20131011: Horror Review--The Devil Inside

The Devil Inside

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film 2012, rated R, 83 minutes, horror, mys
2. IMDB: 4.1/10.0 from 24,467 users; estimated budget, 1 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 6% on the meter; 22% of 43,573 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.1/5.0 from 441,790 users.
5. Directed by: William Brent Bell; written by William Brent Bell and Matthew Peterman.
6. Starring: Fernande Andrande as Isabella Rossi, Simon Quarterman as Father Ben Rawlings, Evan Helmuth as Father David Keane, Ionut Grama as Michael Schaeffer,  Suzan Crowley as Maria Rossi, Bonnie Morgan as Rosa Sorlini.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The opening snippet was from 30oct1989 detailing a 911 call.  The caller, Maria Rossi, claims to have killed three people.


2. We jump the shark immediately thereafter.  The next part of the film is 'found footage' or whatever nice phrase one uses to describe Blair Witch style worse-than-useless camera work.  Someone follows the cops around the crime scene.


3. Priest in the kitchen with the monkey wrench to the head.  Nun bludgeoned in the basement with something.  Priest hung in the basement with the rope.  Signs that a chair was used to restrain a subject.


4. The daughter, Isabella Rossi does a film (oi, film within a film) to help Isabella understand what went on with her mother.  This film is not very good either.  It's sort of better than the police mess, but not by that much.


5. The interleaved television station news footage also sucked rocks.  The main part of the narrative (outside experts who are not in Isabella's film) is recorded in a fourth style, which looks quite competent.  The many cuts among these styles makes the film look like a hodge-podge of nonsense circling the bowl after flushing.


6. After being found not guilty by reason of insanity, Maria was committed to the South Hartford State Asylum.  A bit later, Maria is transferred to the Centrino Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Rome, Italy.  This is curious.  One hopes for future exposition of motivation.  Some facts came to Isabella in May of 2009 from her father.  Maria was the restrained subject in the room; the two priests and the nun were performing an exorcism on Maria.  The father died three days later.


7. Eight minutes in.  I hate this movie.  Isabella's film is so badly made it hurts to watch it.


8. Isabella contacts the exorcism school, and they allow her to conduct interviews and to film classes and the like.  Nice of them; of course, they have been doing who knows what to Maria for 20 years.


9. The video of the possessed patients that is shown in the school is of a fifth style, which is the worst of them all: grey on grey, low contrast, small images, iffy sound.


10. The admission to Centrino was described to Isabella's father by the Church as an act of forgiveness.  Perhaps the Church was asking for forgiveness from him for what they did to his wife.


11. Isabella's film traces her route into Centrino, then her discussion with the chief medic, then the first visit with Maria.  Maria is largely non-responsive.  Maria keeps saying connect the cuts for a while.  She does not recognize Isabella or the likelihood of her being her daughter.  She tells Isabella that she should not have killed her child, then goes off the deep end.


12. She meets with two of the exorcists, Ben Rawlings and David Keane, and shows them the interviews.  Isabella and the exorcists delve into what's legal and not regarding exorcisms post 1999, when the Church changed the rules on the subject.  They convince Isabella and crew to witness one of their off-the-books exorcisms.


13. That involved quite a performance by Bonnie Morgan.


14. Isabella, Keane, and Rawlings discuss what, if anything, they can do for Isabella's mother Maria.


15. They finagle getting into Centrino and seeing Maria semi-privately with Maria in a highly medicated state.  Maria goes to sleep on them, which is a sign that they are barking up the wrong tree.  The Maria goes off on them, screaming with eyes widely dilated, and then proceeding to say all sorts of nasty things, in German and English.


16. The hospital staff intervene.  No surprise there.


17. They consider options; they could approach the Church with the new video, or they could use Doctor Costa's recommendation might get a transfer back to the States.


18. Things start to fall apart toward the end.  The camera man, the exorcists, and Isabella are all upset and on edge.  The Church is investigating the incident at Centrino, for one thing, and Michael is feeling massively unappreciated.  David nearly drowns a baby that he was baptizing.  Things get worse after that.


3. Conclusions
1. Minus two stars for using Blair Witch style to such bad effect.  The URL www.TheRossiFiles.com does not point to a healthy page.
2. One sentence summary:  The Exorcist descends into a Blair Witch style pseudo-documentary.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 0/10  Uses many styles, most of which are terrible to look at.


2. Sound: 6/10 Uneven.


3. Acting: 8/10 The actors are fairly good at faking documentary style. The contortionist Bonnie Morgan was impressive as Rosa Sorlini.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Reasonably good for clear narrative and exposition of motivations. I would have rated this four stars if the camera work had been competent.