If star ratings were awarded for trying, The Devil Inside would definitely get 5/5 stars. It truly wants to be something. Ever since the Blair Witch Project redefined horror with its 'first person perspective' there have been many imitators.Some have worked, others haven't. Sadly, The Devil Inside is the latter.Every post-Blair Witch first person film will be judged against Blair Witch and, although The Devil Inside tries to break away, it doesn't really succeed. It's about a girl who goes to the Vatican to track down her long lost mother, who was sanctioned by the Catholic Church. Was she simply mad, or possessed? The Devil Inside lurches from one carbon copy of another similar film to another. I saw shades of Paranormal Activity mixed in there with The Last Exorcism (both superior films in my opinion). The actors did as best they could with what they were given. As with these kinds of films, they did well to capture the 'naturalistic' elements of their dialogue.It's just not that scary. If you've seen one exorcism movie, then you've basically seen this one (even if this one does do it from a first-person perspective - which The Last Exorcism has already done anyway).It's not bad, it's just not original. And (SEMI SPOILER ALERT) the ending will leave viewers thoroughly divided. You only have to look at some message boards to see that some people loved it - most despised it and felt ripped off.It's your call. If you really need one more exorcism movie, then give it a go. But you've probably seen everything The Devil Inside has to offer before... and better.

This movie should have been titled Sandman In Me cause I was ready to fall asleep 20 min in and reluctantly stayed awake to see it through to discover I wasted my time. Everyone giving a high rating must have terrible taste in "film".Awarded Worst Film -tied in third with Piranha 3DD - that should say it all... But, if you have the time to waist.... God's speed!!!! -Spoiler- 9-1-1 Call of Mother. News Footage of Crime. Daughter discussing with cameraman the story. Daughter visiting out of country to see Mother. Daughter speaking with priests who just so happen to do exorcisms on the side. Witness a random exorcism, Witness the mother's exorcism. Then lastly, Priest gets possessed, daughter then gets possessed, camera man gets possessed and all die. (This all happens within like last half hour of movie)

The opening snippet was from 30oct1989 detailing a 911 call. The caller, Maria Rossi, claims to have killed three people.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.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.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.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.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.Eight minutes in. I hate this movie. Isabella's film is so badly made it hurts to watch it.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.The video of the possessed patients that is shown in the school is of a fifth style, which is the worst of them all: gray on gray, low contrast, small images, iffy sound.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.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.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.That involved quite a performance by Bonnie Morgan.Isabella, Keane, and Rawlings discuss what, if anything, they can do for Isabella's mother Maria.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.The hospital staff intervene. No surprise there.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.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.-----Scores------Cinematography: 0/10 Uses many styles, most of which are terrible to look at.Sound: 6/10 Uneven.Acting: 8/10 The actors are fairly good at faking documentary style. The contortionist Bonnie Morgan was impressive as Rosa Sorlini.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.

THE DEVIL INSIDE starts out as a promising 'found footage' style mockumentary, detailing demonic possession in much the same way as the (better) LAST EXORCISM. After a genuinely creepy opening segment, however, it gradually starts to fall apart and ends up being an ultra-familiar and, in the end, disappointing movie.The problem with the film is the story, or lack of it. It follows a group of rookie priests who perform various exorcisms, and the narrative is tenuously tied together by the presence of a pretty young woman who's attempting to help her mother, herself a victim of possession. The trouble is, it all plays out exactly as you'd expect, with nary a surprise along the way.It goes without saying that the two exorcism scenes are genuinely disturbing, but that's only because they slavishly copy the EXORCIST formula without adding much in the way of new stuff; it also strikes me that the limb-breaking stuff has been done before in THE LAST EXORCISM or elsewhere. And as the film gets on, it gets worse, until it ends up being just people running around and screaming instead of compelling viewing. It comes up short and abrupt at the end, reinforcing my opinion that the writers ran out of steam.