The Devil Inside

Updated: Jul 19, 2021

The 35th review overall!

I am at the last of my Family Video movies, so looks like tomorrow I’ll be digging through the Netflix well. It kinda sucks going live every night which means I’m up a bit later than I’d like to be, especially when I have an early day in the AM. But if I can get by this week doing a movie a night I think I should be sitting pretty for the rest of the month. So for my last of the four rented movies I went with...

The Devil Inside (2012)

Now, me being Catholic and of strong faith, movies involving exorcisms will always scare me. Not only are they very disturbing but I believe in them and that makes them even scarier. One of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen was a video on Youtube that had the audio and pictures of Anneliese Michel’s exorcism. If I never hear those screams again I will perfectly content about that. I don’t use the phrase “bone chilling” that often but that might be the most horrifying thing I’ve ever subjected myself to.

This movie is about a lady who murdered three people, two priests and a nun who were presiding over her exorcism. Fast forward ten years and the daughter gets a documentary crew and she wants to find some answers. There are some genuinely frightening moments in this movie; from the contortions, the guttural screams, and the way these people who are possessed mock the priests.

As for the movie itself, it’s put together really well. It’s shot as a documentary and it really feels like one. There are the testimonials and different camera angles that you’d expect to see while watching something on National Geographic or something. I was a bit surprised that there weren’t all that many exorcism scenes and they were pretty short too. You get to learn a good deal more about the characters more than I thought you would. Each exorcism in the movie is a struggle and you can see it really takes it’s toll on the priests, the bystanders, and the one who’s possessed, which is how it should be.

With the terrifying subject material I feel it could have been better. The practice of exorcisms is extremely fascinating and interesting. There’s an autobiography that I can’t remember the name of about a priest who was Rome’s official exorcist and he writes about some of the things he’s seen. It’s a book I’ve wanted to read for a few years now but haven’t been able to find it.

When discussing this movie with anyone who’s seen it, the elephant in the room will almost immediately be brought up, the ending. It might be the worst ending I have ever seen in a movie. It was really starting to hit its stride and I found myself getting really into it, then the ending happened. It literally made me angry. My first initial thought was, “What the fuck.” Followed by, “Are you kidding me?!”