The Devil Inside (2012)

There are few movies that are as universally hated as The Devil Inside.  From the found footage style to the divisive ending, people have turned against the movie in a way that would never have been expected before the movie’s release.  Now, over a year after its release, there is a lynch mob against this movie.  There is some reason to this hate, but there are other reasons for which it deserves more credit than it gets.

The Devil Inside is a horror movie from 2012, directed by William Brent Bell.  It stars Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, and Ionut Gramma.  The basic idea behind the movie is that a woman killed a few people during an exorcism and was sent to an asylum in Italy.  Years later, the woman’s daughter goes to Italy to find out what happened the woman and if she can go back to America.

The opening sequence of the movie is rather interesting, albeit reminiscent of a movie like Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake.   Before the found-footage voyage of the main character occurs, the police tape of the murder scene that her mother was involved in is shown.  This adds a level of eeriness to the proceedings as the aftermath of the murders are shown but not the murders themselves.  The conflict that occurred prior to the police arriving on the scene is left to the imagination.  What happens in the imagination can usually be more horrifying than what is shown.

The real highlights of the film, however, are the exorcism and possession scenes.  The way that the actors in the movie were able to contort their bodies into any position necessary was chilling.  As much as the monstrous events of the imagination send tingles down the spines of anyone watching the movie, seeing a body twisted in a way that would normally be impossible is terrifying.  Add to that the amateur camera work due to it being found footage and the overlapping voices that create the sound of a possible demonic force, and you have a frightening segment.  These are effective scenes that occur throughout the movie.  There is hardly a dull moment with things like this.

And we have now arrived at the end of the movie.  This is what sets most people off in there destructive, lynch mob mentality against the movie.  In the middle of what would be considered the climax of the film, the screen cuts to black.  A text card comes up asking the viewers to go to a website for more information about what they just saw.  There is essentially no ending to the movie, and there are loose plot threads all over the place.  No closure is brought to the movie.  Many people found this insulting and found the movie to be a waste of money because of it.  There is no denying that this causes problems due to the story never being brought to a close.  Does it hurt what comes before it?  That is arguable.  Most people act as if it does.  To an extent, it does.  But does it ruin the movie?  Does a bad ending mean that the entire movie before it was bad?  If you enjoyed what came before the ending, surely that cannot be the case.

The Devil Inside is not a great movie, but it is not nearly as bad as most people make it out to be.  For what was on the screen, it was enjoyable and exhilarating.  As a whole, it is weakened by a very poor ending.  It is still worth a watch.  Be warned though, that ending hurts.  It really, really hurts.

There is one note I would like to make:

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