Exeter (2015)

Great Film overall

A Major Disappointment

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I enjoyed the story, the performances and the gore. But...if the asylum closed in the 1970's, shouldn't Devon be much older, like, 25-30 years older? Major plot whole that's hard to overlook.

The Three Acts:The initial tableaux: We get a triple bite opening. First a drug user gets killed after shooting up. That was quite short Second, we get horrid archival footage of the Exeter asylum's failed history as a mental institution, where children were killed en masse. It is rumoured to be haunted by the spirits of those slaughtered. Third, in modern times, the Exeter asylum is being renovated by a church. A number of strongly degenerate teens decide to have a drugs/drinks/smokes party at the asylum. Horror clichés dictate a lot of deaths later in the film.Delineation of conflicts: The youths vandalise the place, urinating and vomiting on the walls, dumping trash everywhere, and breaking fixtures. So it's the youths against whatever spirits they rouse by their attempt at levitation. Can this motley crew of useless teens manage to placate that which possesses Rory?Resolution: Do all of the teens die horribly, or just most of them?

Director Marcus Nispel's previous incursions into horror cinema were two remakes of legendary films (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th), and Exeter is his first horror movie with "original" material... even though it doesn't have a pinch of originality. The screenplay of Exeter is built by parts borrowed from much better films, from The Evil Dead to The Exorcist. However, I have to admit that, despite not being a very good movie, I found Exeter moderately entertaining and occasionally funny... even though this last thing was accidental. The main problem of Exeter is the unlikable characters, whose arrogant attitudes and superficial development avoid their deaths from evoking the slightest emotion; I couldn't even empathize with the heroes by default. And the screenplay is full of huge holes and logical inconsistencies. For example, the characters have access to the Internet with their cellphones, and even an iPad tablet to consult the steps of an exorcism... but they can't use them in order to ask for help? And, of course, an evil force closed the doors and windows to avoid them from escaping; however, there are tools everywhere (the building they are in is getting renovated), and the doors and windows don't seem very resistant. Maybe, with some cooperation and effort... eh, nevermind; screenwriter Kirsten Elms obviously didn't expect the audience to make inconvenient questions. On the positive side of Exeter, the cinematography, production design and settings are attractive and appropriately "grunge". In conclusion, Exeter managed to keep me moderately entertained despite its mediocrity, and I can give it a slight recommendation because of that.

I'll keep this as short as need be. This is a truly awful attempt. When the young lad ( Rory ) is "possessed" they do all in their power to free him from the "demon", yet as soon as the girl ( who's name escapes me) gets possessed, they show her none of the same Mercy and can't wait to melt her head in with the first blunt and or heavy instrument which comes to hand. From there on, it's a free for all. Their compassion leaves them, their humanity, they just want to kill whoever this thing then possesses. the ending is equally as stupid. Yes, this is a lazy review of the movie but then, the makers were equally as lazy in making the movie. Don't bother with this.