Review:
"The Devil Inside"
Release Date: Jan. 6, 2012
Rating: R Running Time: 87 minutes There is a special place in hell reserved for the rip-off merchants responsible for The Devil Inside. Their sins: cramming every single cliché that informs the “found footage” horror subgenre into their futile exercise in terror, only to cheat us by ending this dreary exorcism tale in an abrupt and unsatisfactory fashion. Shoddily shot in shaky faux documentary style to exploit the success of Paranormal Activity and The Last Exorcism, The Devil Inside follows an investigation by a young woman to determine whether her mother is possessed by a demon. Two decades earlier the mother killed three people, and she has since been left to rot in a Catholic psychiatric hospital in Rome. Two rogue priests believe the mother is possessed by multiple demons and perform an exorcism. If you have seen one exorcism yarn, you’ll immediately know exactly where William Brent Bell and Matthew Peterman’s predictable script is heading. This wouldn’t matter if Bell, who previously directed 2006’s knuckleheaded cyber-chiller Stay Alive, attempted to underline the slow-building events with the slightest bit of tension. He fails miserably. There isn’t a single scare to be found in The Devil Inside, even when things spiral out of control and the bodies begin to pile up. Worse, Bell and Peterman have no idea how to wrap up The Devil Inside. Unlike Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism, and Quarantine, which all ended with evil triumphing over good, The Devil Inside frustratingly provides no clear resolution. It can’t even be defined as ambiguous. Accordingly, the only frightening thing about The Devil Inside is the level of incompetence that is on display throughout this “found-footage” fiasco. Robert Sims Aired: Jan. 12, 2012 Web site: http://www.devilinsidemovie.com/ |
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