Hand held camera, check. Camera crew, check. Haunted house, check. Do you really need to know the plot of this film about a bunch of film-makers who come across a haunted house? If the answer is no, go away now. If the answer is yes, go and watch ‘Grave Encounters’. ‘Exorcism’ is all that is wrong with the horror genre that really does clutch at every sense of the word “horror”.

 

In between the frankly amateur performances, are annoying screens of dialogue that not only prolong the running time but are frankly so brain numbingly dumb that it’s the first time a worst character award can be dedicated to the editor.

 

From the most emotionless suicide caught on film to a laugh out loud head explosion that tries to mimic Scanners and ends up like a ketchup bottle that exploded over a hotdog. Yet beyond all of the chuckles lies something far more sinister… The argument of found footage.

 

After some successful retreading of the genre with ‘As Above, So Below’ and ‘Mockingbird, faith had resumed but ‘Exorcism’ proves once again that when a group of wannabe film-makers get their hands on a camera and a group of friends, the dollar signs light up and a mess like this comes out.

 

Every staple of the found footage genre is used, from the woods, to night vision and all topped with that amateur docu-drama feel that is tired and formulaic. When there is a budget for special effects, the genre shines but without any sense of originality these films fold into one and there are far too many messes like this giving horror a bad name.

 

While ‘Exorcism’ lacks scares, it makes up for it in laughs and is further evidence that a script and good editing are as important as an idea and a camera. Throwing in an additional 10 minutes of what can only be called a mess of ideas that feels like someone brainstormed some ideas and threw them all in the end. This only serves to evidence that ‘Exorcism’ was somebodies loose idea of a joke that its makers took far too seriously.

 

Some things are better left alone states the cover, this film being one of those them.