THE LAST EXORCISM (15) Documentary-style horror is never remotely scary

The Last Exorcism arrives looking very much like the first horror to try to cash in on the success of last year’s Paranormal Activity, by aping its faux documentary style to present its dramatised events as real.

The subject of the documentary is Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a Louisiana preacher who comes from a long line of exorcists. But following a crisis of faith, Marcus gives up performing them and instead sets out to expose charlatans by supposedly filming this documentary of him performing fake exorcisms.

This takes him to a remote rural community where a widowed farmer believes his 16- year-old daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed by a demon. Marcus and a film crew go to their home where he performs his “exorcism” by setting up speakers emitting demonic noises and strings to shake the bed.

But when the girl shows up at their hotel seemingly still possessed, and with the father ready to kill her to save her soul, what’s really behind these unexplained events?

A lot of skill is required to deliver performances that look as though they’re real, and the documentary style is highly convincing in the early stages. A bold, deliberately paced set-up is also reminiscent of Paranormal Activity, but where that was full of suggestion, this is quicker to show its horrors, mainly involving Nell contorting her body in grotesque ways.

There’s some interesting ground being covered in its focus on debunking and scepticism and preying on the vulnerable, while also harkening after Rosemary’s Baby, REC and The Blair Witch Project.

But after a promising start, The Last Exorcism falls apart in spectacular style. A large part of the problem lies with it trying to have its cake and eat it in the way it tells the story.

The fact that it’s clearly a dramatised movie is betrayed by the ominous score that flares up whenever something unsettling is supposed to be happening.

Worse than that though is the way it portrays events with a shaky hand-held camera when it suits, but at other times the lens is all-seeing, leading to camera movements and edits that simply wouldn’t be possible if this were really a documentary. It’s a sloppy way to let something promising slide into incompetence.

Then there’s the fact that the slow build ultimately leads nowhere except a ridiculous climax.

The first recourse in most films such as this is to loud noises and moving furniture but a novel approach is taken here in that it never really kicks off at all, meaning it’s dull when it’s not being farcical, and apart from a couple of jump scares, never remotely scary.

Director: Daniel Stamm

Running time: 87 mins

DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS (12A) A waste of two top leading men

In order to impress his loathsome boss, financial analyst Tim (Paul Rudd) is challenged to find the biggest idiot he can, and bring him to a dinner party.

He finds him in Barry (Steve Carell), who likes to spend his time dressing up stuffed mice and doesn’t appear capable of functioning in the real world.

With its high concept in place, this desperate comedy then proceeds to ignore the dinner bit by spending most of the running time having Barry jeopardise Tim’s relationship with his girlfriend.

By the time we actually get to the dinner there are finally a couple of laughs to be had, but only after scene upon scene that suffocate in a comedy vacuum of ridiculous situations and detestable characters.

It’s another of those movies where 100 minutes of despicable behaviour is swept away by five minutes of moralising at the end. Just as bad is the total waste of two top drawer leading men, with Rudd as the straight man reduced mainly to reaction shots while Carell channels his inner Jim Carrey to mug as manically and gratingly as possible.

If you want to see him play an idiot to infinitely greater comic effect, take another look at Anchorman instead.

Director: Jay Roach

Running time: 114 mins

WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO? (12A) Shrill and hysterical

Writer, director and actor Tyler Perry has found enormous success in the States, but this is the first time one of his films has been released in UK cinemas.

A sequel to 2007’s Why Did I Get Married?, it’s a relationship drama with Perry himself playing a husband in one of four couples who go on holiday together to the Bahamas where buried problems are dug up.

Though it aims for a laid-back natural vibe and starts out good- natured, it turns increasingly shrill and hysterical. It leaps uncontrollably between broad (though never funny) comedy and overpowering drama, through horribly uninteresting domestic situations and functional dialogue that’s frequently no better than you’d overhear in the street.

Director: Tyler Perry

Running time: 121 mins

JONAH HEX (15) Fantasy western is too short

The first warning sign that all is not well with this fantasy western is the running time which, taking the closing credits out of the equation is barely 70 minutes, with reports suggesting at least half an hour of it has been left on the cutting room floor.

It’s yet another comic book adaptation, with Josh Brolin taking the title role as a back-from-the-dead bounty hunter tracking down the man who killed his family (John Malkovich) and who now plans to set off a massive bomb in Washington.

It’s visually impressive if ear-splitting, with a pounding rock score and frequent bruising action, and Brolin growls and scowls like a good ’un throughout.

But though it’s generally coherent, its brevity means it goes straight from the set-up to the climax with almost nothing in between.

Director: Jimmy Hayward

Running time: 81 mins

CERTIFIED COPY (12A) Struggles to retain the interest

An English author (William Shimell) doing a book tour in Italy meets Juliette Binoche’s antique dealer and they go for a drive in the Tuscan countryside.

An unconventional narrative does away with the usual three-act structure to focus instead on long discussions about life and the value and meaning of art. It’s more philosophising than storytelling, as they stop for coffee and talk, talk, talk, roping in random punters for their input.

It may be full of ideas and erudite conversations, and though it deepens as it progresses to reveal more about their relationship, it struggles to retain the interest and there’s little here we couldn’t get from Newsnight Review.

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

Running time: 106 mins