The Devil Inside (2012)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jeff "

  
  The Devil Inside is that film that has the misfortune in being released in the period where Found Footage films are becoming tiresome, uninspired and a waste of time. This isn't the first Found Footage flick to deal with Exorcisms since 2010's The Last Exorcism. This film is… More
  The Devil Inside is that film that has the misfortune in being released in the period where Found Footage films are becoming tiresome, uninspired and a waste of time. This isn't the first Found Footage flick to deal with Exorcisms since 2010's The Last Exorcism. This film is one of the worst horror films in recent memory. What it lacks the most is substance. This film had so much potential in being an effective horror film. Unfortunately, it ends up being one of the worst. The film misfires and instead of delivering great chills (except for an exorcism halfway through the film), this film fails. The Devil Inside relies on the usual clichés, and doesn't try anything new, bold or exciting to thrill the viewer. What's really a shame here is that the two actors playing the priests are very good in their roles, unfortunately the film doesn't work. The script is poorly written, and the material is taken from other genre films. This is one of those films that is predictable and really isn't worth your time. I personally feel that Found Footage films are a thing of the past, and aren't great. Apollo 18 was a decent flick, but it should have ended with that one. Guess they're going to keep on making these types of films just for the sake of cashing in on it. As far as I'm concerned, they all follow the same formula, and really don't offer anything new. The Devil Inside might have been a good effort if the script would have been reworked, but it becomes one of the worst horror flocks in recent memory and the ending will surely disappoint.

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"No soul is safe."</i> In Italy, a woman becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms during her mission to discover what happened to her mother, who allegedly murdered three people during her own exorcism. <center><font size=+2… More
  <i>"No soul is safe."</i> In Italy, a woman becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms during her mission to discover what happened to her mother, who allegedly murdered three people during her own exorcism. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) and a documentary filmmaker travel to Italy where they want to find out what really happened twenty years earlier when her mother killed three people supposedly during an exorcism. Along with the help of a couple priests, Isabella plans on finding out if exorcism are real and if her mother was ever possessed. The Devil Inside is yet another film showing off the "found footage" format and I think the entire genre has almost ran its course. I'm not going to call this one of the worst horror films ever made as many have. I'm not going to call the ending one of the worst in the history of cinema like many have. The Devil Inside isn't a horrid film or a good one and what really makes me upset at it is how bland and lifeless it is. If you've ever seen a horror movie in your life then you're going to know all the tricks here. This includes quiet moments where the surround sound gets a workout with one of those fake scares from a loud noise. You're going to know when the characters are all gathered around talking while the "subject" is calm that the person will then go crazy to try and get another fake scare. The problem is that these fake scares don't even work and the execution of the film really isn't all that impressive. If the fake scares don't work then you know the real ones aren't going to either. I found the film lacking any real atmosphere and I'd say that the entire exorcism plot line is just played out. Nothing fresh or original happens here and it's really not too hard to catch the twist that happens at the end. I will say that I did enjoy the performances with Andrade doing a fine job in the lead. Supporting players Simon Quarterman and Evan Helmuth are also good. The Devil Inside is far from being a horrible movie but it's somewhat worse simply because it's bland. At least with bad movies you can have fun with them and that's certainly not the case here.

• Everett J

  
  Exorcism movies are very hit and miss with me. "Last Exorcism" is a miss, but "Exorcism of Emily Rose" was amazing. I was hoping "Devil Inside" was more like Rose, but instead it is a lot more like "Last Exorcism". It's a found footage… More
  Exorcism movies are very hit and miss with me. "Last Exorcism" is a miss, but "Exorcism of Emily Rose" was amazing. I was hoping "Devil Inside" was more like Rose, but instead it is a lot more like "Last Exorcism". It's a found footage film, which I have zero problem with. I actually enjoy movies shot like this, it really adds a good atmosphere. It's the story of a woman named Isabella, who is seeking the truth about her mother. In 1989 her mom Maria brutally murdered three people during an exorcism, and was relocated to Italy for observation. Isabella wants to know if her mom is possessed, or if she has a mental illness. There are a couple very good "holy shit!" moments during this movie, but they aren't like "Boo!", it's like "that looks sick!" For that, the movie is worth a watch. But, overall the movie leaves you wishing it had offered up more. The story could have gone farther, and the action could have been picked up a bit. It runs at 83 minutes, but feels a lot longer than that. Better than some recent horror movies, it's still not that great, and really only worth one viewing.

