Big Screen Blurb: The Devil Inside

A priest, a chick, a student and a videographer walk into a exorcism. No, no, it's not a joke. It's a movie, one designed to scare the scootledop out of you. So, are you looking for a flick to freak-your-freak and think The Devil Inside is the answer? Hmmm...Let me put it this way. You might have more luck if you went to a hypnotist and had her erase your memory of watching The Sixth Sense then go watch that one again.

Meet Isabelle (Fernanda Andranda). She's a twenty-something who has had it a little rough. This is mainly because her mama went...well, a little psycho-nutso and violently slaughtered two priests and a nun when lil Issy was eight. There's been much mystery surrounding the events since, leaving Isabelle with plenty of questions. To add to the intrigue, mama was shipped off to an asylum in Italy. So, off Isabelle goes to Rome, building frequent flyer miles and looking to learn more about her madre. The investigation begins with a class on exorcism. After all, it was during an exorcism in which those murders ocurred. With that in mind, she joins her entourage in a series of under-the-table exorcisms. Yadayadayada all hell breaks loose...check that...all hell is released as events spiral out of control--all under the lens of the documentarian for good measure.

I realize The Devil Inside has been butchered by many reviewers--mainly because of the ending. I'm not going to fillet the thing, but honestly, it's not very good. I'll go with 2.0 Stars. It's true...there are some interestingly intense scenes that get you thinking that this one just might have something. Unfortunately, there are just too few of those moments and just not enough glue (in the form of solid acting performances) to make it all stick together.

The acting is shoddy at best. These kinds of flicks are difficult to cast because the objective centers around genuine realism. That sense of reality is not something that the audience is going to buy into if you've got a cast of familiar faces on-screen. Therefore, you're left with a group of actors with no real track record of pulling off a challenging genre...S&S (Suspense & Scary). This group didn't.

Further, it's so scripted within the 'reality' concept, you're immediately drawn away from any genuine feel. I'm not a big fan of the hand-held camera, docu-style shoot (along the lines of The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield or Quarantine). They usually make me nauseous, and I eat way too much at the movies to get that feeling, but I digress. That aspect didn't really bother me in this flick, so maybe I'm adjusting to it or maybe it was done with a steadier hand! Who knows? I do know that for a movie which was supposed to be grounded in suspense and genuine realism, it was pretty predictable and fake.

As for the ending, hmm--actually, I'm not going to beat anyone up over the ending. It's unique and ballsy. I'll give it that much credit, which is a little something to build on, right?

All things considered, this is nothing to see BIG and is a marginal rental at best. That's only if you get in a mood to see a sloppy flick in the ole S&S genre.

True...OUT!