Review: The Devil Inside, directed by William Brent Bell

Paramount has thrown a lot of marketing muscle behind The Devil Inside, in hopes that it can maybe ensnare a few of their Paranormal Activity fans into yet another found footage-style horror.  Unlike that hit franchise, The Devil Inside faces a pretty steep uphill climb in that it falls into the "exorcism" sub-genre, which has been fully owned by The Exorcist for more than forty years. No other film has come close to matching it in terms of sheer, faith-shaking terror, and unfortunately The Devil Inside doesn't so much conjure up scares as it does uncomfortable laughter.


Not that anybody was expecting this to be The Exorcist revisited, it falls short of reaching even the heights of something like 2010's The Last Exorcism. The biggest problem is the more these films try to be "real", the less believable they become. It's become old hat now to inform the audience that "The Vatican doesn't approve" of the movie we're about to see, as if their refusal to support it should have people quaking in their boots. Ludicrous. The Pope's got better things to do, like sorting out his extensive giant hat collection.

The story begins in rather ominous fashion, with a 911 call from a woman claiming to have murdered three people. Her name is Maria Rossi, and the dead were killed in cold blood while performing an exorcism....on her. Taken into custody, something is clearly wacked in Maria's head, so rather than sending her off to prison she is instead shipped off to Rome to be live forever doped on drugs in a rubber room.

That is until her daughter, Isabella(Fernanda Andrade), starts questioning the mental stability of the entire family. Is it genetic? The Church is convinced Maria was insane, and not actually under any demonic possession, but the truth isn't so clear. For help, Isabella seeks out a pair of junior exorcists(Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth) all too eager to stand in defiance of the church. But in order to make Maria understand, they must show take her and the filmmaking buddy she inexplicably has in tow into an actual exorcism to experience it first hand. 

If The Devil Inside wasn't such a cliched mess it might almost be possible to pity poor William Brent Bell, who has the unfortunate job of sitting behind the camera for this reheated trash. The exorcism genre is in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint, and Bell is content to pull from every such film we've all seen a hundred times before. Possessed lady with a foul mouth...incredible strength...twisted, contorted bodies...oooops, there goes one of the exorcists flying against the wall. Seen it already, and done with far more skill than this. There's nothing fresh to be found here, and the biggest offense is nobody seems to have any interest in it. It's a bad sign when you hear more chuckling at the film's most disturbing moments(such as a baptism gone terribly wrong) than any genuine fear.


Fortunately it clocks in at a rapid 80 minutes, so the torture is mercifully brief. Since the story never picks up any genuine momentum, you'll be totally clueless when it suddenly comes to a crashing halt. No, nobody tripped over the camera cord. That's the actual conclusion.


If there was any doubt that Paramount was pulling a hustle on us all these months and that they know The Devil Inside is genuinely terrible, at tonight's unfortunate screening they had the audacity to have a fake nun and reverend preach to us just before the movie started. They told us that it was "our choice" and "our decision" to be here. The implication that we were tempting God's wrath for even bearing witness to what the film had in store. Then those two imitators went and sat down and watched the movie, eating snacks out of their purse and running their mouths the entire time. What a cheap and desperate gimmick. They were right about something, though. It was our choice to be there, but hopefully nobody else will make that same mistake.