• MisterYoda ?

  
  three stars

• Pierluigi P

  
  This vomitive trend of horror pseudo-documentaries irritates me no end. This is, by far, one of the worst pieces of trash born out of it. Poorly written characters, no suspense, and a terrible ending. Simply laughable.

• Kase V

  
  'The Devil Inside' is disappointing on so many levels. It isn't scary (just creepy), the story is bland, and most of the acting Is awful. The ending doesn't seem to help either, because it ends so poorly and abruptly, that all you can do is sit there and feel like… More
  'The Devil Inside' is disappointing on so many levels. It isn't scary (just creepy), the story is bland, and most of the acting Is awful. The ending doesn't seem to help either, because it ends so poorly and abruptly, that all you can do is sit there and feel like you've wasted your time. Try to avoid this one.

• moon r

  
  Sooo bad. Sooo stupid. I actually got angry at the director, the actors, the writers, even angry at other people in the audience simply for being there. Every exorcism movie I see I say this, but here I am saying it again: no more exorcism movies!

• Markus R

  
  True Life: My Mom is Possessed by the Devil.Who is William Brent Bell? Could he be the director of the new low budget exorcism movie "The Devil Inside"? Could he be the man to single handedly spell the end for these faux-documentary "horror" movies? Could he also… More
  True Life: My Mom is Possessed by the Devil.Who is William Brent Bell? Could he be the director of the new low budget exorcism movie "The Devil Inside"? Could he be the man to single handedly spell the end for these faux-documentary "horror" movies? Could he also be the director of the first bad movie of the year? In the end, WHO CARES who William Brent Bell is! Because whatever far too negative thoughts which come to mind when the term "director" and William Brent Bell are used in the same sentence, will soon become as irrelevant as his career is after directing "The Devil Inside". Warning: This movie is filmed like a "Quarantine" or "Cloverfield", meaning almost all of it is filmed in that amateurish POV shaky cam, can't see a lot of the action because the cameraman is running, lose your lunch style. The only difference here is, at least those other two were watchable. So, viewers going into a movie like this need to keep two things in mind: 1. When the cameraman dies so does the movie. 2. Try not to eat a big meal beforehand. If you haven't heard by now, the story follows an American woman by the name of Maria Rossi, who allegedly killed a bunch of people during an exorcism gone wrong (don't they always?) in 1989. She is subsequently locked away in a mental hospital (in Italy for some reason). And for some reason, years later, her grown daughter Isabella wishes to visit her (with a cameraman mind you) and question her crazy mother about what really happened that night in 1989. Though the trailers promises audiences an entertaining horror movie full of scares and terrifying images, due to a grocery list of outstanding flaws "The Devil Inside" is doomed to snatch the title of worst film of 2012 so far (and it's only the second week!). The faults are as follows: Via an awful script, this film attempts to become far deeper than simply a B movie horror flick, by inserting psychological dialogues having to do with mental health disorders as the modern Catholic Church's alternative to possession, which does nothing but slow the film down to a crawl (at times). The script (partially written by Bell himself) also does its part to take away from any scary moments the film would have had. Any time there was a genuine build up to a scare, one of the characters would say something utterly outlandish or begin singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and create a state of unintentional goofiness that worked to negate any and all scares. The acting also hinders this movie greatly. The phrase "can't act his/her way out of a paper bag" cannot be used enough in this case, but that is to be expected out of a low-budget film of this nature. Furthermore, if there were any dust particles of entertainment value floating aimlessly throughout this film, they were overshadowed by some inexcusably shaky camerawork which was so bad that while watching the film I realized (beyond a shadow of a doubt) that "The Devil Inside" stood alone as the worst visual experience I have ever had watching a hand held faux-documentary. The phrase "Can't direct his way out of a paper bag" can also be thrown around quite liberally here, as the director of this amateurish endeavor shows his lack of skills early and often. There are some scenes were the camera (mid-sentence) cuts to inconceivable shots of the side of a forehead and others (when cameras are installed in a car) that look as if everybody's mouths and body movements were inexplicably sped up post-production. There is also a directorial ploy used where (from time to time throughout the film) the cameraman pulls priests and other characters of note into "confessionals" of sorts where they spout off emotionally driven asides of how they are really scared or how they don't like the other people in the house. Yes, these scenes are all too stupidly reminiscent of similarly shot sequences in MTV shows such as "The Real World" or "Jersey Shore". But all the bad acting, lazy camerawork, sloppy dialogue and the fact that the first hour of this "horror film" contains a debilitatingly slow build up, with little to no actual scares in it, can all be forgiven and considered side effects of hokey B movie productions. BUT, what cannot be forgiven is the slap in the face ending, which consists of a half-way descent climax culminating in basically (SPOILER ALERT) an abrupt ending. And as the groans from the audience commenced as the screen suddenly goes black (an ending that is all too egregiously overused in films like these), a message flashes on the screen ballsy enough to incite a riot. It reads: For more information about this case, go to www.mariarossi.com (or something to that effect). To me this is the equivalent to watching a Discovery Channel show and being told "for more information on tigers consult your local library". In short, while it works for said Discovery Channel show, what did I just pay for?! Did I really just pay 10.50 to see a movie that contains, not an actual ending, but a climax which results in a website where I am to continue to seek out an ending that the director refused to show in theaters?! Another way to see this ending could be as Bell letting the audiences know (in so many words) how he already has their money, therefore he can throw any old ending up there and nobody could stop him. To quote the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, "Worst ending ever!" Final Thought: I am not going to lie. For about fifteen minutes of this 87 minute film (beginning around minute 60) there is a semblance of suspense that, no matter how predictable, was somewhat engaging. BUT the fact that it took so long to get to this point in conjunction with the sad fact of how it ended (my God, don't get me started again on that ending) negates almost any recollection of entertainment value "The Devil Inside" had. So obviously my consensus is to skip "The Devil Inside", unless you are a fan of sitting through movies where you can barely see anything that is happening onscreen; or crappy endings. Written by Markus Robinson, Edited by Nicole Ashland Please visit my page on Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/x-52464-San-Jose-Indie-Movie-Examiner and leave any comments you have about this or any review. The more hits I get the better. Thank you. Follow me on Twitter @moviesmarkus

