The Devil Inside is a 2012 American supernatural horror film directed by William Brent Bell (The Boy; Wer; Stay Alive) from a screenplay co-written with Matthew Peterman. It was produced by Peterman and Morris Paulson.
The movie stars Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, and Suzan Crowley.
The film topped the US box office on its opening weekend, yet dropped drastically in the second week, before disappearing completely from the box office top ten. Despite this, The Devil Inside was a huge commercial success, grossing roughly $100 million.
Plot:
On October 30, 1989, Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) committed a triple murder during an exorcism performed on her. The Catholic Church became involved, and she has since been in a Catholic psychiatric hospital in Rome. The film shows a news story and police investigation showing the three members of the clergy whom she murdered. Her daughter, Isabella, learned of the murders from her father, who died three days after telling her.
Twenty years later, Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) is in the process of filming a documentary about exorcisms and, to find out more about her mother, she visits a school in Rome. She meets two priests, Ben (Simon Quarterman) and David (Evan Helmuth).
Ben and David take Isabella with them on an exorcism performed on Rosalita (Bonnie Morgan). They bring along medical equipment to determine if it’s possession or mental illness. Rosalita attacks the crew after spouting out obscene remarks in different languages and accents. She calls Isabella by her name, despite not knowing her…
Reviews:
“The Devil Inside isn’t that bad. The dialogue isn’t that bad. The acting isn’t that bad. Some of the scares are actually pretty effective in a stuff-suddenly-rushing-at-the-screen or banging loudly sort of a way. It certainly doesn’t deserve the 0 star rating that some critics have given it.” Film4
“The scariest thing about The Devil Inside is that a major studio like Paramount Pictures, which is distributing it, may be able to squeeze more profit out of a tedious, tediously exhausted subgenre that was already creatively tapped out when The Blair Witch Project spooked audiences more than a decade ago.” New York Times
“I’m clueless as to what a consistent framework for devils and demons would be like, and so is the movie. When watching it, all I know is that exorcists recognize some behavioural signs, and have developed a few methods on how they might be able to expel them […] if you like found footage, there are worse ways to waste 90 minutes than by watching The Devil Inside. It may not be the best there is, with its predictable proceedings and abrupt ending, but give it a spin anyway because it’s not nearly as bad as you thought it was either.” Voices from the Balcony
Trailer:
