5/10
Contrary to initial impressions, this is not a documentary, but more of a Blair Witch attempt to make us feel we're watching something real by having a camera crew follows an enthusiastic and charismatic young preacher as he sets out on a quest to perform an exorcism. Except that he doesn't actually believe in real demons; rather he feels that he's performing a kind of spiritual social service for the credulous by pretending to drive out the evil spirits that they think have possessed them.
As I say, it's not a documentary, but the initial set up is well done. There are no credits, and the actors are all unknown faces, so we're willing to play along with the idea that this is all real. The priest and the film crew (a man and a woman) arrive at a remote Louisiana farm where a widowed father has two teenage children, one of whom tells them to go back where they came from, while the other (a girl who is supposedly possessed) is almost unnaturally sweet and innocent. Which is how we know she must be harbouring all manner of demons.
As long as the film is content to observe and allow us to feel uneasy, without attempting to explain or to shock us, it does just fine. But once the music starts, and the gore factor gets upped, and the plot starts to get more complex, the naturalism gives way to what begins to look like a plain and simple horror film, by someone who watched The Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby too often. And the last few minutes are just plain barking. I sympathise with the film makers. It's a challenge to make a horror film without any visible horror, and I can imagine the gorehounds getting restless after about 50 minutes of this, waiting for heads to start rotating. In the end, though, the film pleases them, and disappoints the rest of us.
