Review of "The Devil Inside"

The Devil Inside
Starring: doesn't matter
Directed by William Brent Bell
My Recommendation: All depends on your attitude,
but I say go for it.

Horror is always my go-to drama, but I felt an instinct pulling me towards The Devil Inside. Though I'll admit I was pretty psyched to see this, as ticklish as the previews were, I wasn't walking along deluding myself into thinking that I was about to experience a genuinely riveting and mentally stimulating cinematic art piece. Instead, I was pleasantly anticipating something that would hopefully have a few scary moments and a few funny ones. I think that's the right mindset to have going into it; it prepares you for a softer let down and if it actually turns out amazing, like Drag Me To Hell, it's an even bigger reward! Now, that wasn't the case with The Devil Inside, but I was pretty decently entertained regardless. But that's not how critics nor audiences felt about it. RottenTomatoes.com yielded a 7% approval rate and IMDB.com was slightly more generous with 3.8/10. I feel the need to plea the defense. You see, The Devil Inside is as stupid as it is scary, but what separates it from lesser quality films is simple: the thrills are still there. A dark room may be necessary accompaniment, but this film delivers what it promised. It's a titillating ride with frequent moments of eye-rolling dialogue, but that's how a crappy horror film does it and in my opinion, The Devil Inside does it right.

That being said, I have to make fun of it a little. The film copies The Blair With Project, setting itself up as a documentary with the camera man as a main character. Unlike the former, this film often loses sight of the attempted genre. Regardless, it is a workable backdrop for the story of Isabella Rossi and her mother, who resides in a psychiatric facility near the vatican after her attempted exorcism killed three church members. Isabella wants to find out what happened to her mother, so she leaves with a camera and the documentary's director to visit her mother for the first time in twenty years. The fun ensues from there. My favorite blunders are when the shots cut to angles taken from a camera that doesn't exist. Seriously. I mean, in one shot the camera is angled over Isabella Rossi's shoulder. In the next shot, the camera is facing the front right side of her face, angled near where the other camera should be. But it isn't there. I should say that actually cinematography is not atrocious throughout the film, but it's just fun to point out the boners.

So, in conclusion, I had a good time watching this movie and you can to if you just turn it on with the right mindset and a little bit of weed.