[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Last_Exorcism_Poster_7315.jpg]]

''The Last Exorcism'' is a 2010 American mockumentary horror film directed and edited by Daniel Stamm. It stars Creator/PatrickFabian, Creator/IrisBahr, Creator/AshleyBell, and Creator/LouisHerthum.

The film is told from the perspective of a disillusioned evangelical minister, who after years of performing exorcisms decides to participate in a documentary chronicling his last exorcism while exposing the fraud of his ministry. After receiving a letter from a farmer asking for help in driving out the devil, he meets the farmer's afflicted daughter.

A sequel titled ''The Last Exorcism Part II'' was released in 2013 focusing on Nell, who survived the events of the last film but with little memory of what occurred, as the evil force that once possessed her comes back with a more sinister intention.
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!!Provides examples of:
* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: Cotton tries to prove that exorcisms and demon possessions are this.
* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler: Poor, poor Nell.]]
* CameraAbuse: Prime example: The possessed girl uses the camera to beat a cat to death while she's recording it.
* CrisisOfFaith: Cotton lost his belief in God when his son nearly died in childbirth.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: [[spoiler: Louis, who had been portrayed as a crazy and superstitious person throughout the movie, turns out to be right about the whole thing being supernatural]].
* DeconReconSwitch: The film starts out as a deconstruction of DemonicPossession movies. Cotton is a charlatan who lost his faith in God long ago, and the various cases of possession that he tackles are portrayed as [[PlaceboEffect psychosomatic]], signs of mental illness as expressed by people brought up to believe that demons are real. The thing is, the exorcisms are ''also'' psychosomatic, and Cotton's work is shown to genuinely help those who believe that they're possessed by making them believe that the demons have been driven out of them, which is the reason why he kept doing it for so long. [[spoiler:And when it turns out that, in this case, the demon is RealAfterAll, this knowledge restores Cotton's faith in God just in time for [[BolivianArmyEnding the final confrontation]].]]
* DeepSouth: Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
* DemonicPossession: [[SarcasmMode Surely, a movie about exorcisms would have ''nothing'' to do with the subject!]]
* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: Pastor Manley and Caleb]].
* FriendToAllChildren: Cotton explains that one of reasons why he's helping Daniel and Iris debunk exorcisms is because he once read an article of an autistic child being suffocated to death during an exorcism; as such, he wants to ensure that people who are actually struggling with mental issues don't end up dead like the boy.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:Nell's drawings.]]
** And the interview of locals [[spoiler:telling of a Satanic cult]].
** Caleb is cold and hostile to Cotton when he believes he's a real exorcist, but switches his tune when he figures out that he's a fraud, having no issue with him staying. Seems like a bizarre switch in attitude, especially when his own sister is supposed to be possessed, even if you assume that he just thinks she's sick. [[spoiler: Then it turns out he's in league with the cult. If Cotton was in fact a real exorcist, he could've been a threat to his, and their, plans.]]
* GoryDiscretionShot: In the sequel, when [[spoiler:Chris slits his throat.]]
* HeelFaithTurn: [[spoiler: Throughout the entire movie Cotton is trying to debunk exorcism, but in the end, when he sees the demon, he regains his faith and confronts it. Could also serve as a last-minute BadassPreacher, as he confronts a demon with only a crucifix.]]
* HollywoodAtheist: The Rev. Cotton Marcus, who lost his faith after his child's brush with death and after hearing reports of an exorcism gone fatally wrong.
* HollywoodSatanism
* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler: But it's not who you think...]]
* JitterCam: Not so bad as most.
* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler:How Nell gets rid of the girls at the boarding house.]]
* TheLastTitle: The title.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: How the movie starts. [[spoiler:And then it turns out to be magic.]]
%%* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: As it turns out in the end.]]
* NightmareFuelColoringBook
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Cotton Marcus seems to be partially inspired on Marjoe Gortner, a former Pentecostal child preacher who later released [[Film/{{Marjoe}} a documentary]] exposing how he was groomed by his parents and explaining all of the tricks used by evangelists to manipulate the public via allowing the filmmakers to follow him on [[OneLastJob one last tour]].
* OffWithHisHead: The fate of [[spoiler: the cameraman]].
* PrecisionFStrike: In the sequel, Nell tells a tourist to fuck off after he keeps pestering her for a picture.
* RealAfterAll: Basically the driving idea behind the whole movie: religion, Satan, demons, the cult, the opening into hell... all real.
* RedHerring: The ramblings of a local early in the film, combined with the mutilated cows shortly thereafter, subtly suggest that aliens might be at work. Whether or not that would've been scarier is open for debate, of course.
* RefugeInAudacity: Cotton brags that he's so good at working the crowd that he can get an ecstatic amen for a banana bread recipe, and then demonstrates just that.
* ReligiousHorror
* ReligionOfEvil: [[spoiler: Revealed in the last few moments of the movie to be the culprit.]]
* TheSavageSouth: Religious fanaticism, Satanic cults, demons, and other creepy shit, way on down the bayou in Louisiana.
* ScreamerPrank: To advertise the movie, there was a short 30-second video made for this intent to be put on online chat websites like Omegle. The video depicted a young girl teasing the other person chatting by unbuttoning the top of her blouse and smiling seductively, and then she puts her head down for a moment. When she puts her head back up, her eyes roll into the back of her head, her mouth opens (revealing sharp fangs) and she screams as she lunges at the camera - and again right after the screen cuts to black.
* SpottingTheThread: How Cotton realizes Nell isn't genuinely possessed. A real demon would never use the phrase "blowing job" as a term for oral sex; a naive, home-schooled 16-year old, however, would.[[spoiler: Of course, it turns out that was a deliberate mislead by the demon.]]
* SupernaturalProofFather: Subverted with Louis, who believes his daughter to be genuinely possessed. [[spoiler:[[HumanoidAbomination He's right.]]]]
* UncertainDoom: We never see what exactly happens to [[spoiler: Cotton after he confronts the demon. While Nell's prophetic drawings seem to indicate he died in the flames as he confronted the demon, it's never made clear if he managed to take it down with him.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The only other returning character to the sequel is Louis. There is no mention of Caleb or [[spoiler:the Satanic cult]] whatsoever.
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