“My Greatest Good friend’s Exorcism,” a horror-comedy directed by Damon Thomas, is ready in 1988. So far as I might inform, there is no such thing as a historic, cultural, or sociopolitical purpose for its interval setting, which has no important bearing on the themes, characters or plot; it doesn’t even strengthen the movie’s relationship to its most blatant affect, “The Exorcist,” which got here out in 1973. In any case, the ‘80s, on this film’s conception, are nothing greater than a nebulous composite of vaguely evocative signifiers: huge hairdos, fluorescent tracksuits, Trapper Keepers, and an previous hit by Tiffany or Rockwell on the soundtrack each couple of minutes. I suppose so long as “Stranger Issues” continues to be widespread, we’re going to see much more like this.
Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller) are greatest pals. After an encounter at a spooky cabin within the woods, Gretchen is possessed by a demon, which restyles the ordinarily sanguine excessive schooler right into a merciless, coquettish bully — suppose the satanic scares of “The Conjuring” crossed with the sardonic queen-bee squabbling of “Imply Women.” A few of Gretchen’s villainous overtures are genuinely upsetting — a full-blown body-horror set piece involving an 11-foot tapeworm virtually made me look away from the display — however the movie repeatedly undercuts no matter rigidity is mustered with its irritating tendency to crack goofy, juvenile jokes. This conflict of tones is particularly flagrant throughout the climactic exorcism, which pits Miller’s severe efficiency in opposition to an over-the-top flip by Christopher Lowell as a Christian bodybuilder. On the similar time, Fisher, so fantastic in “Eighth Grade,” is caught attempting her greatest in a movie that wastes her efforts.
My Greatest Good friend’s Exorcism
Rated R for graphic violence, sturdy language and disturbing imagery. Working time: 1 hour 36 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime.