The Devil Inside

directed by William Brent Bell (2012)

What a waste of time.  It's a cinema verité faux documentary that starts off with a disclaimer saying, The Vatican did not approve of the following film.  Made me laugh. As if.  The sad thing is there's gotta be some people who will watch it and think it's for real found footage. The same thing happened with The Blair Witch marking in gullible folk.

I'm totally gonna spoil this film so if you want to see it, and I don't recommend that, don't read  the following, because I'm gonna wreck what suspense the film could possibly have for you.

First is a 911 call where Marie Rossi says I killed everybody, next is police footage of the crime scene.  Cop camera viewpoint going into a hoarder's house and coming across 3 dead bodies, lingering on the bloody weapons and mutilated corpses. These scenes were graphic and gross.  Then there's a jump scare with movement and the camera person getting knocked over and the film cutting to black. Then you get TV news report footage saying that 3 clergy were murdered and a woman was found in a crawlspace.  You see her in the back of a squad car looking traumatised and wide eyed into the camera.   This was 1999, and that was the set up.  Cut to 2009 and Isabella Rossi, the daughter of Marie Rossi, the murder lady, is looking into what happened, and making a documentary of her investigational process.  Her dad died and just before he died, he told her the murders happened while the mom was being exorcised.

Aside from the creepy opening scenes, all this exposition stuff is fairly boring,  but it picks up a bit when she jets off to Rome and the Vatican City backdrops add a lot to the atmosphere. 

For whatever reason, I guess to be more cinematic?  More religious mysteriouso?  The mom was transferred to a mental hospital in Italy.  Riiiight.  Whatever, you go with these kinda things in horror flicks, suspend the disbelief ifen you can eh?  So the daughter sees her mom in the hospital after a Silence of the Lambs kinda interview with the mom's doctor, where he shows her a video of the mom freaking out and attacking people in her room.  I'm warning you, finger waggin doc says in an Italian accent, religious talk inflames her some.

The mom is creepy crazy cakes, but she knows the daughter had an abortion and she tells her she's going to hell before letting out with a super powered scream that ends the visit.

Isabella hooks up with some exorcists when she audits an exorcism lecture at the Vatican.  I did not realise there were exorcism classes the public could just walk into, nor that they'd be in English.  She meets 2 priests who do undercover exorcisms of people that the Vatican has decided aren't possessed but who the dynamic duo believe actually ARE possessed.  Stupid bureaucracy in the Church eh?  In 1999 the Vatican tightened the rules that meant someone was officially possessed, so there's lots of sick demonic possessed folk falling through the cracks that these two want to save.  I guess there were budget cutbacks or summat, too many exorcisms maybe pissing off Vatican bean counters.  Like how insurance companies get after doctors -  Quit stacking fees and padding your bills with unnecessary medical procedures already!

The daughter shows them footage of her interview with the mom, is my moms possessed? The one British officially licensed? exorcist, (I wonder if they get diplomas or what) tells her she needs to participate in an exorcism then she'll know if her mom is possessed.  I guess you have to see demons in the flesh to recognise them. The exorcism has some spooky contortionist scenes and wall climbing, also some menstrual gushing?!!  All goes well and the girl is ready for life outta the basement.  But back to the moms.  The renegade priests aren't sure she fits all the criteria for possession so they arrange for an interview at the hospital, where they'll use their pupil dilation measurement eye camera.  (If your pupils are dilated over 9 millimetres, you got the evil in you.) Things go bananas at the hospital. The chubby balding priest starts acting weird after, because of transference.  That's when there's more than one demon hanging out in the possessed and it jumps out into someone else.  The British priest is listening to the audio of the exorcist/examination and notices there's more than one voice/language being spoken. Sounds like 4! Also, the demon(s) told him he'd never be forgiven for what he did - it seemed like maybe he killed his exorcist uncle whose footsteps he followed?  I dunno because that thread was left hanging.

Things get stupid.  The Vatican finds out about the botched exorcism/examination. How? I guess the hospital rats them out?  I dunno, the church must be tight with everyone there.  The chubby priest is all moaning about getting excommunicated having bloody noses and eating chicken in the dark. Seriously, he angrily slams the light switch back to dark when Isabella turns it on and goggles at his gobbling food in the black as night kitchen.  uhuh, that's evil behaviour all right, gorging on food in the dark all eating disordered...for shame.

alla time.  He did install 4 in the car.  Anyhow, the chubby priest is upstairs, the lights go out, LOUD noises upstairs, creep upstairs to check on him with by the light of the camera,  priest is fucking scary in the dark making noise, and BAM there he is, eyes all rolled up in his head and long bloody cuts on his arms.   Then he's not there, disappearing and reappearing other places. OOOooo!!! Run Downstairs!!! The police have arrived, British priest warns them, it's not safe to go up there, but brave cop does, and scuffle...oops priest takes his  gun, oh no!  Next is a suicide scene, which was graphic and sad.

The daughter starts having a seizure.  They rush her to the hospital.  She's in a room and the British priest is arguing with a nurse about it not being safe, as medical professionals rush into the room behind her.  Looks like the daughter ripped out the throat of another patient. Blood everywhere on the other patient, but not on the daughter. The priest and the camera man sedate the daughter and steal her from the hospital, taking her to another location for an exorcism, and the nurse nods yeah, take her!! Escape this chaos with the perpetrator! Isabella starts coming to in the car and then the camera man gets possessed and crashes the car.  The end.  What?!!!  I know, what a rip eh? The whole theatre did a disappointed aw! Man! kinda groan.

The last bit before the credits was an url to find out more of what happened to the Rossis .

Whatever.  It was such a shitty ending.  I could have forgave all the boring bits if it had resolved with a proper ending.  It was all leading up to an epic 4 demon exorcism, instead we get this car crash?  Cheap mang.

I get the feeling whoever made this film is hoping to make a prequel, maybe a sequel, and that's why it felt so unfinished.

The trailer is good though, it shows pretty much every spooky scene and is totally creepy.  Watch that a bunch of times and forget the film is my advice.

 Or you could totally ditch everything about this unsatisfying horror and watch INXS do The Devil Inside.  80's rock band FTW!