The Last Exorcism (2010)

Patrick Fabian: Cotton Marcus

Photos 

Quotes 

• Cotton Marcus : Do you believe that if you go ahead and allow the Holy Ghost into your heart, you can be cleansed of all your sins and sit in the Kingdom of God?

  Congregation : Amen.

  Cotton Marcus : That is what I'm talking about. Can I get an amen?

  Congregation : Amen.

  Cotton Marcus : Can I get a hallelujah?

  Congregation : Hallelujah!

  Cotton Marcus : Can I get a hallelujah and an amen?

  Congregation : Hallelujah, amen!

  Cotton Marcus : Do you know if you take two ripe bananas, you put them in a bowl, and you put some sugar and you go ahead then bake it for 400, you can go and pull it out and have yourself banana bread? Hallelujah!

  Congregation : Hallelujah!

• Cotton Marcus : You know, I used to want to have a TV ministry. I thought that'd be cool. And now, frankly, all I really want is health insurance.

• Cotton Marcus : The Sweetzer farm, please.

  Caleb Sweetzer : Right. Well, you're going the wrong direction. You want to make a U-turn, actually.

  Cotton Marcus : Okay.

  Caleb Sweetzer : You want to take this road and go straight. You'll see things you've already seen before. Keep on going. You're gonna hit the highway. Okay? And then I want you to go back where you came from.

• Becky Davis : What are you all doing?

  Cotton Marcus : We're making a movie.

  Becky Davis : Oh. So, are you all shooting this now?

  Cotton Marcus : Yeah.

  Becky Davis : So will I be in it?

  Cotton Marcus : Yeah, you will.

  Becky Davis : Oh!

• Cotton Marcus : [seeing a picture Nell has made]  That's all of us dead. I'm in the fire.

  Iris Reisen : I'm in a million pieces.

  Cotton Marcus : Daniel, you get your head chopped off.

• Cotton Marcus : Hey, Louis.

  Louis Sweetzer : Yes, sir.

  Cotton Marcus : Now, just remember. I took the devil out of your house, but it's your job to keep him out.

• Cotton Marcus : I do not believe in actual demons, no. No. But when I was doing exorcisms, you know, you know I acted like I did. It's not like I saw any demons come out of anybody.

  Iris Reisen : So for the last something-odd years you've just been a fraud?

  Cotton Marcus : That's your word, not mine. I wouldn't say that. I would *say* that for the last couple of years what I've been doing is doing what I've always been doing, which is delivering a service for a person who needs it in a *way* that they need it. I'm not saying I'm a doctor but I am saying that I helped heal people, from what ailed them. And what ailed them sometimes was the thought in their brain that they were possessed by a devil. And if I helped make that thought go away, and they felt better... so be it. I got a wife, I got a family to feed. At least that's how I used to justify it.

• Cotton Marcus : What I want to do, is *expose*, exorcism for the scam that it really is, and that's why we're doing this. So if I can help expose it for what it really is, and save one kid from having a plastic bag wrapped around his face... that sounds like God's work.

• Cotton Marcus : She's a sixteen year old girl. All right? We can overpower her if we need to.

  Daniel Moskowitz : Yeah, a sixteen year old girl and a sixteen year old psychopath are two different things.

• Cotton Marcus : Is that regular water?

• Cotton Marcus : Down here, if you ask five people about a demon story, they'll give you ten demon stories.

• Cotton Marcus : I should have read the letter a little more thoroughly.

• Cotton Marcus : [to Louis]  Do you not read Latin?

• Nell Sweetzer : Reverend Marcus, I hear you don't believe in me.

  Cotton Marcus : Who are you?

  Nell Sweetzer : Abalam.

  Cotton Marcus : Where's Nell?

  Nell Sweetzer : In the fire. She's been there for some time. Soon you'll join her.

• Nell Sweetzer : Words! Words! Words! I'll tell you what. If you can keep quiet for ten seconds, I'll let the girl go.

  Louis Sweetzer : Yes.

  Cotton Marcus : Agreed.

  Nell Sweetzer : One...

  [Nell breaks her own finger] 

  Nell Sweetzer : Two...

  [Nell breaks another finger] 

• Cotton Marcus : The bible is filled with demons. If you believe in God, you have to believe in the devil. Jesus himself was an exorcist. Therefore, if you are Christian and you believe in the bible, and you believe in Jesus Christ, you have to believe in demons.

• Cotton Marcus : Exorcism is alive and well in the present age. People think of it as being a scourge of the Middle Ages that somehow went away and was cured by science, but the fact of the matter is it's never gone away. Exorcism today is bigger than it's ever been.

• Cotton Marcus : [reading newspaper clipping]  "Local boy Cotton delivers his first exorcism". As a little boy I thought this was in every newspaper all over the world.

• Cotton Marcus : Did Caleb act any different after your mom passed?

  Nell Sweetzer : I think Caleb got frustrated. He got kind of scary. He started hating God a lot.

• John Marcus : This is the Hortus deliciarum. There are about twenty in the whole world.

  Cotton Marcus : You can show it to them. Show it to them.

  John Marcus : This book describes the various kinds of demons. Helps you identify them, and then recommend the process for getting rid of that demon. We have had exorcists in our family for generations. Generations. And...

  Cotton Marcus : How many exorcisms you think you've done with this book?

  John Marcus : One hundred and fifty.

• Cotton Marcus : [while driving through New Orleans to the Sweetzer residence]  Oh, it's amazing down here. It's got a real unique feel. Nothing like it in any other part of the country. And it's ancient. Some of the plantations here have been standing for, you know, hundreds of years. And this is the only part of the country that's been flown under six different flags, so, it's a real mix of culture and superstition and folklore down here. You've got Voodoo, you've got Roman Catholics, Pentecostalism, all these different beliefs, you know, rubbing up against one another. And they're all looking to save you. They're all looking to be the answer. There's a lot of illiteracy, and a lot of poverty. And, between that, and the uh, stopped-in-time feel of the place, it's like a perfect breeding ground for, for demons, and evil.