Found footage is a weird beast. It lives and dies on whether you actually believe the people on screen are real. In 2010, The Last Exorcism pulled this off better than almost anyone else in the genre. It wasn't just the shaky cameras or the clever marketing; it was the people. The The Last Exorcism cast had to do something incredibly difficult—they had to act like they weren't acting. They weren't just playing roles; they were playing "real people" being filmed by a documentary crew in the backwoods of Louisiana.
Some of them disappeared. Others became staples of prestige TV and massive film franchises.
When Daniel Stamm directed the film, he chose faces that weren't overly familiar. That was the trick. If you see a massive A-list star screaming in a barn, the illusion breaks instantly. Instead, we got a group of high-caliber character actors who made us question if what we were seeing was actually a hoax or a genuine demonic possession. Looking back now, the career trajectories of the main players are honestly fascinating.
Patrick Fabian and the Shift from Cotton Marcus to Better Call Saul
If you look at Patrick Fabian today, you probably see Howard Hamlin. It is almost impossible not to. But before he was the polished, tragic foil to Jimmy McGill in Better Call Saul, he was Reverend Cotton Marcus.
Fabian’s performance is the spine of the movie. He plays a disillusioned minister who has lost his faith and now spends his days "performing" fake exorcisms to show people how the industry works. It’s a meta-commentary on performance itself. Fabian brought this slick, used-car-salesman energy that was somehow still deeply charming. You liked him, even though he was a con artist.
Honestly, it's one of the most underrated horror performances of the 2010s. Fabian didn't just lean into the tropes; he made Cotton feel like a man trying to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. After the film, he stayed busy with guest spots on everything from Grey’s Anatomy to Desperate Housewives, but Better Call Saul is where he truly cemented his legacy. He has often talked in interviews about how The Last Exorcism was a turning point for him, proving he could carry a feature film with a complex, morally grey lead role.
Ashley Bell: The Physicality of Nell Sweetzer
Then there is Ashley Bell. You can’t talk about the The Last Exorcism cast without mentioning the girl in the poster. That backbend? It wasn't a special effect.
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Bell is a classically trained actor who happens to be incredibly flexible. She did those contortions herself. That level of physical commitment is what made Nell Sweetzer so terrifying. She had to pivot between a sweet, sheltered farm girl and something... else. It was a breakout role that earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female.
She returned for the sequel, The Last Exorcism Part II, in 2013, which took a more traditional narrative approach. While the sequel didn't hit the same critical heights as the original, Bell's performance remained the highlight. Since then, she hasn't chased the blockbuster dragon. She has stayed active in the indie circuit, doing voice work for major video games like The Last of Us Part II, and she even directed a documentary called Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story. It’s a sharp left turn from horror, focusing on the rescue of a blind Asian elephant. She’s clearly more interested in projects with a soul than just staying in the "scream queen" lane.
Louis Herthum and the Road to Westworld
Louis Herthum played Louis Sweetzer, the grieving, hyper-religious father. He was the source of a lot of the film's tension. You never quite knew if he was the villain or just a desperate parent. Herthum has this incredible ability to look like he’s perpetually on the verge of a breakdown, which worked perfectly for a man living in a remote farmhouse convinced his daughter is possessed.
Years later, Herthum would use that same "glitching humanity" to break our hearts in Westworld.
As Peter Abernathy, the first host to truly malfunction, he gave one of the most chilling performances in modern sci-fi. There is a direct line you can draw from the intensity of his work in The Last Exorcism to his success in prestige television. He’s become one of those actors where you say, "Oh, it's that guy!" the moment he appears on screen. He brings an immediate weight to the room.
Iris Bahr and the Documentary Vibe
Iris Bahr played Iris Reisen, the filmmaker behind the camera. It’s a thankless job in found footage. You’re often just a voice or a hand in the frame. But Bahr, who is a brilliant comedian and solo performer in her own right, gave the film its grounding. She represented the audience. Her skepticism was our skepticism.
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Bahr is a fascinating person outside of the film. She’s an Israeli-American actress who has done a lot of work in comedy, including a memorable recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm as Rachel, the woman who gets stuck on a ski lift with Larry David. The fact that she can go from a high-tension horror movie to a Larry David cringe-comedy tells you everything you need to know about her range.
Caleb Landry Jones: The Quiet Powerhouse
We have to talk about Caleb Landry Jones. He played Caleb Sweetzer, Nell’s brother. At the time, he was a relatively unknown kid with a striking, slightly off-kilter energy.
Now? He’s an award-winning powerhouse.
Since 2010, his career has exploded. He was in X-Men: First Class, Get Out, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and he won the Best Actor award at Cannes for Nitram. Even back in the barn in Louisiana, you could see that weird, magnetic intensity. He didn’t have many lines, but he didn't need them. He just had to stare at the camera, and you felt like something was wrong. Out of the entire The Last Exorcism cast, he is arguably the one who has reached the highest level of "actor's actor" status.
Why This Cast Worked When Others Failed
Most found footage movies fail because the acting feels like... well, acting. You see the seams. You notice the person waiting for their cue.
The Last Exorcism worked because the cast treated it like a play. They stayed in character. They improvised. Patrick Fabian has mentioned that they would film long takes where they just stayed in the moment, allowing the cameras to capture the awkward silences that actually happen in real life.
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It wasn't just about the scares. It was about the family dynamic.
The Sweetzers felt like a family that had been broken by grief long before the "demon" showed up. That’s the secret sauce. If you don’t care about the people, the jump scares don't matter. By casting people like Herthum and Bell, who could handle the heavy emotional lifting, the movie transcended its low-budget roots.
Where to See Them Now
If you want to follow the work of the The Last Exorcism cast today, you have plenty of options.
- Patrick Fabian: Catch him in the final seasons of Better Call Saul or his recent indie work like The Way Out.
- Ashley Bell: Look for her documentary Love & Bananas if you want to see her real-life passion, or check out her voice work in The Last of Us series.
- Caleb Landry Jones: Watch Nitram or Get Out to see how he evolved that unsettling energy into a fine art.
- Louis Herthum: Rewatch the first season of Westworld to see a masterclass in physical acting.
The legacy of the film isn't just the twist ending (which people still argue about to this day). It’s the fact that it served as a launchpad for some of the most reliable actors working in the industry today. They took a "shaky cam" horror flick and treated it like Shakespeare. That’s why we’re still talking about it.
To truly appreciate what they did, go back and watch the film with the sound off for a few minutes. Look at the body language. Look at the way Ashley Bell moves or the way Patrick Fabian adjusts his suit when he's nervous. It’s a masterclass in subtle character work. If you're an aspiring filmmaker or actor, studying how this cast handled the "mockumentary" style is a great place to start. Pay attention to the overlapping dialogue and the way they use the space of the farmhouse. It feels lived-in because they made it feel lived-in.
The next time you're scrolling through a streaming service and see a generic horror title, remember that The Last Exorcism succeeded because it didn't take the easy way out with its casting. It chose talent over fame. And in the end, that’s exactly what gave the movie its staying power.