American Exorcism

source: American Exorcism

Initially, I was lured in by the DVD cover for "American Exorcism". It seemed rather interesting and I thought that maybe, just maybe, this could actually be a horror movie with some potential. Alas, that was not to be the case. I managed to endure 22 minutes of the ordeal that bears the title "American Exorcism" before tossing in the towel and giving up out of utter and complete boredom. The storyline in this movie was the most shallow and pointless of storylines that I have yet to come across in all of 2017. The characters were one-dimensional and equally pointless, and they did nothing for the story. And it was characters that you don't invest anything in, so you don't care about what happens to them. The effects in the movie, at least from the 22 minutes I watched, were adequate. I am not going to return to finish this movie at any point, that much is for certain.

This is an American exorcism as opposed to those un-American exorcisms performed by whiny liberals. Damon (Michael Filipowich) is a semi-possessed veteran of Afghanistan. He is about as decent as a husband and father as a man with a Mohawk and tattoo on his skull. His wife Janelle (Jessica Morris) brings out the demon in him, true in many relationships. When Damon is not at home he is with his buddy Padre (William McKinney) beating the devil out of someone...and then having tea. Then an incident happens at 28 minutes then we jump 10 years into the future with Damon having hair and surfing, still semi-possessed (seems some old man in Afghanistan only knew part of the exorcism spell...I'm not making this up.) Now Caroline, (Kate Tumanova) Damon's daughter is about to turn 18...almost as much fun as when the Olsen twins turned 18. Demons can only fully possess a teen when they turn 18, which they didn't even attempt to explain. Damon to the rescue. The feature had a few good scenes and some good tunes. There were a lot of "so bad it is good" scenes which caused a laugh and a few scenes which were just plain bad. Damon speaks in tongues very poorly. It sounds like the words I use when I pretend like I know karate. He made me laugh when I wasn't supposed to laugh. The special effects are glowing eyes and mouth. The acting and dialogue were pretty sad. There were times it appeared they were using swear words for the sake of using swear words. They didn't seem comfortable using the female C-word about the third or fourth time. Deputy Doug? Seriously? Guide: F-word. Sex. Nudity.

Hoping to put his past behind him, a man trying to get away from the world of the supernatural learns that his previous skills involving possession and exorcisms are put to the test when his daughter is possessed and he must save her before the demonic entity fully controls her. Overall, this here wasn't all that impressive of an effort. One of the better qualities of this one is the fact that there's a rather intriguing and enjoyable manner of getting the possession to the forefront. This one posits the idea of a person only being able to be fully susceptible to demonic possession only when they reach a certain age, and that is a somewhat enjoyable idea to add to the canon of these types of films which is nicely played out here. The concept of doing their services at the exact same point as the bonfire sequence is really enjoyable for the tactics displayed meshes nicely with the rituals used to start the official exorcism. That dual-pronged nature is employed well here as the early scenes of them together with the group together partying and moving on into the rather striking attacks in the woods against the different victims as the methods to stalk each one is quite creepy. The finale does come off rather nicely with the strong action of the actual exorcism taking place with all the figures coming together alongside the brawling taking place outside which is a really fun finish. While these here hold this one up, there are a few major problems that hold this back. The main problem with this one lies in the utterly incoherent and nonsensical storyline at the heart of this story. The need for a demon to wait until a victim has waited to be a specific age in order to fully possesses a person might be original but yet gives the film an unwittingly campy tone by never being given a reason for that special age to mean anything. This isn't helped at all by the serious tone it tries to utilize in order to convince this storyline makes sense here even though the major selling point and it just gives this a completely jarring tone than what's expected here. Likewise, the time-jumps make no sense as the first half-hour is completely unrelated to what comes in the later hour being before the necessary change which is what makes the film feel quite disjointed and off-kilter pacing that really drags this one down. The other big issue here is that this one can't seem to make up its mind what kind of demon is actually possessing everyone. The idea of the father also being possessed by something that occurred years earlier and is still affecting him much the same as what's possessing his daughter really makes for a confusing narrative about what's going on and tends to make this all the more unsure about what's going on. The laughable attempts to undergo the possession, from the ludicrous chanting and clacking noises to the utterly inane look of the priest that doesn't make him look in the slightest bit professional really makes it look cheaper than it really is, much like the atrocious CGI that is used for the demonic presences. These here are the film's main issues. Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity, a sex scene and heavy underage drinking.

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American Exorcism