What starts as a clever update of the demonic possession narrative ends up as a pseudo-doc hack job that’s more Blair Witch than Linda Blair. Having built a career performing fraudulent exorcisms that hinge on cheap magic tricks and the irrational faith of his customers, a guilty Louisiana pastor (Patrick Fabian) invites a film crew to witness one last scam. But 16-year-old Nell (Ashley Bell) turns out to be either genuinely possessed or the victim of an equally gruesome earthly trauma. The sense of dread escalates along with Nell’s violent outbursts, until a last-second plot twist emerges out of nowhere—a satan ex machina that completely cheats the audience—to puncture the creepy atmosphere and leave the film to collapse in a heap of incoherent shaky-cam stupidity.
This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2010.