The Devil Inside (2012)

I don’t like exorcism movies. Well, okay ‘The Exorcist’ was an okay film, but that’s only because it was effectively the first. Every single other exorcism film after that is essentially a rip-off with bland characters. ‘The Devil Inside’...was better than expected. But not by much. Granted it was most likely because I went into it having very low expectations.

The premise of this film is that Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) killed three people during an exorcism. Her daughter, Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) is investigating with cameraman Michael (Ionut Grama), and priests Ben (Simon Quartermain) and David (Evan Helmuth), as to whether what happened would happen to her.

 

Firstly the pace of the film, well, it was, boring if I’m to be honest. Seriously, I struggled to keep my eyes open for most of it. The only other time that has happened, was when my mates and I were planning to watch films for 24 hours, and I started falling asleep at three in the morning whilst watching ‘Batman & Robin’.

Actually, I should have said this first. The film starts off with an intro card, stating that the events were based in real events and that the Vatican doesn’t endorse the film. Gee, you think? Of course the Vatican doesn’t really care if you see it or not, it’s just that do you really expect us to think that a film about exorcism was ever going to get on the Pope’s good side?

 

Then again, what religion would get behind this? Well, apparently one did since a trailer showed the producers managed to get an audience to watch it IN A CHURCH. Then again there was another trailer which showed a woman’s terrified reaction to the film, but it didn’t help that the guy sitting next to her was laughing at the film.

Now that I think about it, that’s probably why I found the film boring, because the trailers literally showed every single scare that was in the film. Yeah! It actually did, one trailer actually showed Isabella being possessed and her spine being bent backwards, as well as David being possessed. Thanks for the spoilers.

But it wasn’t just the trailer which ruined the film. Back to the pace, it followed the same pattern, which was ‘talk, talk, talk, scary moment! Talk, talk, talk, scary moment!’, rinse and repeat. There’s also the possessed women doing the high pitched screaming, which, as you probably guessed from my ‘The Woman in Black’ review, is a cheap means to get chills, as all this does is annoy the viewer, not scare them. But essentially the film moves along at a slow and predictable pace. I suppose it allows some kind of character development, ah who am I kidding, the characters are as forgettable as...something forgettable.

Not that it’s the characters fault mind you, it was down to the acting. Helmuth and Grama were okay I guess, but Andrade had the acting range of a piece of wood. Okay, I’m being a bit harsh as the acting got better about twenty minutes towards the end, but I’ll get back to that in a bit. Quartermain however actually gave a solid performance throughout, while Crowley was pretty good as a crazy woman. Not entirely sure if that’s a compliment or an insult.

While the film didn’t really have that many scares, it did still manage to creep us out. There was the scene when the crew go to see the exorcism of Emily Rose. I mean, Rosalita (Bonnie Morgan). This was essentially the scene where the possessed woman pops her shoulder out of her socket. That’s always going to be effective. Then there’s the scene where David attempts to drown a baby. Sorry, I couldn’t not give it away without saying ‘then there’s a scene involving David and a baby’, it sounded wrong.

Now, that scene was when the film started getting interesting. You see, they performed the exorcism on Maria, but the characters started getting a little dark. David becomes ominous, Michael gets all serious, Ben starts to worry and Isabella becomes a bitch. I didn’t notice at first until the scene involving David attempting to drown the baby, but essentially the four demons that were possessing Maria, weren’t exorcised, they just got the power to transfer from body to body via touch.

Yeah, this is the point where the film gets interesting, where paranoia and uncertainty sets in, at the 60 minute mark. And as the film starts to get interesting, the film ends. Yes, it’s the infamous ending which you’ve probably heard about. I can see why the film ended where it did, but again, the film was actually getting interesting, where it was becoming eye-catching, where it was becoming fascinating. And then the film just...ends. It was definitely sequel baiting, but it is one of the worst endings in cinema history.

I wasn’t the only one to think so, everyone else in the cinema essentially went “What?!” when the end credits began. Any enjoyment was effectively destroyed at that moment. Especially since we’re then told to go to a website to learn more, which in a good way does actually exist, but why should I go to a website for “more information” when I have gotten all the information I need from the film? It seems patronising, especially now when I think that I could’ve gotten the same information I got from the film, FOR FREE.

And there are the many small bits which didn’t make sense; such as Maria killed three people in America and was transferred to Italy for no real reason which was never explained (The makers of the film only wanted to set it in Italy to relate it to the Vatican...then again they could’ve just said that Maria did her killings in Italy), David shoots himself but the film had to make it about Isabella again a second later, oh, and you know that nun on some of the posters? You know, the one where it appears she’s possessed and it implies she has a big role in the film? Yeah? She’s blind, the characters drive past her, she’s only in one scene, and she only appears for three seconds.

So yeah, terrible acting, awful pace, bland characters, and predictable scares make this one bad film, and it’s even more infuriating when the film abruptly ends after the film finally starts to get interesting fifteen minutes towards the end. In its defence the film does have creepy moments and some pretty decent effects for a low budget production, but is it enough to save the film? To me, it isn’t.