#1 “The Last Exorcism” ($9.4 million)
#2 “Takers” ($7.5 million)
#3 “The Expendables” ($2.7 million)
#4 “Eat Pray Love” ($ 2.2 million)
#5 “The Other Guys” ($1.9 million)

“The Last Exorcism” scared up major ticket sales on its opening day. The supernatural horror flick raked in an estimated $9.4 million on Friday. “Exorcism,” which is directed by Daniel Stamm and boasts gore-master Eli Roth of the “Hostel” series fame as a producer, drew enough moviegoers to grab the top spot. The film, which follows a documentary crew in rural Louisiana hired to capture the creepy antics of a supposedly possessed young girl, goes light on digital wizardry in favor of scoring scares with practical effects.

In the second place slot is the star-studded heist flick “Takers.” T.I., Chris Brown, Idris Elba, Hayden Christensen and Matt Dillon work the screen in a story about a crew of suave thieves set to carry out a major job. The thriller snatched $7.5 million in Friday ticket sales.

Sliding to third place is the heavily-armed action fest “The Expendables.” The fiery, butt-kicking flick raised $2.7 million on Friday, after ruling the box office for the past two weeks and sitting comfortably at the top spot. Friday’s haul edges the total domestic tally of the Sylvester Stallone-helmed enterprise near the $75 million mark.

“Eat Pray Love,” featuring marquee vet Julia Roberts, settled into fourth place. The soul-searching movie adapted from the runaway hit memoir of the same name, nabbed $2.2 million in box office receipts on Friday. The loopy cop comedy “The Other Guys” continues to power along, taking in $1.9 million and rounding out Friday’s top movies in the fifth-place slot.

Although “Avatar” wears the crown for the highest-grossing film ever, the re-release of the James Cameron adventure, revamped with previously unreleased footage, failed to crack the top ten with only $1.2 million in Friday ticket sales. (Source)

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival is thrilled to announce the Award Winners of its 2010 edition. A record over 4,300 votes were cast by festival-goers this year to determine this year’s Audience Award Winners!

Audience Awards, Best Feature Film:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism

Fans Choice Awards, Best Horror Film:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism

Fans Choice Awards, Best Screen Play:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism (Huck Botko & Andrew Gurland)

Fans Choice Awards, Best Lead Actor:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism (Patrick Fabian)

Fans Choice Awards, Scariest Film:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism

Source

Live in or near Burbank, California, and can’t wait until tomorrow to see “The Last Exorcism”? Then how about checking out a midnight show TONIGHT with producer Eli Roth in attendance as well? Eli took to his @eliroth Twitter account to invite fans to join him as follows:

“Who’s joining me in BURBANK tonight at the AMC 16??? #LastExorcism MIDNIGHT. See you there! Tix here: http://amcurl.com/MaH“

If you make it to the screening, be sure to “tweet” your own review and include the hashtag #LASTEXORCISM.

Eli attended the Los Angeles premiere and after party of “The Last Exorcism”. Eli looked fantastic at the premiere and it was nice to see Eli’s friends and family at the premiere to support him and the film. Head over to the gallery to check out all the latest pictures!

Gallery Links:
- Home > Public Appearances > Appearances From 2010 > “The Last Exorcism” L.A. Premiere – Arrivals
- Home > Public Appearances > Appearances From 2010 > “The Last Exorcism” L.A. Premiere – After Party

Sometimes all it takes to turn a movie into a “must-see” is one memorable image. Lately, those memorable moments from trailers and ads have been eye-popping digital effects. Like tidal waves cresting over the Himalayas in “2012″ or giant robots tumbling down the highway in “Transformers.”

This week’s horror movie release “The Last Exorcism” has been garnering much attention with a shot just as impressive as anything from a big-budget blockbuster. The trailer ends with the image of a young woman in a nightgown and boots bent over backwards at an impossible angle. It’s so memorable and unsettling that the studio used it for the movie’s poster. What makes it impressive, though, is that it does not use any special effects. No CGI, no puppets. That shot is actress Ashley Bell bending like that for real.

“The Last Exorcism” uses a documentary-style approach to telling the story of a minister who has spent decades duping people with fake exorcisms. Tired of the deception, he takes a film crew with him to expose the fraudulent practice. But he discovers that Nell, the afflicted farm girl he’s sent to “cure,” may actually be possessed by a demon.

