My Best Friend's Exorcism

A great premise and a good book. Could have been Booksmart meets The Exorcist. But Elsie Fisher is awful as Abigail which torpedos most of the film's promise and none of the cast are helped by a very lazy and poorly crafted script. The whole films feel very rushed, there's no connection to the main characters as most of the back story and bonding has been ditched I'm favour of getting to the horror elements faster. Which leads to the final strike against this film, in that it's about as scary as an episode of Scooby Doo. Constantly shifting in time between young teen/family friendly and adult. It just never really knows what it's doing. Amiah Miller does however deliver a good performance despite the bad material and myopic direction she's been given.

I thought this was okay but nothing memorable. I loved the book which was fun and retro but also genuinely creepy. The film didn't capture the essence of the book for me, or if it did it was a watered down version that was lacklustre. Everything these days seems to be trying to be a Stranger Things, or at least that's how it feels. This film just didn't feel that fresh and also wasn't remotely scary which was missing the point. Also, who was the target market as it felt YA? The book was about teens but definitely an adult read. I think it could have been so much more, like why not be a full on campy horror like Drag Me To Hell or just something that would be a fun ride. Not just another retro teen story.

This film probably has the weakest exorcism scene I've ever seen - it's the scary equivalent of an episode of Scooby Doo. A few fun bits involving Chris Lowell aside, Damon Thomas' directorial effort lacks the necessary humor and the scares. The dialogues are also not a clear reflection of the late '80s (methinks?). Elsie Fisher is a good performer, however, I felt she struggled a bit in essaying her role here. I hear this is based on a book, where I'm sure there were enough pages to flesh out the bond between the two leads, but it certainly feels rushed in the film. Amiah Miller is the only performer here who warrants a second look, and she's surely on her way to landing some splendid roles in the near future. Well, at least, the makers chose under-20-year-olds to portray high-schoolers.

"My Best Friend's Exorcism" is a light horror-comedy film, based on the novel of the same name, but when it is adapted to a screenplay, it does not achieve the expected charm. The film starts well by showing us conventional teenagers with their typical age problems but in the course of its duration everything becomes ridiculous, the comic dialogues go from funny to repetitive and unfunny, the horror elements also have a good start until they disappear. The actors do their job, the costume and hair design are good, they transport you to the eighties, but the digital effects are terrible as if they came from a cheap television movie of the '00s. The end result is a film that catches and then turns stupid with the occasional salvageable scene.

Its a take on my generations typical scare genre, a case of excorsism, devilworship and girls coming of age flirting with the ouija board, at a pyjamaparty when caretakers takes a late night bartrip, and leaves the teen alone at home.

Its also a sting of irony on the issues of sexuality, elaborating anorexia, in a more or less sugarfree story, with not much above average acting from well known female cast, and as innocent pupils of a catholic high school they swear unreasonably far too much.

The dressing code and script is without doubt written and sewn together by people that hasnt lived through the 80's, the best hit must be the dedicated musical score and a few moments of real fright but not enough for a grumpy old man like me. It might as well stay outta the silverscreen theaters because it lacks the heart and mind of the 80's.