Power Of Cinema Compels 'Last Exorcism' Star Fabian

Patrick Fabian is a man possessed -- but in a good way.

A successful actor featured in dozens of starring and guest roles on television since the early 1990s, Fabian is clearly having fun in his life and loves his job more than ever -- even if it means going down one seriously scary path playing his latest character. Fabian, whose recent credits include the acclaimed HBO drama "Big Love," stars as the Rev. Cotton Marcus in the horror thriller "The Last Exorcism," opening in theaters Friday.

In an @ The Movies interview Thursday, Fabian was giddy with excitement as he awaited the opening of the film – the haunting TV spots and trailers have already scared the wits out of prospective viewers.

The big payoff came Tuesday, though, when Fabian attended the premiere of the movie at the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood.

"I'm not trying to do an 'ah-shucks' story, but I'm a s---kicker from central Pennsylvania who used to watch movies growing up in my parents' paneled basement," Fabian said. "So, through a lot of good fortune and hard work I've been able to cobble a career together extensively, which have been great, but I never really dreamed of being a lead of a movie. You dream of it, of course, but you realize that this is a very hard and tough business, and it doesn't always shake out."

But when it does, with a wide film opening like "The Last Exorcism," it's not necessarily about being the guy whose name is being splashed about all of the Hollywood trades.

"The best thing about it is I got to be in my hometown paper. My parents were so thrilled," Fabian said with a laugh. "That is worth everything."

In "The Last Exorcism," we find Cotton -- a troubled evangelical minister having a crisis of faith and guilt over propagating shams -- as he agrees to let a documentary crew follow him to film what he promises will be the last exorcism he will ever perform. Cotton is no stranger to performing exorcisms, but up to this point, the preacher man has been really no more than a huckster, taking advantage of people who think they are possessed when they're really not.

But that all changes when Cotton and his film crew arrive at the Sweetzer farm in Louisiana to find there really is something terribly wrong with the farmer's teenage daughter, Nell (Ashley Bell). Despite all those years at the pulpit, Cotton, for the lack of better words, doesn't know what the hell to do.

While Fabian calls the film's shocking spots and trailers "great chum to get people into the water to get them scared," he was careful to point out that "The Last Exorcism" is not at all about cheap thrills.

"I like to call the movie 'a smart thriller.' It's not 'hack-and-slash,' it's not about body count and it's not a 'drenched-in-blood' thing," Fabian said. "It's good, old-fashioned horror-moviemaking with lights and shadows. It's what you don't see that gets to you. It's an anxiety film. It's an infinitely more intense ride than watching somebody getting an arrow in the eye."

That's not to say Fabian hasn't kept an eye on those sorts of movies himself.

"I saw all those films and I love them for a bunch of different reasons," Fabian said. "But the reason 'The Last Exorcism' is PG-13 is because it's not drenched in blood. What it's drenched in is suspense and it ratchets thing up. It gets creepy and it has a 'tethered to reality' thing going for it. It has people going in the primal part of their brain -- that reptilian brain -- 'This could happen to me.'"

With the E-word in the title, there's no question that the horror film classic "The Exorcist" has come up in practically every conversation Fabian has had about "The Last Exorcism." But, come on -- it's a talking point impossible to ignore. You can't call yourself a horror movie fan if you haven't seen the benchmark film.

Fabian, 45, said he was about 15 the first time he saw "The Exorcist," a little bit more mentally prepared to handle it than "The Last Exorcism" producer Eli Roth, who says he caught the 1973 classic at age 6.

"I first saw it at a sleepover, where the older brother of friend had a copy. It's one of those films that you've been told about over and over, and you're like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can handle it.' But then after you see it you're like, 'Oh, s--- and you really are frightened," Fabian said. "I had nightmares and I'll never forget the priest saying, 'The power of Christ compels you!' and they must say it about 16 or 32 times in a row. It seems like they say it forever. It was maddening, crazy and to-the-bone scary because it seems real."

Ultimately, "The Exorcist" is a blessing and a curse for Fabian's film: a blessing because the subject matter reminds viewers of what is arguably the scariest movie of all time; and a curse because viewers will inevitably compare any movie about exorcism to it.

"Having that movie is like having 800 pound gorilla around," Fabian said. "But our director, Daniel Stamm, told us that there are a bunch of exorcism movies around, and we just need to throw them all away. He said, 'That is not the movie we're making. We are not looking over our shoulders at all.'"

"If there's any comparisons that I will draw at all between 'The Exorcist' and our film is that it has the same element of realism," Fabian observed. "The 'This could happen' feeling exists in both."

The biggest difference between "The Exorcist" and "The Last Exorcism" is the way it's presented in that the latter is a pseudo-documentary. Eliminating the third-person wall between the audience and the story is the key to the film's effectiveness, said Fabian, especially in the age where reality viewing has become such a big part of everyday life.

"The documentary feel really allows the audience a shared sense of the story," Fabian said. "It allows for the intimacy and the reality of the film to come in. You're on board with the ride. In the first half of the film, where I talk to the lens, it's like I'm saying, 'This is who I am. Come into my home.' When we get to the crazy town, audiences go, 'Oh, I don't want to be here,' but it's too late. Now you're here. Now you're locked in and you can't get out. Then the horror ensues."