Review

Maria Rossi is found not guilty of murdering three people due to insanity, and for some strange reason is shipped off to the Centrino Mental Hospital in Rome, Italy. Years later her daughter Isabella decides to make a documentary about her mother in order to try and understand what happened, and why the concept of exorcism continues to dominate her life. With cameramen Michael in tow Isabella flies out to Rome to visit the Vatican's School of Exorcism and to see her mother, who Isabella hasn't had contact with in something like thirty years.

At the Exorcism school Isabella meets Fr. Ben Rawlings an ordained exorcist and Fr. David Keane MD. an ordained Priest and Licensed Physician. Seems the two Priests are slightly on the rogue side and are conducting exorcisms on people the Catholic Church has determined aren't possessed. Isabella meets with her mother, who is either possessed or completely off her rocker, Maria knows things she shouldn't know. Seeking help from the renegade Priests Isabella hits an exorcism conducting by the duo that apparently works. They try to determine if Maria is possessed, with pretty much hell breaking loose within their ranks as a result. The concepts of transference and multiple demonic possession came into play in pretty dramatic circumstances. Let's whip out the holy water and hit the latest found footage exorcism movie.

Director Bell's journey into the myriad issues with "found footage" flicks has certainly raised a storm of controversy, particularly over the abrupt ending to proceedings. Unfortunately for the Director his movie is slightly too smart for the average mouth breather who wants everything spelt out, a standard cookie cutter movie, and who is otherwise not prepared to connect with a movie that requires a deal of concentration to join the dots. I managed to grab a screening at home which was lucky as fellow movie maverick Sal was unable to decipher the movie at the cinema due to the noise levels of the brain dead audience he had to endure the movie with. Simply put, you need to listen and follow the clues as they are presented, Bell and fellow Writer Matthew Peterman don't spring surprises at you from left field, they have constructed a movie with a very solid framework. It also helps if you get the concept of "mortal sin" to be honest, which is the issue confronting our four leads in their journey to spiritual enlightenment via tribulation.

Bell keeps his movie intense from the first scene right through to the final statement the movie makes, if you can't handle dramatic horror flicks then get the flock out, the Director is taking no prisoners here. The concepts of atmosphere and tension are layered onto the movie to such a degree that many viewers may find the footage damn near impossible to watch in places. Hell, you have to love that in a movie, and it certainly sets The Devil Inside apart from the deluge of Boredwood teen orientated garbage the dark genre regularly submerges itself under. I was hit between the eyes from the first frame and didn't take my eyes off the screen till the final credits rolled. I was left battered and torn by a movie that shattered my perception of what it was going to be about.

Director Bell is taking a lot of risks with this movie and successfully delivers the required chills

Things kick off in high gear with a crime scene in a residential U.S city. We accompany a Police officer via a cameraman as he audits a multiple homicide, seems three clergy were slaughtered while conducting an exorcism we later learn, and pretty soon run into the rather demented Maria Rossi, the apparent perpetrator of the atrocity. There seems to be some possessed chick requirement that they attack and try and eat any camera filming around them, get ready for the first of a number of jump scares thrown in to keep the audience frosty. Oops sort of spoiler there, never mind, moving along y'all. Pretty decent start to the film and we have our background on why Isabella feels compelled to make a documentary about possession.

Director Bell manages to keep things moving from there, without dropping the pace, I was actually quite surprised at how fast this movie was motoring toward the conclusion. Bell is meticulous in his construction of the elements that will explain our final scene, once again you are going to have to pay freaking attention, this movie is not for the "pretend to be scared" crowd. For example one Priest is moved to suicide, Bell grinds his character toward this final solution, laying out the pressure points as he goes. The thing you need to be aware of is that suicide is counted as one of the mortal sins, ergo the demon wins that round. Yes Bell has his old time religion on for those able to decipher the signs, nothing is spelt out, the Director has a lot of respect for his audience.

Guess where most people are going to part company with The Devil Inside is when the final scene hits. To be honest it comes out of the blue and is pretty sudden, though for mine bloody impactful. On reflection, and after some debate with the team, I was actually pretty happy with the conclusion as it reflects life. This is a found footage flick, ergo it's not going to play out like a Hollywood cookie cutter, sometimes there are no happy endings or resolutions that give everyone a feeling of closure. Director Bell made a gutsy move with his ending and I for one am applauding his decision not to go with the same old we have seen a trillion times before. Did I check out the website listed in the closing frames? Hell yeah, it was pretty boring and added nothing much to my understanding of events depicted in The Devil Inside.

I'm not going to discuss the acting, pretty solid for mine, camera effects, some interesting twists, or the soundtrack, was there one? - as this is a "found footage" epic, the usual rules do not apply. There's some camera shake at the start of the movie for those concerned about motion sickness, but this is resolved pretty quickly. Much better effort than The Blair Marketing Project, where three supposed film students had clearly never heard of camera stabilisers. Overall I was pretty juiced with the camera work in The Devil Inside, solid angles without the "reality" being eroded by a professional movie approach.

I logged into The Devil Inside aware of the criticism and not actually expecting a decent cinematic experience. As stated previously "found footage" flicks are generally not my thing, it's just another gimmick folks to push out low budget fare. But I have to admit I got hooked by the movie, didn't play the "what happens next" game, and was high fiving the poltergeists in my lounge room as the last scene played out. Don't believe the rent a crowd sheep who are attacking this movie, they simply didn't get the ending was a necessary device, catch a screening of The Devil Inside and make up your own mind. You are either going to love the flick or have some major problems with it, but make up your own mind rather than falling in line with the lynch mob. Full recommendation to fans of "found footage" or possession movies, you are going to have a blast with this one.

For the purposes of this review I hired a copy of The Devil Inside from my main man Bill down the local bottle shop. Currently the movie is on the new release shelves, available to purchase on the high street, and being pushed by various online places. Considering we're normally well behind the rest of the world when it comes to this sort of release, check out your normal avenues of obtaining cinematic goodness in your neck of the woods.