Movielogr
The Devil Inside (2012)
Directed by William Brent Bell
Twitter Facebook Google+Horror | Thriller | Supernatural
Most recently watched by sensoria, sleestakk, BTSjunkie, lolareels
Overview
In Italy, a woman becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms during her mission to discover what happened to her mother, who allegedly murdered three people during her own exorcism.
Rated R | Length 83 minutes
Actors
Fernanda Andrade | Simon Quarterman | Evan Helmuth | Ionut Grama | Suzan Crowley | Bonnie Morgan | Brian D. Johnson | John Prosky | Claudiu Istodor | Claudiu Trandafir | Suzanne Freeman | Ilinca Hărnuț | Maria Junghetu | Toma Danila | Maude Bonanni
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01/05/2012 | Movie Screen | Film | Theater | 1 star |
| (Average) 1 stars |
Viewing Notes
Riding on the back of the popular Paranormal Activity series, Paramount snatched up The Devil Inside with the hopes that a new found footage series would be born. However, instead of haunted house style horror, what we get is an even more worn out genre retread: exorcism. Since 1973, any exorcism movie made has been a direct result of the success and frankly genius work of William Friedkin and The Exorcist. It seems like every year we get at least one ripoff of the classic, some better than others (most of The Last Exorcism) but most I can barely get through. The Devil Inside is terrible, quite possibly one of the dumbest and most pointless movies in recent memory.
The idea of the movie is pretty basic. A documentary film crew follows a young American woman as she investigates whether her mother is possessed by a demon. The investigation takes her to Rome, where her mother is being kept in a Catholic mental institution. Why Rome? No fucking clue as it’s never really explained why she had to be shipped out of the United States in the first place. While in Rome she meets two ordained priests that conduct exorcisms without the knowledge of the church. Together the three attempt to prove that her mother is in fact possessed and possibly help her. Yep, rogue priests exorcising people. The movie very nearly lost me here. Then a dog barked and scared the crap out of me. This is important because it was the only part that actually scared me.
Riddled with cliche after cliche and attempting nothing new, The Devil Inside, is an absolute failure in nearly every single aspect. Generic concepts and script elements kill the otherwise mildly creepy exorcism scenes. Note creepy, not scary. There’s a fairly interesting scene involving a cool contortionist performance, again completely ripped off other great movies, however all the tension is drained from the scene by the silly placement of cameras all around the room for no real discernible reason other than to give the editor lots to cut to. Speaking of which, what was the editor doing? Scenes often end mid-tension, mid-scene with a cut to black with text. If anything it made the movie feel ridiculous and silly. I laughed but not with the movie but clearly at it. It’s a mess and you can tell the filmmakers had no idea what to do with it once the footage was completed and looked at.
The ending is the cherry on top though. I won’t go into details but at this point if it wasn’t already apparent the filmmakers didn’t know what to do, they give a big “fuck you” to the audience. There is no third act, there is no real resolution at all and everything you thought was the point of the movie isn’t the point. The entire audience booed, and everyone hated this movie by the end of it. By the way they saw it for free. The Devil Inside is stupid, worthless and worst of all an embarrassment for Paramount. Looks like the joke’s on us though, the movie probably has a 15 million dollar profit so far with a killer opening weekend. They suckered the entire country, and we all fell for it. Fuck this movie and fuck the inevitable sequel.
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