Variety is reporting that Lionsgate has picked up the U.S. distribution rights to The Last Exorcism, described as a "verite-style horror pic," produced by Strike Entertainment, StudioCanal and Roth.Directed by Daniel Stamm, Exorcism stars Patrick Fabian as "a troubled evangelical minister who allows his final exorcism to be filmed by a documentary crew." The screenplay is by Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland, who were originally slated to direct.Lionsgate's prexy of acquisitions and co-productions, Jason Constantine, remarked, "The Last Exorcism feels as close to a real exorcism as anyone would ever want to get -- audiences are going to find this movie scary as, well, hell." Release is scheduled for Aug. 27th.

I love that poster.

Rule of thumb: avoid any horror movie that has a famous director's name followed by "Presents".

Every rule has exceptions...

I'm surprised it doesn't say "Quentin Tarantino presents an Eli Roth presentation".

Great poster.

I'll bet the movie will be awful. Hope I'm wrong.

I'm actually relieved in this case. That means Eli Roth isn't directing...

Read an interview with Roth a few months back. Even though he's not directing, he seemed genuinely passionate about this. Looking forward to checking it out.

Seconded, on all counts.

I know they want to attach his name to draw in the casual crowd, but I hate when the marketing totally ignores the director in these cases.

I kind of felt that way for The Orphanage.

Yeah that crossed my mind too.

However, this film will be fortunate to mentioned in the same breath with Friedkin's masterpiece.

Andrew Gurland's name being attached is what intrigues me more than Eli Roth.

He used to be directing partners with Todd Phillips, went their separate ways, and directed two extremely underrated films seen by nobody: Cheats and Mail Order Wife.

For that, I'm down to see this.

"verite-style horror pic"....oh boy, that has all sorts of connotations - none of which are good.

It will be interesting to see just how different it is from all the other exorcism movies and if it is really good enough to scare the hell out of anyone. I remember the first Exorcist movie, everyone walked into the theater chatty, laughing, cheery, when the movie was over nobody was saying much of anything, they were just hurrying to their cars. -kd5-

The late August release date is not promising. That's when the studios release the dregs of whatever they've got left in the can. Movies not good enough for prime release dates earlier in the summer or the more prestige slots of the fall.

Diggin' that trailer.

I really wished they left the credits out of that trailer, I think it would play better if they went for the "real events" angle similar to Blair Witch / Paranormal Activity.

Based upon that trailer, I'm down.

Exorcisms scare the crap out of me, they're sometimes real imo. I refused to watch The Exorcist for more than 20 years, knowing that I'd probably piss my pants.

I didn't, and it's a great film, but the whole concept still scares me silly. I like to be scared, so I'm in, even though I've hated all of Roth's previous films.

Looks good. I'll check it out

Good trailer!

An exorcism PLUS "fake documentary" format? If Jennifer Carpenter doesn't show up, I'll be disappointed!