The Devil Inside (film)

On October 30, 1989, Maria Rossi committed a triple murder during an exorcism performed on her. The Catholic Church became involved, and she has since been in a Catholic psychiatric hospital in Rome. Her daughter, Isabella, learned of the murders from her father, who died three days after telling her. Twenty years later, Isabella is in the process of filming a documentary with filmmaker Michael Schaefer about exorcisms and, to find out more about her mother, she visits Maria in Rome and meets two priests, Ben Rawlings and David Keane. Maria speaks in different accents and soils herself while screaming in an unidentified language. She has inverted crosses carved into her arms and her bottom lip and tells Isabella that killing a child is against God's will. Isabella had an abortion years ago and her mother had no way of knowing that—a sign that showed possible possession. David and Ben take her on an unsanctioned exorcism performed on Rosalita, a young woman. Rosalita calls Isabella by her name, despite not knowing her, and attacks the crew. Eventually, they get her under control. During an exorcism on Maria, she mentions knowing what Ben did in the past and transfers demons to David and Isabella. The process is unsuccessful. The group presents evidence to the Church. Ben finds that there are four different demons speaking in unison. While performing an immersion baptism at church, David mutters lines from the Bible and starts forcefully submerging the baby in the holy water before passing out. Soon after, Ben finds David at home with blood all over his forearms, much the way Maria was. The police arrive, and David acquires an officer's handgun. Ben tells him to fight it, but he begins to weep, reciting the Lord's Prayer, and forgets the last few words. He then shoots himself. Isabella begins having a seizure. Ben and Michael take her to the hospital, where Isabella slashes a nurse's throat. Ben comes to the realization that Isabella is possessed. Ben and Michael leave with her in a car, heading to get help for an exorcism. Isabella tries to strangle Michael and breathes into his mouth. He instantly shows signs of possession, accelerating into oncoming traffic. The car collides, killing Ben and Michael in the process, while Isabella disappears from the wreckage. A title card is shown informing that the case of the Rossi family is still unresolved and directing viewers to a website "for more information on the ongoing investigation". == Cast ==

• Fernanda Andrade as Isabella Rossi • Simon Quarterman as Father Ben Rawlings • Evan Helmuth as Father David Keane • Ionut Grama as Michael Schaefer • Suzan Crowley as Maria Rossi • Bonnie Morgan as Rosalita • Brian Johnson as Lieutenant Dreyfus • Preston James Hillier as Male Reporter • D.T. Carney as Detective • John Prosky as Father Christopher Aimes == Production ==

The film traces its origins to 2005, when Matthew Peterman read about the Catholic Church's school of exorcism and approached William Brent Bell to suggest using the idea for a screenplay. The two co-wrote a traditional script but eventually, according to Peterman, "got frustrated with that process". Following a suggestion from producer Morris Paulson, they rewrote it into a style reflecting the mockumentary and found footage techniques. Principal photography began in 2010 in several locations, including Bucharest, Rome, and Vatican City. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Steven Schneider took the film to Paramount Pictures, who ultimately produced it through their low-budget branch Insurge Pictures, acquiring the film as their first release in the hopes that it would replicate the success of Paranormal Activity. == Reception ==

The film was not screened for critics. It received an "F" from CinemaScore, which tracks audience reaction. The film topped the box office on its opening weekend, the first after the New Year's Day holiday (referred to as the dump months). It displaced Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which had held the position for three straight weeks. In its second weekend, the film dropped 76.2%, the largest second weekend drop for a film since Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience dropped 77.4%. Peter Howell of the Toronto Star wrote that the film was a candidate for the worst film of the year. Stephen Whitty of The Star-Ledger wrote, "After The Blair Witch Project got by with sticks and stones and offscreen noises, filmmakers started thinking they didn't have to show anything. Well, no. It's better when you don't show too muchbut if your story is about the supernatural, eventually you're going to have to come up with something. The Devil Inside can't." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune felt that the film "joins a long, woozy-camera parade of found-footage scare pictures, among them The Blair Witch Project, the Paranormal Activity films and certain wedding videos that won't go away". Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter stated that the film "proves as scary and unsettling as a slab of devil's food cakeonly considerably less satisfying". The New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis had a positive response to Crowley's acting and the scenes where the possessed is played by a contortionist, but said the film was just another foray into "a tediously exhausted subgenre that was already creatively tapped out when The Blair Witch Project spooked audiences more than a decade ago". The film's ending received particular criticism. David Haglund of Slate asked whether it is the worst movie ending of all time, citing various negative audience reactions. He wrote, "What upset them even more than its abruptness was the title immediately following it that urged audiences to visit a website to learn more. [It's] a marketing twist that makes audiences feel taken advantage of." Social media was flooded with videos of furious audience reactions, including one video showing an audience loudly booing and demanding refunds from Paramount. Some pointed out the website link being the worst addition, as they felt they paid admission to an incomplete film and were rewarded with an ending website title card that did not work. Bell defended the film by pointing out that the title card directing to a website was added by Paramount, given they "thought it was kind of cool to continue the story on this website". Joe Leydon of Variety wrote that the film "generates a fair amount of suspense during sizable swaths of its familiar but serviceable exorcism-centric scenario". == Legacy ==

The film's commercial success despite negative critical and audience reaction made it one of several that led studios to reconsider their longtime practice of confining horror films to the dump months and Halloween season. "For years, horror movies made $19–20 million in a January release. They would take the weekend and that would be it," C. Robert Cargill of Ain't It Cool News told Hollywood.com. "But The Devil Inside proved that even in our worst dumping ground, you can appeal to a market that won't see movies, and in fact they'll throw money at a terrible movie if it looks like it's good. I mean, $35 million is sick money for an opening weekend for a film that cost, what, $250,000?" == See also ==