The film is the 24-year-old Ashley Bell’s first leading movie role. She was previously best known for a recurring role on Showtime’s series “The United States of Tara.” Bell comes from a family of actors; her father, Michael Bell, has been doing voices on cartoons like “G.I. Joe” and “The Smurfs” since the 1970s, and her mother, Victoria Carroll, was a founding member of Hollywood’s renowned improvisational comedy troupe, The Groundlings. Bell used both her vocal and improv skills in her audition, acting out an exorcism on the spot and nailing the role.

Producer Eli Roth (“Hostel”) says the goal of the film was to make everything happening on screen look as real as possible, and Bell made that happen: “What you see is one-hundred percent Ashley Bell — we did not use any makeup, CGI, or special effects in her scenes.” Roth went on to say, “it’s all her doing everything you see, down to the bulging veins on her neck and the back bends.”

For the scene where she bends backwards, Bell told the Toronto Sun it took 20 grueling takes to get the shot just right. She joked, “[Director Daniel Stamm] nailed my boots down, pushed me over and yelled, ‘Action!’”

Patrick Fabian, who plays the exorcist, Reverend Cotton Marcus, confirmed that Bell’s performance was just as chilling to watch on the set as it is in the movie. He said, “Ashley would be turning her neck or slithering on the floor and a voice would come out and it just creeped us out. There was no acting involved in there.”

Bell stated that while the film’s shoot was incredibly demanding, she was happy to do it, no matter the physical cost. She said, “I got a lot of bruises and I was so proud of them, like, ‘Yes, war wounds!’”

“The Last Exorcism” opens this Friday. (Source)

Great news everyone! Producer Eli Roth will be sitting down with his Twitter account next Friday to field some questions from @MTVMoviesBlog in support of the August 27th release of “The Last Exorcism.”

I can honestly tell you all that I was taken by surprise at how good the film is. It’s a mock-documentary about a preacher who, for a range of reasons, embarks on a trip to perform his final exorcism. The events that follow are best left unsaid, the better to surprise you when you see it for yourself. Writers Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland crafted a story that takes some surprising turns and director Daniel Stamm does an exceptional job of keeping the creepiness and suspense running high throughout.

Here’s where you come in: WE WANT YOUR QUESTIONS!!! So send them in. Hit us up at tips@mtvmoviesblog.com. Include your Twitter handle if you have one. Stay tuned for more details on our Eli Roth Twitterview, and for some SURPRISE continuing coverage of “The Last Exorcism” all next week! (Source)

Whoever does the marketing for “The Last Exorcism” has outdone themselves. Take a look at this brilliant marketing technique below:

We’re talking about building a feature film off of the fake trailers included in Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s double-feature throwback, “Grindhouse.” With Danny Trejo in tow, Rodriguez recently constructed the vengeance picture “Machete.” Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal and Robert De Niro appear alongside Trejo in the film, which opens everywhere on Sept. 3.

Roth also directed a bogus trailer for “Grindhouse,” promoting a horror film that doesn’t exist. It was called “Thanksgiving,” and if Roth has his way, it will be in theaters soon enough.

“Robert’s doing his thing and I’m doing mine, but I am writing ‘Thanksgiving’ with my friend, Jeff Rendell, who I wrote the trailer with,” Roth recently told me when we sat down to discuss “The Last Exorcism,” which Roth produced. “I only want to make it if I can make it as good as the trailer. If it can’t live up to the trailer, then there’s no point.”

Well said. We haven’t seen “Machete” yet, so I don’t know if there’s enough material in the character to prop up a full feature. And if Roth made a movie that played off his “Thanksgiving” clip, it would be a throwback to such holiday-themed slasher flicks as “April Fool’s Day” and “Silent Night, Deadly Night.” Not high art, but those films tend to pack in dedicated crowds. We’ll see what comes of “Thanksgiving,” but I’ll bet the box office performance of “Machete” plays into Roth’s decision to push forward or hold back and move onto something else. (Source)

August 27th is a date to mark in your calendars. The Eli Roth produced exorcism film hits theaters and is a front runner on this years “must see” horror films and although the film has been plagued with a PG-13 rating we are still confident this is going to be more than a typical unsettling film. This could be the underground hit of the year and this latest trailer has us even more excited. Feast on it after the break… (Source)

Here’s the very first clip from the Eli Roth produced, Daniel Stamm directed horror flick, “The Last Exorcism”; which comes to us courtesy of Empire.