THE DEVIL INSIDE Review

How many more faux-documentary horror movies must we endure from experienced filmmakers who are only pretending that they have no idea how to make a movie?

The Devil Inside is the latest example. William Brent Bell only has a couple of previous feature films to his credit as a director, but he's been in the film industry at least since 1994. Gonzalo Amat, director of photography, began his career in 2002. Tim Mirkovich, credited as film editor along with Bell, has gained extensive experience over the past decade.

I suppose it's to their collective credit that The Devil Inside looks like it was assembled, for the most part, by amateurs. That was evidently their intention. But here's the problem for someone who wants to watch a movie and be entertained, or possibly even deeply disturbed and/or pleasantly discombobulated by the experience: They went too far.

So, yes, The Devil Inside could be the work of a fledgling documentary filmmaker or a committed amateur with an abiding interest in the proceedings. But why would anyone beyond a small circle of family and friends want to see an the awkward, often dry and boring, finished product?

Ah, and now we arrive at the crux of the problem with The Devil Inside. Frankly, if the story it told or the characters it depicted were entirely compelling and dramatically powerful, the audience would forgive the manner in which it was presented. It's happened before and it could happen again.

But in its first 10-12 minutes, The Devil Inside lazily borrows almost every exhausted trope of the horror / mock-documentary sub-genre that has developed in the 13 years since the debut of The Blair Witch Project. Then it proceeds to recycle every scene in every exorcism movie that the filmmakers have ever seen or heard about. Then it repeats some of them. Then it's over.

Here's what I mean: the movie begins with (1) a disclaimer about the Vatican's non-involvement, (2) an audio-only 9-1-1 emergency call recording, (3) a found-footage sequence purporting to show the police arriving at the scene of a bloody multiple murder.

That's three cliches on top of another. Once we get past that, we have the bulk of the movie, which fast forwards 20 years to 2009 and is told from the point of view of Isabella Rossi (Fernanda Andrade, distractingly beautiful) and Michael (Ionut Grama), the fledgling filmmaker.

Isabella's mother, Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) is the one who made the 9-1-1 call, admitting that she committed the murders, which took place (apparently) during an attempted exorcism. She was declared insane, and somehow ended up in a mental health care facility in Vatican City, where she is studied as part of the Vatican's school for exorcism, where priests are trained for ordination as exorcists. Once at the school, Isabella and Michael meet ordained exorcists Ben (Simon Quarterman) and David (Evan Helmuth), who become convinced that Maria was, indeed, possessed by a demon, but remains without needed treatment because the Vatican is afraid that she might kill again.

Isabella becomes determined to help her mother, and Ben agrees that an exorcism should be performed. David is afraid of the consequences, not only from the Church but also from the secular authorities, who might arrest him for performing the exorcism, which is illegal.

It all plays out in rote fashion; we never learn very much about the priests or the filmmaker, so it's difficult to be empathetic when they act foolishly. Isabella establishes her character arc in her first moments on screen, when she expresses her fear that she will turn out just like her mother, a note of too-obvious foreshadowing that is never developed or dwelt upon. Thus, the eventuality of her character's journey is never in doubt.

Dreadfully dull, The Devil Inside runs less than 90 minutes, which is its only saving grace.

The Devil Inside opens wide across the U.S. on Friday, Jan. 6.