My Best Friend's Exorcism

'My Best Friend's Exorcism' is a horror/comedy that isn't horrifying and isn't funny. In fact it never even really feels like it is trying to be either of those things. I can think of only a small handful of times where the film attempts to get a laugh, and it never comes off. And the horror side of things is more just nastiness than anything else.

I don't really know who this film is targeted at. It isn't fun enough to be for kids. But it is nowhere near dark enough to be aimed at adults. It seems to fall into an awkward middle ground.

The characters are incredibly bland. They aren't funny or clever or sexy or inspiring. No energy is spent building them into anything at all. Every one of them could basically be the same person.

Without spoiling anything, there is a decision made at the end of the movie to show something quite important. I can't stress how bad of a decision this was. What isn't seen is always infinitely more scary than what is seen. This did not look good and was a final nail in the coffin for this film.

The only redeeming factor I can find is that some good song choices were used. Otherwise though this was a misfire. 3/10.

I was hoping that the first film adaptation of a Grady Hendrix work would be awesome, in spite of the bad reviews. But this veers so wildly from the source material that it might as well have changed the title and inserted an "inspired by" credit.

The whole point of the novel was that it was Abby and Gretchen together against the world until all of this started. Giving them more outside connections dilutes that, and the filmmakers did nothing to help reestablish that connection while also adding new characters.

I'm disappointed. I hope that the failure of this won't prevent other Hendrix novels from being adapted; hopefully, by better hands.

I remember finishing the book in a day. It was an original, well-paced and fun read that I just could not put down until every page was turned. Sometimes that does not always translate to the screen, but I still found the film to be quite entertaining. The book had some pretty heavy, dark scenes and I was surprised that the movie did as well. I figured it would be presented more as a comedy than a horror film, playing more to mainstream viewers. However, there were some genuinely creepy aspects to the mostly dramatic script. It's such an original concept that it may be too unusual for those who haven't read the novel.

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.

"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.