• Tom M

  
  I couldn't actually give this film 5 stars cause it's REALLY bad. But my god. Everyone has to see this movie. It's so freakin funny. It's definitely a new favorite bad movie. There is literally no way to take it seriously. The audience was laughing to! And rotten… More
  I couldn't actually give this film 5 stars cause it's REALLY bad. But my god. Everyone has to see this movie. It's so freakin funny. It's definitely a new favorite bad movie. There is literally no way to take it seriously. The audience was laughing to! And rotten tomatoes wasn't kidding, the ending was atrocious! There's nothing to say! See it! It's so damn funny! The best possible way to start off 2012!

• Joshua W

  
  I was worned early on that this film was horrible (and not in the good way.) but I'm a sucker for mockumentary films. i believe them to be a great new film format. I paid discount price to see this film only to find out I paid full price for it. Seriously? 1 hour and 27 mins?… More
  I was worned early on that this film was horrible (and not in the good way.) but I'm a sucker for mockumentary films. i believe them to be a great new film format. I paid discount price to see this film only to find out I paid full price for it. Seriously? 1 hour and 27 mins? Disney animated films are longer then this. I'm a fan of short films. But a good short film needs to tell a full story in that short amount of time. what I got from this film is the writters were ambitious at the start, sort of got over it halfway and soon said f#%k it. The film had it's moments but were outshadowed by the long boring dialogue driven scenes. AND, I have to talk about it, the ending... like I mentioned before, it seemed like the writters just gave up instead of coming up with an ending. Would I refer it to my friends? Of course not! Would I see it again? Only if it's for free. What did I like? The acting. This is one of the rare cases where the actors are way over qualified for the film itself. If I were producing this, I would have hired another writter to add to the story and give it a proper ending. This film had potential but failed to deliver.

