The Devil Inside Directed by: William Brent Bell Starring: Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth Rating: R Release Date: January 6, 2012
TRAILER SCORE: 7/10
Thoughts by TSR: Another creepy movie about exorcisms! I never tire of huddling under my theater chair, hoping the dumb sh*t on screen isn't really going into the dark barn after the scampering devil-child. No, really. I haven't gotten sick of it and I'm not likely to. Which is one of the reasons I can overlook the potential for major recycling from other, more original movies about exorcisms.
The trailer has a dabbling of freaky scenes that aren't fresh, but still creepy. Of course, you have an advantage if you're making a film about a contorted, babbling mad woman, who likes to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and hurl priests against the wall. It's already such a spooky concept, that it's easy for movies to get a little sloppy or lazy or both.
From what the trailer shows us, it appears to be trying very hard to make its mark among sturdier horror movies, but it doesn't quite make it. It falls somewhere in the gray area between The Last Exorcism and Quarantine, with just a smidgen of The Fourth Kind tossed in for good measure. And this is too bad for many reasons, including the fact that the above three movies mentioned also borrowed liberally from horror movies before them. So it might be a copy of a copy copied from another copy and then xeroxed.
It's risky to make a mockumentary style movie when you're up against a box office juggernaut like Paranormal 3. But then again, that's just the trailer. It's a collection of scenes strung together cohesively in an attempt to lure me into spending money to see it in the theater. It's not a very good collection of scenes, but let's hope that's not an indication of the movie itself.