REVIEW: The Devil Inside

Jumping on the ‘found footage’ bandwagon is The Devil Inside; a story about a woman on a mission to discover the truth about her mother’s fate, after she purportedly murdered three people during her own exorcism.

The genre that The Blair Witch Project gave rise to over a decade ago has had a very successful rebirth recently with box office smashes such as; Apollo 18, Quarantine and the franchise gold Paranormal Activity. Despite fairing surprisingly well at the box office, The Devil Inside doesn’t seem to have captured the terror of its predecessors and instead feels uninspired, with critics judging the film scathingly.

The dialogue is embarrassing and artificial, including patients inhabited by the devil screaming ‘let me suck your ****’. Somewhat reminiscent of The Exorcist. This seems to encompass the film’s main failure – a lack of originality. The genre may be overdone but it seems there was no attempt to add anything new, instead drawing on ideas from past films creating a poor and confused movie. It even manages to fail -somehow -at the hand held camera aspect of the movie. Attempting to instill a sense of urgency, the camera is extremely shaky. But this ploy is even used in static scenes where there is no movement, leading to an absurdly overdramatic effect.

Most obviously, moviegoers that looked for a neatly tied up conclusion will be disappointed with this abrupt and unexpected ending, only shocking in its stupidity. After such a lacklustre and almost amateur film, it seems silly to expect anything else.

We are offered an interesting insight into the history of exorcisms and Catholicism, with a lot of screen time being consumed by the development of the main two character’s relationships to the religion. Nevertheless, the apparent lack of enthusiasm on director William Bell’s part leads to a limp and low budget horror, which is as predictable as it is disappointing.

So, is it worth seeing? Despite my scornful review, I do believe that some will enjoy it. If you are a novice to the ‘found footage’ genre, then you may find this film spooky and chilling. If, however, you are a veteran, this flat, familiar scare isn’t worth your money.

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