‘The Last Exorcism’ was a surprise hit back in 2010. Helmed from producer Eli Roth and gave the found footage genre and a moniker to hold itself up to. It saw fraudulent exorcist Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) seek possessed claimant and teased her until the demon, Abalam rose. Not content with just another exorcism move, the film turns face and sees a cult lure Nell (Ashley Bell) and her possession as they try to raise the demon through the child of Nell in a climax that mirrors some of horror’s shock moments seen in ‘The Wicker Man’ and ‘Kill List’.

 

 

Picking up from the dramatic climax that saw the death of Cotton and many others it seems there was only one survivor… Nell. Entering the suburban city scape of New Orleans in contrast to the village setting of its predecessor, Nell gets taken under the wing of a new family and picks herself up from her dark past.

 

 

New friends Gwen (Julia Garner) Daphne (Erica Michelle) and Mo (Sharice Williams) she turns away from her humble begins and works to believe that the events of the previous days were all a dream. Until signs of her possession slowly build and those around her begin to fall for Abalams tricks.

 

 

The problem is, Part 2 was never wanted or never needed. You can’t help but feel, leave this poor girl alone. Completely changing the style (no longer found footage), erasing the original cast (bar Bell and ghostly flashbacks to her father (Louis Herthum) and being a hell of a lot duller. Bell appears as if she just came along for the role, unsure whether she plays the demon or the innocent which she so perfected in Part 1. Her transformation (again) is more predictable and subtle in contrast. The innocence that she was somehow schizophrenic to her possession now removed as all knowledge of what happened seems normal all except one scene which sees her friends playing back the first film on YouTube. Why not go all out and say “check out this film, it’s so much better than our lives?”

 

 

The plot is both predictable and all scary moments are left at the gates of Hell, this adds nothing to the original but leaves it open for a part 3 that moves tone to possible a ‘Drive Angry’ level of cool. A moment that in any other case would be cheered at but within the midst of the dreary story feels somewhat out of place.

 

 

It’s hard to express disappointment in a film which when tease of its release were announced, welcomed the few thinking this would really be part 2 of an underrated classic. Instead we are left with a forgettable sequel and one that shouldn’t need to appear in any place other than the fires of a BBQ, to which our Nell has fired up plenty.