I totally viewed the ending that way. While I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, I meant as a whole (there really is a demon baby, the church is a cult, we're going to kill you when you come back to try and stop us). I can think of a million endings I'd like better than that tired cliche that I saw coming a mile away. I was rooting for the girl to be evil and for her to kill everyone herself when they came back to the house to find her in the end. But of the parts I did like about the ending, seeing him walk toward the fire with his cross held up was a GREAT image for me. It reminded me of the book of Daniel in the bible where the three Hebrew children are going to be thrown in the fiery furnace and they tell the King "Our god is able to save us, and he WILL save us, but even if he does not, we still won't worship you." Back when I heard that story in Sunday school as a kid they always left out the "even if he does not" part and just told us "they had faith, then God saved the day! Yay god is like a genie! Rub the lamp and poof! You're saved!" As I get older, I can appreciate a lot more the strength it takes to have faith even if you DON'T get saved from the fiery furnace, and that's the feeling I get seeing that guy walk bravely toward the fire. He's probably going to get burned up, but that's not the POINT, the point is he finally has the faith to really TRY. I definitely thought that was powerful.

As the purpose of the ending is, does God accept Cotton's return to faith? Or will God just decide it's just too late for Cotton to repent, letting him burn in the demon fire?

how they ended the "found footage" device. Running through woods, final kill. It was so typical it was just zzz for me--at that point I was just WAITING for it.

But I very much liked how they stopped to talk to the boy at the restaurant and go back--this movie kept me wondering constantly if it was a comment on faith or religion or plain ol incesty-hicks or an actual demon movie, or both, or all. And in the end...I'm still not sure. Even after the exorcist saw her break her fingers and bend over backwards...he still thinks she is just a disturbed girl right? Because of the "blowing job" comment?

If that's the case the only other really supernatural thing was the fire growing huge at the end I think. And maybe there is an explanation for that...so is this human evil or supernatural evil?

Also what I liked: and why I think he obviously has true faith at the end, is how they mention early on about how if you believe in god you have to believe in demons. Well, the exorcist, I think, finally really finds his faith again because of the reverse: He believes in demons, so now he must believe in god. And I agree the shot of him walking in with the cross is a very striking one.

I guess I forgot about that last minute or two. And I had a hard time with the details you point out about the girl. It seemed like they wanted to try and trick the audience a bit there, or maybe Cotton wanted so hard to believe it wasn't a real exorcism, he was blinded by his own perception of the truth. And good point about believing in demons means he must believe in god. I like how the deaths were foretold by the girl with the painting. And I beleive it was a real supernatural event (in the confines of the film), as that was one ugly baby/fetus!