Review: The Devil Inside (2012)

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09, January 2012Horror, Reviews

Cast: Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth
Director: William Brent Bell
Country: USA
Genre: Horror | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here

The clone: a derivative film that garners its strength from a well established formula and dares not deviate from its set path for fear of failure. It’s basically an assembly of familiar elements, which once proved effective, but now appear stale and lifeless due to over saturation. Arguably, the genre most plagued by this phenomenon is horror. Once a truly great horror film is unleashed upon the world, it’s almost immediately cloned. We’ve seen this before many times with Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, The Exorcist, and now with Paranormal Activity. However, The Devil Inside is more than just a clone, it’s a freak gene-splicing clone made from several different sets of demonic DNA.

Does this mean The Devil Inside isn’t enjoyable? If you’ve been keeping up with modern horror, especially supernatural horror, then this film has little to offer. That being said, if you’ve been stuck in a small dark hole living off a television that only plays reruns of It’s a Wonderful Life, then watch out! This film just might terrify you… emphasis on “might”. It basically rehashes shock techniques from The Last Exorcism, Paranormal Activity, Exorcism of Emily Rose, and even borrows from the lackluster The Rite. All the clichés of an exorcism movie are mashed together with all the clichés of a found footage movie resulting, not surprisingly, in a cliché-ridden movie about exorcism told with a shaky camera.

It basically rehashes shock techniques from The Last Exorcism, Paranormal Activity, Exorcism of Emily Rose, and even borrows from the lackluster The Rite.

When trying to describe this film, it’s difficult to resist simply listing off all the colour-by-number horror gags that fill its surprisingly short runtime. So, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. We have priests, young possessed girls, contorting bodies, blasphemous dialogue, disturbing bleeding vagina, the lights suddenly going out, the lights suddenly going on, backward crab walks and of course the classic camera panning away, then back to reveal the possessed person has disappeared. All these elements are wrapped up in a story about a girl going to Italy to visit her mom who may or may not be possessed. Despite having an interesting opening with some truly disturbing crime scene footage, the film leads nowhere and gets lost meandering through the familiar world of catholic exorcisms.

The Devil Inside does mark an important turning point for the growth of the found footage horror film genre. This seems to be the first film in which every found footage scare falls flat on its face. The more these elements are repeated, the less power they have. Perhaps we’re reaching that point, as we did in the mid to late 80s with the slasher genre, when the general viewing public starts to replace their mouths agape with terror, with mouths agape with yawns.

This seems to be the first film in which every found footage scare falls flat on its face.

Oh, and one last problem, the film doesn’t have an ending. That’s not to say its ending is abrupt and shocking, the film just stops playing and politely asks you to check out their website where presumably you might find some kind of closure. I say presumably because nothing in this film inspired me enough to even bother with their website. Perhaps if there was one glimmer of hope in the film of something new, something fresh, but alas… Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice and I’ll just bash my own head in with the keyboard, thanks.

This has been an overwhelming negative review, so lets leave on a high note. The demonic possession genre isn’t dead; it’s just in desperate need of something new. For example, The Last Exorcism, which was also a found footage movie, added several invigorating ideas about the power of belief into the mix, but perhaps also leaned too much on conventions. Possession films need to stop living in the shadow of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. Enough with the cloning. This means no more catholic priests and no more relying on young female sexuality to disturb the audience. Lets see some men invaded by the devil, male sexuality is ripe for some nasty demon exploitation and carries with it a whole new crop of frightening taboos just waiting to be slapped in an audience’s face.

If The Devil Inside attacked even one of these conventions, it would have been a worthwhile. Trying to stay positive, here’s one good moment in the film: A dog jumps up and barks unexpectedly. It was a surprisingly effective jump scare. Well done.

15/100 - All the clichés of an exorcism movie are mashed together with all the clichés of a found footage movie resulting, not surprisingly, in a cliché-ridden movie about exorcism told with a shaky camera.

Craig Stewart
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Horror Film Critic. Am I obsessed? Maybe. I prefer the term “passionate”; it has a less creepy stalker kind of vibe. Not that I have anything against creepy stalkers being that my genre of choice is and forever will be the depraved, demented and deranged dwelling of horror. If you're looking for films that don’t sugarcoat things, that reveal people at their ugliest, that aren’t afraid to spill a little blood and have fun doing it, then look no further!