• E.J. B

  
  The first release of 2012 is also the first big horror release of the New Year, and it's setting the bar really low for what's to come. Shamelessly rehashing cliches, telling the story through the extremely tediously tired found footage documentary style, and failing to… More
  The first release of 2012 is also the first big horror release of the New Year, and it's setting the bar really low for what's to come. Shamelessly rehashing cliches, telling the story through the extremely tediously tired found footage documentary style, and failing to create a single scare, The Devil Inside is a clunker that could almost be the movie definition of the word derivative. Kudos to the movie trailer guy for making this pile of manure look almost like gold. Isabella Rossi, played by the gorgeous Fernanda Andrade, hires a documentary cameraman to help her investigate the case of her mother, Maria, who killed three people in 1989 during a supposed exorcism. She teams up with two rogue priests who have been performing exorcisms against the wishes of the Vatican, because the Vatican no longer recognizes demonic possession as a diagnoses. They tell the cameraman to document everything. And as fate would have it, they're all in for a "shocking" discovery. Of course the demon they're about to encounter is one they've never encountered before, and this demon will give them a fight they doubt they can win. The plot moves at an incredibly slow pace. Scares are few and far between, and when they do occur, they induce far more laughter or frustrated groans than fearful screams. Much of the plot is revealed through character interviews and scenes with them around tables discussing their next move. But perhaps the biggest offense committed here is the one on one time the characters have to talk to the camera, just like in reality TV. You know, those scenes in The Bachelor, Survivor, and Jersey Shore where people complain about their peers and reveal their inner emotions. Yeah, those are aplenty in this movie. I enjoy films about demonic possession. It's creepy subject matter. However, it's a very easy horror subgenre to screw up. For one, if you've seen one exorcism movie, you've more or less seen them all, since all the terror scenes involve someone contorting his or her body, screaming obscenities, and screaming really loud in multiple voices. It's very difficult to find new ways to tell this kind of story, and I acknowledge that. But I refuse to forgive a movie like this that so unabashedly exists to repeat ideas, concepts, and scenes that are far beyond uninspired. The Devil Inside fails as compelling drama, horror, and is a obvious knockoff of Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, and The Last Exorcism. A must miss.

• Tyler C

  
  Only positive aspect is that the performances were okay. But this film is devoid of decent scares and that ending...OH THAT ENDING!! The whole theater I saw this with Rage Quitted at that piece of sh*t ending!

• Shawn M

  
  some cool athletic stretches but a sad attempt of a movie, was waiting for something epic to happen, but sadly, the only entertaining part was the first possession.

• Eric H

  
  Yet another found footage movie fails to hit the mark. The movie opens with footage filmed by police at the scene of a triple murder, the victims being two priests and a nun. Twenty years later, Andrade, daughter of the killer, sets off to Rome with documentary film-maker Grama to… More
  Yet another found footage movie fails to hit the mark. The movie opens with footage filmed by police at the scene of a triple murder, the victims being two priests and a nun. Twenty years later, Andrade, daughter of the killer, sets off to Rome with documentary film-maker Grama to finally meet her mother, who it seems is possessed by a demon. Why she was transferred to a psychiatric facility in Rome is never quite explained, but I guess Rome is a better setting for a horror movie than Philadelphia. The reason the found footage genre has such a low success rate is because it attracts so many hacks. Film-makers think they can make it look as amateurish as possible and this will excuse their lack of talent. They're wrong of course as this is a genre that requires a serious attention to detail in order to pass it off as reality. It's a quality Bell is severely lacking. For instance there's a scene inside Crowley's cell with three characters, one of whom is the cameraman. When we cut to footage from the CCTV camera in the cell however there are now only two characters, the cameraman now nowhere to be seen. "Chronicle" succumbed to similar mistakes. This is a genre that has it's own unique set of rules and if you don't understand them you'll be easily caught out. The exorcism scenes are exactly what we've become used to, contortionists standing in for possessed girls with potty mouths. Crowley's idea of speaking in tongues only seems to stretch as far as a dodgy cockney accent. After a dull first hour the movie does start to get into interesting territory but just as our curiosity is peaked the movie (quite literally) crashes to a halt and we're left feeling cheated and frustrated. The European release of this has been delayed quite a while, strange considering it was quite a hit Stateside, taking $33 million for a $1 million budget. American audiences were furious at the ending which told viewers to visit a website to continue the story. This has been erased for the European release but the movie's climax still leaves us hanging in its abruptness. The best thing about this endeavour is Andrade. I hope she goes on to bigger things as I could happily spend more time looking at her stunning face.

