The Devil Inside

The Devil Inside, The Devil Inside is a wannabe ‘exorcist meets Paranormal Activity’.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t come close to either as far as being scary is concerned. It actually amuses you with its amateur filmmaking, cliched story, theatrical performances and poor production value.

A woman is ‘suspected’ to be possessed after she kills 3 priests who were conducting exorcism on her. Given her mental instabilities, she is transferred to a mental hospital in Italy. Few years after the incident, the woman’s daughter Isabella travels to Italy to find out what happened to her mother.

Once in Italy, two ordained exorcists allow Isabella to be a part of their many illegal exorcisms before they conduct it on her mother.

Isabella’s horrifying journey is shown to have been shot on camera by her friend Michael, which is why the film is found-footage. What happens to Micheal, Isabella and the two priests as they delve into the world of the dead is the story of The Devil Inside.

The documentary style filmmaking with the actors talking incessantly to camera just bores you to death. All you see in the whole of first half is these theatrical actors giving endless lectures on art of exorcism, demonic possession, multi-demonic possession, difference between possession and mental illness, mutli-personality disorder, blah blah blah!

Worst part being, the lectures are not even informative! They are futile, cliched and only repeat things you already know or have seen in horror films some decade ago.

The preachy lectures on ‘demons’ and ‘possession’ continue till the end of the film and only halt temporarily when you see women acting possessed by breaking their bones and screaming at the top of their lungs. Ample blood is splashed all over to scare you but it makes you feel sick out of grossness and not fear.

It’s a shame that the movie made in 1973: The Exorcist was way superior in every way than any of the films that it has been inspiring ever since.

Paranormal Activity too is in different league when compared to The Devil Inside. Devil is not even remotely as scary as Paranormal.

The ending is so abrupt that it makes you happy that its over instead of wondering what just happened.

The Devil Inside Movie

The Devil Inside Movie, Opens: Friday
Starring: Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, Suzan Crowley, Ionut Grama
Director: William Brent Bell
Rated: R for disturbing violent content, grisly images and for language and sexual references
Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes
Critic’s rating: One star out of four

The things young Isabella Rossi sees on her fateful trip to Rome! She sees bodies contort into pretzels and climb walls and fling themselves across rooms, breaking restraints as they do. She sees blood and hears all manner of blood-curdling cursing in languages familiar and foreign.

And playing her in “The Devil Inside,” actress Fernanda Andrade — who is easy on the eyes — barely bats an eye. I guess she’s grown up with exorcism movies, so nothing’s going to shock her.

If it’s January, it must be low-grade horror season. And since “The Rite” cashed in last January, why not roll out a “Blair Witch”y hand-held “We’re making a documentary about my ‘possessed’ mother” film?

The un-emotive Andrade plays a young woman whose mother killed three members of the Catholic clergy 20 years before in an American exorcism. Somehow, she was transferred to a hospital for the criminally insane in Rome, where Isabella drags filmmaker Michael (Ionut Grama) and his many video cameras to make a movie that provides Isabella with answers.

“Is it in my genes? Am I going to flip out some day?”

She visits Mom (Suzan Crowley, very creepy) — alone, in her hospital room. And Mom, switching accents, rolling her eyes, showing off her collection of cross-cuts on her arms and lips, rattles Isabella (not that Andrade lets us see this). Isabella takes in a lecture at The Vatican School for Exorcism, which is like Hogwarts without the cool scarves. She likes the healthy skepticism there, but she takes up with a couple of young true believer priests (Simon Quarterman and Evan Helmuth) who promptly invite her and Michael along on a couple of house calls.

She doesn’t take the warnings of the young Brit Ben (Quarterman) seriously.

“In all the years I’ve been in the church,” he mutters, “I’ve seen the Devil way more than I’ve seen God!”

The priests lay out the four giveaways that you’re dealing with a demonic possession and not just run-of-the-mill mental illness, signs that include “aversion to holy objects” (Bibles, crucifixes, holy water), preternatural movement and strength. And then they show her the real deal, bringing a couple of lay people into deathly dangerous situations. Honestly, Father Ben, do you think Satan is listening when you shout “I want you to leave the girl out of this?”

It’s a profoundly foolish script filmed with a shaky cam, a movie that goes to great pains to explain how many cameras there are and where they’re placed in a room, only to drop that conceit and show us unexplained subjective shots.

But having one exorcist be a priest and a doctor, able to bring vital signs monitors into the basement, bedroom or wherever the exorcism is to take place, adds an ER’s urgency to this — sort of an “I need 400 cc’s of Holy water, STAT!” effect. There are some gripping images and one hair-raising moment.

It’s not enough, of course, and the ending is such a cheat that you’ll be fighting back the urge to boo the closing credits.

The Devil Inside

The Devil Inside, The Devil Inside is a horror-themed third-person shooter video game released in 2000 by Cryo Interactive. The game’s script was written by Hubert Chardot, better known for his work in the Alone in the Dark series.

The game is presented as a reality television game show documenting the supernatural exploits of the protagonist Dave and his titular alter ego, a succubus named Deva. The game’s theme was frequently compared to The Running Man, written by Stephen King, whose name is mentioned early in the game.
The player can transform between Dave and Deva by activating pentagrams located at certain places throughout the game’s levels. During gameplay, Dave/Deva is followed by a small flying camera as well as a cameraman, and the player can switch between the two camera views as desired. Occasionally, a news helicopter will also be present and scripted cutscenes will be viewed from an aerial perspective.

The pacing, exploration, and puzzle factor of the game is similar to that of other survival horror titles. As Dave, the player has access to a variety of guns, which are equipped with laser sights to assist the player in aiming. As Deva, the player uses spells to attack enemies. Spells do not require ammunition, but do deplete mana that regenerates slowly.

 Some enemies generate souls when killed, and Deva can inhale souls to replenish her mana. Deva also has the ability to fly and regenerate health when standing in fire. The game uses a checkpoint save system represented by television sets found in-game.