The Last Exorcism Part II 2013

Nate H. reviewed The Last Exorcism Part II (2013)

An Exorcise in Bad Moviemaking

If you were one of the many viewers of The Last Exorcism who was pleasantly surprised at it in terms of quality and scariness, consider me among your peers. Joining the ranks of movies like REC and Troll Hunter, The Last Exorcism was another example of the strengths of using the mockumentary/found footage style popular in horror today. These films dictate that less can be more when conveying scares. The Last Exorcism Part II, however, is an example of how building on those successes with a bigger budget and wider platform does not equal automatic quality. In fact, The Last Exorcism II is just terrible.

The story continues the tale of Nell, the subject of the doomed documentary of the first Last Exorcism. We last saw Nell held captive at some kind of satanic ritual before the film ended in grim fashion. In the follow up, time has fast forwarded some and Nell has not only somehow survived the events of The Last Exorcism, but she has escaped to the big city and been placed in a halfway house for troubled women. At first it seems like she may be able to move beyond her troubled past, until of course “creepy” events transpire that show things clearly aren’t getting better.

There really is nothing redeeming here at all. As the plot develops, viewers are treated to run of the mill scare tactics that were played out the last ten times they were copied in equally abysmal films. Any semblance of creativity that was present in the original Last Exorcism has been replaced with economy rate, cookie cutter filmmaking. The end result is so yawn and eye roll inducing that it could easily make my most disappointing sequel list of all time.