The Devil Inside

The Devil Inside is a 2012 American found footage mockumentary supernatural horror film directed by William Brent Bell. The film stars Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, and Suzan Crowley, and was released theatrically on January 6.

Plot
Twenty years after Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) murdered three people, her daughter, Isabella (Fernanda Andrade), seeks the truth about that terrible night. Isabella travels to an Italian hospital for the criminally insane -- where Maria is locked away -- to find out whether her mother is mentally ill or demonically possessed. With the help of two young exorcists (Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth), Isabella tries to cure Maria -- and engages four demons in a battle for her mother's soul.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) It's basically a generic found footage/exorcism film that adds barely anything new to the genre.
 * 2) Really bad acting, save for Suzan Crowley portraying Maria Rossi as a wicked exorcized creature.
 * 3) Nonsensical plot. Basically what happens, in the beginning, is the daughter wants her mother back from Rome. She was the subject of an exorcism, and killed everyone that tried to exorcise her, and for some reason, they found her not guilty of reason.
 * 4) * In one scene, the mother, possessed, is singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and the daughter for some reason starts singing along with her.
 * 5) For some reason, the protagonist Isabella Rossi is trying to bring back her mother, even though she is possessed and killed all that tried to exorcise her! Why would she want to bring her mother back to the US even though there is a demon inside her!?
 * 6) There is absolutely nothing scary in the film.
 * 7) Way too shaky camera, even for a found-footage film.
 * 8) A scene shows the priest almost drowning a baby at a baptism.
 * 9) Very terrible dialogue about religion, Christianity, etc., with many characters stating the obvious. For example, after the scene where the priest almost drowns the baby, one of the characters ask "Is he in trouble?", with the cameraman replying that he doesn't know.
 * 10) Awful editing. For example, blood splats on the camera, but a few seconds later, it disappears. It's not wiped away or anything. It just disappears.
 * 11) It barely focuses on the plot. It only focuses on the subplot, which is a big no-no in films.
 * 12) The ending! Oh dear, the ending! Basically what happens is that after the car crash scene, the film ends. Right there! And that's not the worst part. After that scene, a title card pops up saying that the Rossi murders remain unsolved, and provides a link for the viewer for more information. The ending has been considered to be not only the worst scene in the film, but as one of the worst endings of film history, and is the main reason why the film is hated by critics and audiences!
 * 13) * Worst of all, the link that is provided at the end gives nothing about the ending. All it gives are character bios and trailers for the film.
 * 14) ** Basically, this means the film doesn't even have an ending!

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Because of all of the criticism for the ending, the website that the film provides was deleted as of March 10, 2013.
 * 2) Suzan Crowley really hams it up as Maria Rossi, and being very entertaining.

Reception
Critical reception to the film was overwhelmingy negative. Though it was not screened for critics in advance, upon it's release, it recieved negative reviews upon it's release and was universally considered one of the worst horror films ever made. The ending in particular was heavily criticized. Based on 84 reviews by Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds an approval rating of 6% (with a 2.7/10 average rating). The consensus is: "The Devil Inside is a cheap, choppy unscary mess, featuring one of the worst endings in recent memory." It received an F from CinemaScore, which tracks the audience reaction. As of April 2020, it is one of only 22 films to receive such a rating. On Metacritic the film has a score of 18% based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Peter Howell of the Toronto Star wrote that the film was a candidate for the worst film of 2012. It has a 4.2/10 on IMDb and a 1.7/5 on Letterboxd. it was a commercial success and grossed over $101 million. Despite the negative critical reception, the film topped the US box office on its opening weekend, yet dropped drastically in the second week, before disappearing completely from the box office top ten. At the time, it was the third-best January opening weekend after Cloverfield and the Star Wars special edition. In its second weekend, the film dropped 76.2%, which was the largest second weekend drop for a film since Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (77.4%) in early 2009. 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?"

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