone and everyone not involved with keeping Nell possessed by the demon named Abalam.
Nell returns in "Part II" having survived the cult incident and landing herself in a shelter for young women. Trying to forget her troubled past, Nell keeps herself busy with a menial housekeeping job and the attention of a boy. Abalam soon starts presenting himself in a series of ways including in the form of her deceased father. In an attempt to escape re-possession Nell seeks the help of "The Order of the Right Hand", a voodoo practicing group who helps exorcise Abalam once and for all. If the group were to fail at warding off the demon, mankind would face an apocalyptic cleansing.
What fails to translate in the sequel is the authenticity that made the first one so unique. By dropping the found footage style, "Part II" is relegated to being just like every other unoriginal horror movie coming out right now. Given the momentum and popularity generated by the original movie, it is a shame to see this movie dead in the water. To say that this was a wholly unnecessary sequel would be a gross understatement. Reverend Cotton Marcus, the best and most identifiable character from the first movie was killed off, giving any attempt at a sequel a futile effort to begin with.
Given my reservations, I still went into "The Last Exorcism Part II" with an open mind. Unfortunately, that positive attitude was in vain given the collective uselessness of the whole affair. I suppose Ashley Bell (Nell) has a promising career in B-movies having now pigeonholed herself as "that girl from that exorcism movie". Her performance is admirable in both movies, but a hollow plot and ill-conceived ending has killed not only this series but quite possibly a few brain cells as well. Hopefully for the sake of horror fanboys everywhere (myself included), this is the final death nail to the contorted freaky girl subgenre.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OAYsIz2FrM]