El exorcismo de mi mejor amiga

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.

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.

I really enjoyed this book, but this movie misses the mark. I think it would've been better as a miniseries. To recap, this is a story of childhood friendship. A Stephen King says no matter how many friends or family you have in your life, you will never have friends like that again. It's also a coming of age story, and what happens as you and your friends start getting older and branching out. It's a story of high school anxiety and 80s nostalgia (Frusen Glädjé!) . And, front and center, of course it's a story about strange things starting to happen and possible dark forces visiting your hometown. Good stuff for spooky season!

Unfortunately, I don't think the story translated well here. Grady Hendrix's books are usually pretty jam-packed, so I don't see how you could cram everything into 90 minutes. It definitely felt choppy. Key scenes and characters fell flat because they didn't have enough set up. Things happened that seemed pretty random unless you knew the backstory. It felt like they were moving really fast, more like paying homage to major scenes rather than building a story that could stand on its own.

The best parts of the book- the sinister, creeping horror story build, the BFF saga, the 80s nostalgia- don't come across, and the whole thing felt rushed. I had no emotional investment in any of these people. It's the first point that bothers me the most. Why watch a horror movie if it's not even going to be spooky or scary?

Anyway, imo you're left with an empty book recap if you know the story, and I don't even know what you'd get out of it if you didn't. Maybe just a time filler movie to watch during a flight or something to have on in the background.

I really like Elsie Fischer, and she and Amiah Miller turn in good performances for what they were given. Chris Lowell too. They at least keep it watchable (if you know the story, anyway). The other actors were barely given enough material to register. Production was ok. 3 stars for the acting and for putting out a spooky movie in October.

"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.

Overall: My Best Friend's Exorcism is lightweight and fun, with a few great moments, but it felt a little bland during some sections. It was worth watching, but it's pretty average.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I do because they got some stuff *so* right, but overall it felt pretty lackluster for most of the film. I think it's a solid 5.5/10 and if they had made some of it a little less generic it could have easily hit a 7 with the things they did right.

The good: They have a couple of awesome scenes/effects that got me. They've got some good jokes. They have a fun tertiary character, but unfortunately don't use him enough. The production quality is great, all the actors seemed ok, and the overall tone is quite fun.

The not-so good: They spend a lot of time slowly panning through bland scenes and not adding to the film. They don't have quite enough characterization outside of "these girls are quirky friends", "these girls are shallow bullies", and "these jocks are soooo mean". They didn't lean in enough with the side characters and some of the more interesting bits, and spent a lot of time on cookie-cutter stuff that wasn't memorable.