Ever since The Exorcist scared the bejeezus out of a generation of moviegoers, filmmakers have been trying to equal or better the definitive cinematic tale of demonic possession. It’s a high bar to surpass, what with the head spinning, projectile vomiting, spider walking, and crucifix masturbating. And to make it even creepier, there’s that whole “based on real events” label. Despite nobody having dethroned the champ over the ensuing four decades, that hasn’t stopped scrappy up-and-comers from taking their shot. Now we’ve got not one, but two exorcism/possession-related horror flicks coming down the pike: The Possession and The Devil Inside. They were both slated to open around the same time, but now Possession has fallen back to next August, with Devil Inside holding fast to its January 6th release. With that date fast approaching, Paramount/Insurge Pictures have unleashed a new TV spot for the film.
You’ve got all the old standards: creepy demonic voices, bodies bending in unnatural ways, a man of the cloth doing his best to rein in the madness. It all looks very creepy, but how will it play out in the full film? The most basic requirement of any horror movie is to be scary, but since it’s playing in such a familiar genre, will The Devil Inside manage to bring anything to the (communion) table that we haven’t already seen a thousand times? Does that even matter?
The Devil Inside tells the story of a woman in Italy investigating the fate of her mother, who allegedly killed three people while being exorcised. The film was directed by William Brent Bell and co-written by Bell and Matthew Peterman. The two previously collaborated on the 2006 horror flick Stay Alive, which involved a video game that could kill you. That’s not a credit that inspires enormous confidence in me, but hey, everybody makes some clunkers before they make the good ones, right? Hopefully The Devil Inside falls in the latter category.
