Up close with the devil

The Devil Inside (2012)
Certified: 18
Duration: 87 minutes
Directed by: William Brent Bell
Starring: Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, Ionut Grama, Suzan Crowley, Bonnie Morgan, Brian Johnson, Preston James Hillier, D.T. Carney
KRS release

How does a $1 million budget movie end up grossing over $100 million and still counting?

The Devil Inside manages this without having any big stars and by utilising the found-footage genre.

This way, the production can write off the crude acting simply as being even more realistic.

The subject of exorcism has also been a cinematic gold mine since Linda Blair appeared in The Exorcist (1973).

Isabella Rossi (Fernanda Andrade) is in Rome to find out whether her mother Maria (Suzan Crowley) is possessed by the devil or whether she has some form of mental sickness.

Along with her is Michael (Ionut Grama), a documentary producer. Maria had undergone an exorcism 10 years before. This had ended badly and she had killed two priests and a nun.

After this incident, Maria was locked up in a mental hospital and the Vatican cut off all ties to the case.

Now Isabella tries to get some experts to see her mother.

Fr David (Evan Helmuth) and exorcist Ben (Simon Quarterman) pay heed to her call.

The theory is that Maria is possessed by more than one demon which raises the difficulties of carrying out an exorcism since other people could become possessed in the process.

It’s obvious from the start that the exorcism will not go as planned. In fact, that is the reason why they call the genre “found- footage” as the footage has been found after its owner had suffered a bad ending.

By now it’s no longer a case of the audience actually believing that the footage is real as had been the case with Blair Witch but more a case of bringing a reality factor to the audience.

The result is very similar to a home movie with no polish at all.

The scares that are to be found are in the little things, the atmosphere and the realistic setting.

The film’s ending comes almost without a warning which will leave many of the audience members discussing what had actually happened.