Exorcism: A word that can send a chill down anyone’s spine. The new supernatural horror film, The Devil Inside, released on January 6 and was directed by William Brent Bell. Imitating the documentary-like feel of the Paranormal Activity series, the high expectations of the film led to a gross revenue of $147,662,000 so far. This horror film is seen as a documentary surrounding the life of Isabella Rossi (Fernanda Andrade) as she investigates the subject of exorcism in order to discover the reason behind her mother’s three psycho-driven murders 20 years earlier.
The film starts with Isabella’s mother, Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) making a 9-1-1 call in 1989, claiming to the police that she has killed three people. The next scene switches to the police investigation, showing the violently murdered bodies. As more information is revealed, the audience discovers that the murdered people were all priests, and these violent killings took place during an exorcism performed on Maria herself. As the scene switches to modern times, Isabella reveals to the camera that she is flying to Rome to visit her mother, Maria and to find answers. With her good friend and priest, Ben (Simon Quarterman) she begins to film a documentary to find out the difference between being possessed and having a mental illness. After arriving in Rome, Isabella meets two priests, David (Evan Helmuth), and Michael (Ionut Grama) who agree to help her. After Isabella goes to visit her mother in the hospital, things get a little bit freaky. Mumbling unintelligible words, Maria appears to have no idea where she is, when all of a sudden she begins referencing things in Isabella’s teenage life that only a mother would know. Then, she proceeds to show Isabella a cross carved into her lower lip, before screaming at the top of her lungs and scaring Isabella off. While realizing that her mother cannot exactly help her in her discovery, the priests agree that the best thing to do would be to have Isabella witness a real exorcism, herself. The group goes to visit a possessed girl named Rosalita (Bonnie Morgan). As the priests perform the exorcism, they begin hearing different voices come out of Rosalita’s mouth, believed to have belonged to the devil himself. As an attempt to escape the circumcision, Rosalita bends her body anyway she can, until her femur cracks. As the group hustle out of there, Isabella realizes that the devil is real and so was the exorcism. As the documentary continues, the group witnesses more and more spooky things and struggles to make sense of it all, as they help Isabella discover her mother’s past.
Overall, this movie was highly disappointing. Not only was this movie much more gory than scary, but it also lacked a plot, which left the audience confused and uninterested. With the idea that the film would revolve around the mother, as it started, the audience was disappointed when she only appeared twice throughout the movie. With a lack of frightening scenes, the blood and gore in every other scene did not help draw the audience’s attention. This movie is not recommended for any age because it did not follow the original plot or genre. In an attempt to follow in the footsteps of the Paranormal Activity Series, this movie failed miserably as the documentary aspect was portrayed as weak and unrealistic. Lastly, with a lack of a resolution, this film was disappointing from beginning to end. Being a waste of money and 90 minutes of one’s life, one would be better off staying home.

(0.5 out of 5 stars)