New Delhi: Any horror movie buff would spare no expenses to make sure that he/she watched 'The Devil Inside'. The trailer look sufficiently scary, and the fact that 'this is the movie The Vatican did not want us to see' assures that 'The Devil Inside' would get the attention and the box office business.
However as the trends showed in the US where it released on January 6 2012 – a big opening ultimately lead to the film completely vanishing from the theatres. Needless to say – so will be the case in India as well. The curiosity and the excitement – the feel of potentially sleepless nights it aroused on the release of the trailer – runs out of steam as the movie progresses and when the end hits you – you pretty much want to ask the director for your money back.
Directed by William Brent Bell – 'The Devil Inside' stars Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, Ionut Grama and Suzan Crowley.
The movie kicks of well with an eerie 911 call in 1989 where Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) tells the police that she has killed three people. The police arrive at her house to find three members of the local church brutally murdered – two priests and a nun. Rossi is tried for murder but exempted on the grounds of insanity. She is placed in a psychiatric hospital and then shifted to a Catholic psychiatric hospital in Rome.
The story leaps forward 20 years to her daughter Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) who wants to find out the mystery behind the triple homicide her mother committed. She wants to record her search for the answers in a documentary with cameraman Michael Schaefer (Ionut Grama). Isabella's father had told her that the murders had happened during an exorcism and the exorcism was being done on her mother.
Isabella arrives in Rome and meets two young priests Ben Rawlings and David Keane in a school for exorcism. Isabella goes to meet her mother in the hospital and Marie has a violent out burst after she shows Isabella the inverted crosses she has cut on her hand and one that she has cut on her lower lip. Marie does not recognise Isabella but she knows of the abortion that Isabella had to do.
On seeing the tape of Marie's reaction Ben and David decide to help Isabella. They take her to witness the exorcism of a girl called Rosa. The exorcism is successful but the demon possessing Rosa calls out to Isabella by her name.
The phenomenon of exorcism is not regognised medically and the symptoms are often confused with psychiatric diseases. The Church refused to accept Marie’s case as a demonic possession. Isabella allows Ben and David to try and exorcise Marie or at least figure out what she is being possessed by.
Isabella, Ben, David and Michael try to exorcise Marie and one is not sure whether she is cured after sending Ben flying to the door and knocks David to the ground. They realise that Marie was being possessed by four demons.
Post the incident with Marie, things start going wrong with David who almost drowns a baby during baptism and then ends up shooting himself. Ben realises that David was possessed and the transference happened during Marie’s exorcism. Isabella goes in to a fit when David shoots himself and another transference has happened.
'The Devil Inside' has a terrible, inconclusive ending. The final scene leaves the audience blank. Admitted, that all horror movies do not need a well rounded finale – but what 'The Devil inside' does is just daft. The fear factor is gone and dead, the chilling horror is gone – all that remains is a bloody mess.
The entire movie is shot in the mock documentary style, sliding in to the 'found-footage' feel on and off to create the right amount of fear. The exorcism scenes are shot very well, they look scarily real and can keep the audience on the edge of their seats – but ultimately it all falls flat. Definitely not scary enough to keep you awake at night – 'Exorcism of Emily Rose' had done an infinitely better job. Perhaps an abrupt ending was made on purpose to keep the answers elusive - but either way - the plan has throughly backfired for the director.
If one is expecting a good, eerie horror movie that makes one wonder about the truth behind the devil and God – 'The Devil Inside' is not it.
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