Rating of
1.5/4
A Snore of a Horror Film with a Terrible Ending
mitchellyoung - wrote on 08/13/12
I find supernatural horror films particularly scary, so, by the very nature of vaguely following some staples of the genre, The Devil Inside is unsettling. Its premise, in fact, is a smart one, but the execution is completely routine and removes a lot of the fear potential from the film. We aren't given any time to get to know the characters, a problem which renders the chaotic final act moot (since we don't care about the characters, we don't care about the peril they are placed into.) A lot of the acting and dialogue is poor and the film doesn't really branch out in any radical direction in the genre. The Exorcist will reign supreme as one of the scariest horror films of all time, but even lesser movies, such as the Omen or even Paranormal Activity are far superior to this impostor. Much has been written about the ending, which I won't spoil here. I will say that it is abrupt, invalidates a lot of the experience that came before, and includes one of the more bold instances of self-aware marketing I've seen in a movie. People have a reason to hate this movie. I didn't hate it, but I didn't enjoy it, either.
