‘My Best Friend’s Exorcism’ Review: Like, Totally Satan

“My Finest Pal’s Exorcism,” a horror-comedy directed by Damon Thomas, is about in 1988. So far as I may inform, there isn’t any historic, cultural, or sociopolitical motive for its interval setting, which has no vital 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 well-liked, we’re going to see much more like this.

Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller) are finest buddies. 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 Ladies.” 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 screen — however the movie repeatedly undercuts no matter rigidity is mustered with its irritating tendency to crack goofy, juvenile jokes. This conflict of tones is very flagrant throughout the climactic exorcism, which pits Miller’s critical efficiency in opposition to an over-the-top flip by Christopher Lowell as a Christian bodybuilder. On the similar time, Fisher, so great in “Eighth Grade,” is caught attempting her finest in a movie that wastes her efforts.

My Finest Pal’s Exorcism
Rated R for graphic violence, robust language and disturbing imagery. Operating time: 1 hour 36 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime.