THE DEVIL INSIDE review by Mark Walters – what possessed them to make this movie?

THE DEVIL INSIDE review by Mark Walters – what possessed them to make this movie?

Movies about exorcism seem to be popular lately, what with films like THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, THE UNBORN, THE LAST EXORCISM, THE RITE, and of course the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY flicks (hey, they’re trying to exorcise a house, right?) all popping up within the last 5 years or so. Sadly, few of these attempts ever seem to come close to the shocking and effective nature of THE EXORCIST, which will perhaps go down in history as THE best film of its type ever made. The latest movie to try its hand at the popular horror archetype is THE DEVIL INSIDE, released in January, a month usually used by studios to dump their less-than-stellar productions on the film hungry crowds.

The movie is advertised as “Inspired by true events” and pointing out in the trailers that the Vatican does not support this. A documentary-style look of the film is meant to fool the audience a bit into thinking some of what they might be seeing is in fact real. The story opens with police file footage from 1989, lead into by a 911 call in which a woman named Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) admits to killing three people. The footage shows the cops investigating the crime scene where two priests and a nun have been brutally murdered, and a chair with broken straps would indicate an exorcism was being attempted. The last shot of the footage is Maria lunging at the camera, then the cops hauling her away in the back a police car. Cut to 20 years later, in 2009, where Maria’s daughter Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) has decided to let a documentary filmmaker named Michael (Ionut Grama) help her find out the secret of her mother’s horrifying past. Isabella’s father told her just before passing away that Maria killed the three people during what was supposed to be her exorcism. Isabella, not knowing what to believe, travels to Rome where he mother is being held in a psychiatric ward. When she arranges a visit, it doesn’t go well, and there’s clearly something strange still inhabiting Maria’s body. At the same time Isabella has immersed herself in a local exorcism school, where she meets two priests, Ben (Simon Quarterman) and David (Evan Helmuth). They allow her to escort them to an actual exorcism off the books, and eventually decide to look into her mother’s case.  Let’s just say it doesn’t get very cheery from there on.

While there’s definitely some scary visuals and disturbing imagery in THE DEVIL INSIDE, and the concepts and questions behind exorcism are raised frequently and appropriately, the film is utterly a mess. There’s no slow build to any particular fright, but rather an in-your-face sense of scare tactics that makes the audience feel like cheap pawns. There’s even the annoying and all-too-easy moment where an animal jumps out and scares someone, just to see how many suckers are inhabiting the theater. The other annoying aspect resides in the simply awful camerawork, meant to look like documentary-style footage, but overly shaky and at times even nauseating. When people are sitting around a table talking, there’s no excuse not to hold the damn camera a little more steady. Perhaps the one plus of the project lies in the performances, which are for the most part quite good. Andrade is an interesting and sincere lead, though arguably not as frightened as a real person might be in various situations throughout the film. Simon Quarterman is also impressive at the British priest Ben, who has his own personal demons to deal with – none of which are ever explained, sadly. Helmuth also does well as David, the other rogue priest who begins to question if what they’re doing is really a good idea… this time. Both of these priests, as explained in their dialogue, perform off-the-record exorcisms against the church’s wishes and without ever presenting their results. Initially they’re portrayed as fearless do-gooders who only want to help those in need, but Isabella’s case seems to unhinge their world pretty fast, perhaps a little too quickly. The standout performance easily goes to Suzan Crowley as the possessed mother Maria Rossi, who uses her haunting eyes and tempered body language to unsettle the audience with great effect. Her scenes were definitely the most impressive, and will be the highlights for anyone who endures this project. Bonnie Morgan, a real life contortionist, also gets a chance to shine as another possessed victim, using her body-bending talents to full effect. Ionut Grama is sadly underdeveloped as the documentarian Michael, only getting a few moments to share his brief thoughts in front of the cameras. I personally would have liked to see more of him reacting to what he was catching on tape, perhaps even regretting getting involved. There’s a moment early on where we hear Michael say under his breath “That was great” after catching a horrifying display on film, and to not show his enthusiasm slowly turn to dread was a severe missed opportunity on the filmmaker’s part.

The movie is directed by William Brent Bell (STAY ALIVE, 2006), who co-wrote the film with Matthew Peterman. While it starts off promising, the entire exercise falls apart with each advancing scene. It feels like there’s so much of a rush to get to the scares, what could have been a better build up is never achieved. But the most disappointing aspect of the film is easily its abrupt and rather insulting ending, leaving our (at first) enthusiastic packed house booing with sincere disdain as the credits came up. It’s such a cop out of an ending, they actually put text on the screen telling you to find out more about the case you can go to a website… yes, that bad. Did they not have time or money to finish? Was plugging the website always their intention? Who knows. Needless to say the majority of folks in attendance felt cheated and offended at the lackluster wrap-up to this mediocre (and short – not even 80 minutes before credits) fare. We’re not even a full week into 2012, and we’ve already got a contender for worst movie of the year. Whatever may possess you (yes, pun intended) to see this, do your best to exorcise that desire… it’s not worth your time, no matter how scary the trailers may seem.

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About the Author

Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff.