When it comes to “Found Footage” style exorcism movies, I think I am a hopeless optimist. Every time I see a new movie about demon possession, I get really excited thinking that this is going to be the one where the demon is going to have something interesting and scary to say. Unfortunately for me, movies have taught me one thing about demons; they do not crawl out of the depth of hell with any good written material. I would think that if I am going to go to the trouble of shimming my way out of hell, scratch walls, scare the bajezzas out of humans to ultimately take over their bodies and eternal souls, I would at least say something cool. Say some Mark Twainesq scary shit. Case in point, new movie The Devil Inside, cool movie name, great plot setup, but coming to the exorcisms, there is nothing inspiring in its delivery. Now, to be fair, looking to the positives, I have to say that the atmosphere is well thought out. The camera work is less crazy then Hunger Games, which made me motion sick. The effects in the movie are well done, and then acting is well done outside of the possessed actors. The plot is actually pretty good, simple but effective.
Maria Rossi (Susan Crowley) murders three people the night she was in the process of being exorcised of multiple demons on October 30th, 1989. She was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Rome where she remains to this day. Fast forward twenty years, and enters Maria Rossi’s daughter, Isabella (Fernanda Andrade), now grown up is doing a documentary on demon possession to help better understand when happened to her mom. She does video confessions telling us what she remembers about the change in her mom leading up to the possession and then travels to meet her mom in Rome for the first time in twenty years. While there, she gets involved in demon possession with priests that are in exorcism school in the Vatican. There is some disagreements with these two and the criteria on genuine cases of possession, so they take it upon themselves to perform exorcisms on those people rejected by the Catholic Church. From there, they show a real exorcism, and then they attempt to exorcise Isabellas Mother of her multiple demons.
As you can see, reading out the story, it’s a well thought out plot, good acting for what this movie is. Unfortunately, again the demons banter with the priests and observers is lacking in originality, there is even a reference to the demon calling the possessed a pig. Wait a tick, I remember Regan’s demon calling her a sow, saying “This sow is mine”, classic. I would recommend seeing this for the sole purpose that it is fun to watch, with a few good creepy parts and a good story. There is a new movie coming out later this year called “The Vatican Tapes” that is more “Found Tape” ideas about an exorcism gone wrong. So like before “The Last Exorcism”, “The Devil Inside”, and countless other possession movies, I will stay optimistic for the days of witty demons regaling us all with awesomeness.
