The Devil Inside: Save yourself some time and go rent The Exorcist

Four years after her mother killed three clergy people, Isabella travels to Italy to visit her. She is convinced that her mother's actions were not her own four years ago and, with the help of two young priests, she hopes to cure her.

Fashioning itself in the same vein as other recent horror films such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, The Devil Inside presented its story with a documentary/found footage feeling that was meant to keep the audience on edge, wondering if what they were watching was staged or perhaps real. There were points in the film where what was happening to Isabella, Ben and the other characters could certainly make the audience jump, squirm or just shift around in their chair for it was unnerving and disturbing but the filmmakers failed to develop the story into anything more than a series of random scares. They raised the question of, is exorcism real or just mental illness but never bothered to explore it further and fold that into Isabella's quest to understand her mother's condition. Then there was the ending, which was wholly unsatisfying and seemed extremely lazy on the part of director William Brent Bell.

Ultimately, The Devil Inside was nothing more than a schlocky, exploitative horror film that did little more than utilize all the things previously seen in other "exorcism" films (i.e. women tied to beds, speaking in tongues and saying things that would make most sailors blush) without ever distinguishing itself from them. 

Grade: D

Devil: A wasted opportunity

Five strangers become trapped in an elevator. The situation becomes worse as each of them is murdered in a horrifying fashion and it’s up to a Detective to undercover the how’s and whys before everyone is killed.

Devil had an intriguing/promising premise that could have provided filmgoers with a thought-provoking thriller in that the devil was trapped in an elevator with four other people, looking to collect their souls. And while there were a few tense moments in which the close quarters and sound were effectively utilized to make the audience jump, they were never given a solid rationalization as to why the devil had to catch an elevator to nab those specific people. Somehow the suicide of a person at the beginning of the film triggered the events but aside from that, the audience just got a bunch of “it’s fate” dialogue and explanations and was left to fill in the blanks for themselves.

Add to that a cast of totally obnoxious characters, the banality of the “twist” in the story at the end of the film (a trademark of the film’s writer/producer M. Night Shyamalan's previous stories, and one he should consider giving up as it seems more contrived than creative anymore) and Devil came up short in delivering on its interesting idea.

Grade: D