FILMED in the faux documentary style popularised by The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism follows a fourth generation evangelical preacher as he attempts to expose exorcism as pure bunkum.

With a camera crew conveniently behind him to capture every bump in the night, the man of God instead comes face to face with pure evil and perhaps the one bona fide case of demonic possession in his career.

Director Daniel Stamm attempts to create the illusion of reality by allowing the cast to improvise around a loose narrative framework and many of the actors play characters with the same Christian names.

However, Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland’s underlying script in-creasingly strains credibility and the camera has a knack of pointing in the right direction to capture vital parts of the narrative, when there should be some events which bypass the lens entirely.

If Stamm’s film is anchored to reality, it cuts itself free for the overblown resolution, which attempts to give credence to the disturbing images in Nell’s drawings.

Crucially, if this was a real documentary made on the Sweetzer estate then the final frames logically suggest the footage would never see the light of a brand new day.