It’s understandable that studios and filmmakers want to make a movie similar to The Exorcist. There's this built-in audience of moviegoers that flock to every exorcism film hoping for the next "Exorcist".
We’ve been hit with a number of exorcism movies over the last few years and while you wouldn’t consider them anywhere close to a masterpiece, they all had something that set them apart. Maybe it was excellent character development, snappy dialogue, or a new spin on the tired exorcism formula.
In the case of The Devil Inside, they made a film on the cheap using the “found footage” formula and were hoping that it would evoke thoughts of Paranormal Activity and The Exorcist. Instead, The Devil Inside is a lazy film that mimics other movies, but fails to understand why The Exorcist or Paranormal Activity were successful.
The movie follows Isabella, who is filming a documentary after learning that 3 people were killed while performing an exorcism on her mother. Isabella visits her mother in a clinic in Italy and convinces two priests to help determine whether or not her mother is really possessed. During the examination, the priests come to the realization that Isabella’s mother has multiple demons inside of her.
On paper, the concept may seem interesting, but the actual execution couldn’t be any less entertaining. If this film had been released 10+ years ago, it may have worked on disturbing imagery alone, but the movie just gives us recycled scenes from past films. Similar to The Last Exorcism, this film uses actors who are able to contort their bodies. Similar to The Exorcist, priests encounter a woman who speaks with different voices, swears at them, makes sexual gestures, and needs to be restrained. The problem is that this has all been done before and it has all been done better in other movies. The same can be said for the "found footage" mechanic of the film, which doesn't look terrible, but doesn't try to be creative or innovative.
Maybe it could have been saved with characters we care about, but we’re not given enough time to feel for them. The movie quickly takes us from one location to the next and never spends time developing these characters, the relationships they have, and their inner demons. By the time it’s all over you don’t care about what happened to them.
And on the topic of the ending, this will be the most talked about part of the film. The Last Exorcism divided audiences with its ending, so The Devil Inside tried a more straight-forward approach. I won’t go into spoilers, but I will say that I’ve never seen so many people booing at the end of a movie. The audience left the theater complaining and groaning, while others were asking for their money back because they felt cheated.
Are people who are going to see this movie actually being cheated? Not necessarily. Anyone who has seen multiple found footage films knows that it can be a mixed bag (Apollo 18), but this type of movie is bad for the “found footage” sub-genre. With movies like Paranormal Activity and [Rec], we know that it is possible to craft an excellent film. However, if too many studios try to cash in with poor “found footage” movies, they will water down the sub-genre and moviegoers will be worried about wasting their money.
The fact that movie was released in its current state is surprising, because it's coming from Paramount who should be the last studio that wants to water down the sub-genre. With as popular as the Paranormal Activity franchise continues to be, they could afford to take the extra time and effort to polish The Devil Inside or they could have taken the hit and not released it. Because of the marketing for this film and everyone’s love of The Exorcist, this will most likely be a successful release for Paramount, but I know that everyone in the theater with me yesterday will be less likely to spend their money on a sequel and may be leery of jumping to see the next big “found footage” film.
To close things out, The Devil Inside may not be the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but it’s hard for me to find anything to like about it and I wouldn’t suggest anyone going to watch it unless you are a die-hard “found footage” fan that needs to see every release. If you’re a casual moviegoer that hasn’t seen The Exorcist and recent exorcism films, maybe you’ll find some of the scenes to be disturbing or entertaining, but in that case, I’d suggest you check out the far superior films that have already been released.
Film Score: 1/5
After spending more than 10 years as a consultant in the tech and entertainment industry, Jonathan James launched Daily Dead in 2010 to share his interest in horror and sci-fi. Since then, it has grown into an online magazine with a staff of writers that provide daily news, reviews, interviews, and special features.
As the Editor-in-Chief of Daily Dead, Jonathan is responsible for bringing the latest horror news to millions of readers from around the world. He is also consulted with as an expert on zombies in entertainment and pop culture, providing analyses of the zombie sub-genre to newspapers, radio stations, and convention attendees.
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