10 Movie Sequels Whose Titles No Longer Made Sense

5. The Last Exorcism Part II

It's a bold decision, but a strong marketing ploy, to preface your film's title with "The Last...". It gives a sense of being the definitive example of the genre, of both responding to all of the previous stories of its type and making the greatest version. Mostly, though, it gives a sense of finality. There have been Last Emperors, Boy Scouts, Action Heroes, Samurai, and Kings of Scotland, not to mention Last Waltzes, Picture Shows, and Seductions, but crucially none of those have had sequels. The definitive casting out of demons picture has, of course, already been made 40 years ago in the film that kick started the genre: The Exorcist. It's hard to have anywhere to go from there. The Last Exorcism's only real innovation is to add a Paranormal Activity style found footage element to the well worn plot of a man who has lost his faith and performs fake exorcisms having to deal with the real thing (he's bringing a camera crew along on his last exorcism to show the world it's all baloney). Throwing subtle ambiguity out the window, the final scenes of the movie are a confusing burst of cult sacrifice and violence that leave things pretty open ended about the survival of exorcist or exorcised. The, no longer found footage or ambiguous, sequel brings the possessed girl back and shows that their may be need for more exorcisms beyond the last one. Perhaps The Penultimate Exorcism might have been a better title for the first film. An even last-ier Last Exorcism Part III has been promised. Maybe we'll get to see if the original exorcist lived to exorcise again.