Cotton Marcus Is a Minister

Cotton Marcus is a minister who has faith, but his life experiences made it difficult for him to isolate it and to truly accept it. The fact that his son was born ill influenced him to abandon belief as a result of thinking that it would be absurd for God to want him to have an ill son, especially considering the hard work he has performed for the church. Marcus comes to perceive faith as a business and he simply believes that there would be nothing wrong with him preaching to his congregation.

Marcus eventually comes to acknowledge God and gains his faith back. The fact that he actually accepted faith as one of the most powerful forces in the universe enabled him to become a subject of God once more. I would put him in heaven, as even though he lied about faith his life experiences shaped who he was and one needs to accept that he was only human.

Nell is a troubled young girl who has trouble finding her personal identity and who is possessed by a demon at the same time. The film suggests that her father is responsible for impregnating her because it is meant to emphasize how people always try to choose the easy way out of a critical situation. Nell lies about who impregnated her because, once more, she knows that people are going to search for a logical answer to the problem rather than choosing faith as their guide.

4. The film displays the mutilated cattle and the dead cat as a means to focus on a series of cliches concerning films related to demons. Nell (the demon possessing her, actually) is responsible for killing the cows and the cat.

5. The fact that Nell's mother died of cancer influenced Louis to lose trust in doctors and in science as a whole. This is why he is generally reluctant to turn to doctors when considering his daughter's condition. He seems more confident that her daughter is actually possessed and simply accepts that technology is limited in dealing with particular concepts.

6. As a parable, The Last Exorcism should be understood as a means to influence people to stay strong in their faith regardless of what happens to them. It practically intends to prepare individuals for critical moments that they are likely to come across at particular moments in their lives. This is virtually a means to have people understand that faith is the most effective solution and that it is always going to be the only solution in the face of horrible events.