THE DEVIL INSIDE
When it comes to cinematic portrayals of his powers, these sure are hard times for the Devil. When Satan took possession of little Regan in 1973’s The Exorcist, furniture levitated and vomit spewed. More than half a century later, the weirdest trick the Beast conjures for The Devil Inside is to force his female victims to twist their bodies into painful yoga poses. Such sights are what 27-year-old Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) sees when she travels from America to Rome to visit her mother (Suzan Crowley), who’s been housed in a Vatican-run insane asylum since killing two priests and a nun during a 1989 exorcism of her tortured soul. Isabella has brought along a videographer whose “found footage” forms this mock documentary by writer-director William Brent Bell. For backup, Isabella enlists the aid of two young priests (Simon Quarterman and Evan Helmuth) that she meets at a Vatican-sponsored exorcism class (swear to God). Realizing, perhaps, that they don’t have the budget to stage a proper final exorcism, Bell and co-writer Matthew Peterman send their demon body-hopping (literally), which leads to a memorably goofy baptism sequence and a finale so lame that one actually wishes that poor Beelzebub would get himself a better agent. (Chuck Wilson)
