Grady Hendrix put out a book in 2016 called “My Best Friend’s Exorcism”, and it was a comedic horror novel with a lot to offer. I read the book, and was excited to see what the movie would be like. While the book had a great deal of humor to it, the movie doesn’t, and that’s where the comparisons start, but don’t end. I’m not going to do a compare and contrast here, because the book was just better in my opinion.
The movie has a simple plot, two friends have their lives
changed when one of them is possessed by a demon. Their lives turned upside
down, the only hope is to go through an exorcism, and hope that the demon gets
out. Along the way we do have some comedic moments, but for the most part, it’s
not that funny o f a movie.
Abby and Gretchen are the main characters and the ones that
are dealing with the demon. The demon is not half bad, and the CGI work is good.
The movie takes its time to move forward, but there’s a lot of throwback to the
1980s through musical moments. These solidify the characters, and you get a
subplot here and there to level out the overall story.
I found the movie to be fun, it was drenched in the 1980s,
and I loved that about the movie. It doesn’t take itself too seriously at
times, but when it does get serious, it’s really good. Of all the exorcism
movies, however, this is a tame one. The demon and exorcism isn’t something
that gets too graphic, although there are some moments that make you think
about other movies in the genre. It’s about “Goosebumps” level at times, and
that’s not a bad thing, it’s got some soul to it, and it plays well.
Overall, “My Best Friend’s Exorcism” is a good overall
movie. It’s horror comedy, but light on the comedy. It’s not graphic, it isn’t
going to cause you to pull away a lot, but there are some good moments, and a
nice sub plot that includes an interesting weight loss issue, to say the least.
The movie flows well, it’s good overall, and definitely worth your time. You can stream it on Amazon Prime.
