The Devil Inside Review

Plot Summary:
In 1989, a triple murder was committed by Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) while an exorcism was being performed on her. The court finds her not guilty by reasons of insanity and is sentenced to a Catholic asylum in Rome. Twenty years later, her daughter Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) and a film crew try to find an exorcist that will help Maria. However, Isabella is fearful that someday she will become possessed.

The Positives:
This film really has no notable positive aspects. However, the marketing crew behind this is simply genius and I feel they deserve some recognition. This marketing crew made this truly awful film look great and terrifying by creating fantastic trailers and commercials for it. It's a shame they had to work for this film, but I am sure this marketing crew has great projects ahead of them.

The Negatives:
This is easily one of the worst films I have ever seen, there are so many problems with it. My first issue with it is how it fails in both the horror genre and the "found footage" sub-genre. To make a horror movie effective, it has to be frightening. This film is far from frightening, all of the "best" scares were revealed in the trailers and the film relies on cheap jump scares to attempt to scare the audience. Instead, the audience is in laughter at each "scary" scene, this is never a good sign for a horror film. The film relies on too many horror cliches to get scares rather than trying to be original. Also, for a "found footage" film to be good, it has to be interesting. This film moves at a painfully slow pace and it gets so boring to the point where any interest is diminished.

Another issue I had with the film was the writing. The dialogue is terrible for the most part, in fact it's even laughable at most points. The way the characters speak and how they react to certain situations felt rather dumb to me. As a result, I did not care for the characters in this film, which is normally not good for a horror film. There are several plot holes and sub plots that do not go in any direction, which makes the film more confusing than it needs to be.

The biggest issue I had with the film was the ending. The film was bad enough already. However, this ending was so abrupt and inconclusive that I hated this film even more. It had a rising action and climax going, then it abruptly ended with a black screen showing a website. The audience at my screening booed at the end and rightfully so! I joined in with them. This is possibly the laziest ending I have ever seen in a film, and I do not wish to go on that website they showed at the end of the film, since the 80 minutes I have seen already was terrible enough.

Conclusion:
The Devil Inside is lazy filmmaking at its finest. The first film of 2012 is already one of the worst films of 2012. It's easily one of the worst films I have ever seen, and possibly one of the most unsatisfying movie experiences since The Last Airbender. Avoid it at all costs. It's a pure rip-off of your money and a pure waste of time.

Rating: 1 out of 10