Ok, so it wasn’t “The Last Exorcism” after all. Here’s “Part II: The Second Coming,” an 88 bore without the nervy, shaky-camera found-footage conceit, without the doubting exorcist’s moment of truth, without the chills of demonic possession thrills that the low-budget original film served up.
“Part II” is every bit as cheap and far more generic, nothing more than a run of the mill ghost story masquerading as The Devil Made Her Do It.
Ashley Bell, as Nell, the teen lusted after by Lucifer, seems exhausted, frazzled, out of her acting league and nowhere near her teen years in this sequel. Nell has stumbled into New Orleans, hounded during Mardi Gras even as she tries to convince doctors and those in a mental health halfway house that “I’m not crazy.”
But she’s seeing her dead daddy (Louis Herthum). she’s hearing voices.
“He’s coming for you, Nell.”
Dogs bark at her passing, gorillas in the zoo act up. And ever Mardi Gras reveler in a scary mask stares her down. Frank (Muse Watson), who runs Deveroux Halfway House, could not be more wrong when he assures her, “Whatever you’re running from won’t find you here.”
“Last Exorcism II” is a slower than slow thriller built around Bell, who isn’t at her most subtle or empathetic here. There’s fear and the burden of “If he seduces you, all hope is lost.” Not that Bell as Nell gets that across. There’s no urgency to the performance, or that of anybody else trying to save poor Nell from Hell.
It’s a film of cheap shriek scares and fizzing frights that pack no punch. The usual tropes of these movies show up — exorcists who have the tools, but face personal demons, bleeding walls, birds that fly into a house where Nell hides out (Hey, it was ALIENS who caused that in “Dark Skies”).
The effects are skimpy and cheesy, with that crazy contortion business that “Last Exorcist” took to new extremes rarely used.
Filmmaker Ed Gass-Donnelly sets too much of the action in broad daylight, which isn’t spooky. The dull acting doesn’t hide that there’s not enough story to justify setting this in Voodooville, USA — New Orleans.
So one can only hope that when the say “Last Exorcism” this time, that they mean it.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for horror violence, terror and brief language
Cast: Ashley Bell, Julia Garner, Louis Herthum
Credits: Directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly, written by Damien Chazelle and Ed Gass-Donnelly. A CBS Films release.
Running time: 1:28