• Jeff B

  
  Disappointingly NOT a bio-pic of INXS singer Michael Hutchence, The Devil Inside is rather a poor lesson in horror that's hardly as scary as hell in the long shadow of similar exorcises. Director William Brent Bell and his co-screenwriter Matthew Peterman have frightening… More
  Disappointingly NOT a bio-pic of INXS singer Michael Hutchence, The Devil Inside is rather a poor lesson in horror that's hardly as scary as hell in the long shadow of similar exorcises. Director William Brent Bell and his co-screenwriter Matthew Peterman have frightening ambition, however. Their story features DNA from two tangents that have weighed down the horror genre as of late. First, the movie involves the taboo Catholic practice of using men of the cloth to get the Devil out...or as bad filmmaking recently called it: The Exorcism of Emily Rose, An American Haunting, and The Rite. Second, it's a faux documentary found footage thriller in the vein of Quarantine, Paranormal Activity, and, yes, The Last Exorcism. The Devil Inside doesn't scare up a good spooker by re-inventing this wheel of cheese. In this R-rated horror flick, a young woman (Andrade) sets out to determine if her mother (Suzan Crowley) is criminally insane or demonically possessed with the help of two rogue priests (Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth). Blame The Exorcist. This classic horror film is just so good at firing the imagination. After two The Exorcist sequels (Exorcist: A Beginning and Dominion: A Prequel) and countless other such tales already spun in the 21st century, however, making another exorcism flick amounts to beating a possessed horse...unless there was a particularly fresh idea. Aping Paranormal Activity and its sequels, however, doesn't qualify. Even if this flick offered a fresh twist, the movie still has dialogue that's more wooden than a ventriloquist's dummy. Rather, it's... Bottom line: Deja Boo all over again.

• Will T

  
  Bad, boring mess. Jump scares are poor man's horror. ..., no real scares, misleading trailer, and the focus of it is not what you think. Just a really bad excuse for a horror movie, watch Last Exorcism or The Exorcist instead..also, at about the 75 minute mark, the movie ends...… More
  Bad, boring mess. Jump scares are poor man's horror. ..., no real scares, misleading trailer, and the focus of it is not what you think. Just a really bad excuse for a horror movie, watch Last Exorcism or The Exorcist instead..also, at about the 75 minute mark, the movie ends... if you're gonna be a terrible movie, at least have something resembling a 3rd act!

• Christopher H

  
  The Devil Inside does little to think outside the realm of the horror, fake documentary genre. With the usual scares and repetitive demonic possessions, the scariest parts of the films, like a dog barking out of nowhere while the "crew" is walking outside, almost seem like… More
  The Devil Inside does little to think outside the realm of the horror, fake documentary genre. With the usual scares and repetitive demonic possessions, the scariest parts of the films, like a dog barking out of nowhere while the "crew" is walking outside, almost seem like happy accidents instead of planned spooks. The plot gets progressively worse as the film drags on and the ending of the film is completely laughable, leaving a rotten taste.

• Nick S

  
  Like all things in life, if it's used too much, it becomes boring. We've all seen many exorcism films, and the only good one was "The Exorcist." Of course. You see, the death of many franchises are due to the fact that they're remade all the time. This… More
  Like all things in life, if it's used too much, it becomes boring. We've all seen many exorcism films, and the only good one was "The Exorcist." Of course. You see, the death of many franchises are due to the fact that they're remade all the time. This happened to "The Three Musketeers", "A Christmas Carol," etc. It comes to the point where all the films just start looking exactly the same. This film is no exception. The concept of exorcisms film has now been down-graded to a first person video camera (which must have a lot of battery power) in just messy and shaky shot after shot. All the characters are stale and boring. I'm aware that films like this are not concerned with acting and basic filmmaking; but if not, then you'd think they'd put a lot into making the film actually scary. Oh, right; screenwriting is also part of making a good film. Oh. This film just borrows and recycles images from past exorcism films and hopes it will be scary. Show us something new. A possessed girl playing Twister with herself on a bed in a basement ins't scary or original. That stuff has been done before. Plus, the whole ending to this film is just an utterly frustrating mess that makes absolutely no sense at all. In fact, the ending concludes all of our characters in a completely irrelevant way to what the film is about. Exorcisms. The film is just bad and not interesting and just boring. Not worth YOUR hard earned money. Go see "Shame".

• Laurence C

  
  The sole notable aspect of The Devil Inside is that it is far and away the least engaging, scary or satisfying shit-show in both the handheld horror and exorcism-gone-wrong craze. Seriously, movies don't get much worse than The Devil Inside.

Read all 19 featured audience ratings