The Devil Inside
Director: William Brent Bell

Cast: Fernanda Andrade, Suzan Crowley, Simon Quarterman
Review by Brian M. Sammons

Let me start off by saying that I am largely a fan of the found footage horror films. From The Blair Witch Project to its lesser known rival The Last Broadcast, from the original very good [REC] from Spain, to the more lackluster US remake, Quarantine, I sort of dig them all. Even when they have some pretty big flaws, like Apollo 18, there can still be some fun and good spooky moments found in them. So keep that in mind when I say that I hated this latest entry in the (now overused?) subgenre. When I say that this boring, confusing, poorly made movie is in no way good, it’s not because of the first person shaky cam thing. It’s just a plain old bad movie. So if you want to save yourself some time, just stop reading right now and forget this movie ever existed. But if you’re still possibly interested in this flick, then keep reading and maybe I can change your mind and save you a few bucks. Hey, that’s what I’m here for.

The Devil Inside is a pretty basic, paint-by-numbers devil possession flick. And right there I could end this review. It’s not a horrible horror film in and of itself but it has the worst ending of, well anything I can remember seeing. Ever. But more on that in a second. The story here is that a documentary film crew is following around a young American woman as she investigates the reason why her mother was sent to an insane asylum in Italy. Hmm, three guesses as to why. Well the daughter and the documentarians hook up with some priests once in Italy who do secret exorcisms on the side. Then after a bunch of babble about if the institutionalized mother is possessed by Satan, it’s off to the nuthouse for some hot devil expelling action.

The one twist to this movie, which isn’t even original, is that mad mommy dearest isn’t just possessed by one demon, but four and they have body jumping abilities right out of the much better Denzel Washington movie, Fallen. If you can’t guess as to what that will mean for the movie, then I won’t spoil it for you. But hey, there is some of the same satanic taunting of the assembled exorcists that has been in every, and I mean every, movie since The Exorcist. So yay for more unoriginality.

Then there is the ending that I hinted at before. Now I won’t ruin it, because honestly, I don’t think I can ruin it as it’s so bad. All I’ll say is that this movie really doesn’t end. It just cuts to black. Yeah, no kidding, it just stops. Now I guess it’s trying to go for a dramatic, sudden, shock ending that in a way would make sense that no one would continue to film after a certain point. Still, movies should have an ending and this one just doesn’t. So it’s a derivative, completely unoriginal Exorcist rip off that all but gives the audience the finger at the end. Yeah, it sure sounds like a winner to me.

Oh, and do you want to get really mad? This slice of cinematic schlock made over 100 million dollars worldwide. Not only is that insulting to the far, far, FAR superior movie, The Cabin In The Woods (which has so far made less than half that), but it probably means that we will be afflicted with a sequel to this someday soon. Oh yay.

The new Blu-ray from Paramount, which is a Best Buy exclusive, looks as well as a shaky cam found footage flick can look. However it is also as bare bones as a disc can be. It has no special features. Not one. Were they embarrassed by this movie? Because it sure looks like it.

If you can’t tell by now, I can’t recommend this movie. Not at all. To anyone. As I said, it’s not a horrible movie, but it’s dull, unnecessary, and derivative of a hundred other films that came before, and that did it much better. Still if for some odd reason you do want to get this movie in your collection, you can go on over to Best Buy to pick yourself up a copy.

About Brian M. Sammons

Brian M. Sammons has penned stories that have appeared in the anthologies: Arkham Tales, Horrors Beyond, Monstrous, Dead but Dreaming 2, Horror for the Holidays, Deepest, Darkest Eden and others. He has edited the books; Cthulhu Unbound 3, Undead & Unbound, Eldritch Chrome, Edge of Sundown, Steampunk Cthulhu, Dark Rites of Cthulhu, Atomic Age Cthulhu, World War Cthulhu and Flesh Like Smoke. He is also the managing editor of Dark Regions Press’ Weird Fiction line. For more about this guy that neighbors describe as “such a nice, quiet man” you can check out his infrequently updated webpage here: http://brian_sammons.webs.com/ and follow him on Twitter @BrianMSammons.

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