The Last Exorcism Part 2 Review
Being a big fan of the original Last Exorcism, I was eager to see if this sequel lived up to the original. I came out of the cinema disappointed, frustrated and angry, this is perhaps one of the worst horror films ever made.
Firstly, I want to stress that I am a massive fan of horror films, and so what may seem bad in my eyes may be different for a general audience. This film managed to genuinely shock me at its sheer lack of horror. It seems that the director chose to disregard everything that made the original above average; the claustrophobic filming style, the use of shadows and light and the focus on disturbing the audience. What has been created instead is merely a thriller dressed up as a horror film. The first 30 minutes of the film showed some promise, it would have been easy to forgive the director for disposing of the found footage style if the film managed to still carry itself off well and ultimately be scary. The first segment is a character study, a psychology based look at the main character Nell, which was interesting and used the previous film as a backstory. About 30 minutes in the film begins to take a turn for the worst, ditching any attempt to be fresh or original in favour of cheap jump scares that barely work and 'body horror' in the form of twitching and contorting, all of which have been done better in other films. The plot nosedives into a ludicrous mumbo jumbo, straying into laughable territory and dampening any sense of tension or unease created during the first half of the film. By the time birds are flying into windows and cars are being set on fire using special effects that look like 2-D sprites from pong, the film is beyond saving.
Technically, the film is below average, the departure from the found footage style of the original prevented the sequel from creating decent scares, instead relying on cliche jump scares. The special effects as mentioned before were laughable, with the budget seemingly unable to pay for the effects that the director intended on being effective. Instead we are treated to a series of cheap visuals that look like something out of a retro video game. There is however one saving grace in the film, that being excellent Ashley Bell who plays Nell. Her performance again proves that she is a very talented actress, as she manages to carry the film on her own two shoulders. Bell is probably the best possessed girl in any horror film I have seen, using her facial expressions and body to her advantage and disregarding the use of special effects that are needed in most other exorcism films.
Aside from Bell's performance, there isn't much to like about The Last Exorcism Part 2. The narrative is painfully bad, boiling down to nothing more than a run of the mill plot. Its a shame as the initial 30 minutes of character study showed promise in providing something more than just a cliche plot. The scares are non existent, relying on a series of ineffective jump scares and 'seen it all before' body horror instead of attempting to create an atmospheric level of horror. If you're in the mood to watch a horror film, I strongly suggest skipping over this one and watching the original instead. If you are interested to see what happens plot-wise after the original, read it on IMDB, it'll be much less painful than watching this.
3/10
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