The Devil Inside: "Connect The Cuts, Connect The Cuts, Connect The Cuts"

Director: William Brent Bell
Writer:    William Brent Bell
               Matthew Peterman
Starring: Fernanda Andrade
               Simon Quarterman
               Evan Helmuth
               Ionut Grama 
               Bonnie Morgan
               Suzan Crowley
Rating:    *

Release Date: 02/03/12

The trailer was literally the scariest trailer I have seen in a long time. It had everything; jumps, creepiness and what seemed like a good story, and judging by the fact that it is my most viewed post, I assume many people agreed. However the film itself completely fails to live up to expectations, and is neither scary, creepy, and it has no interesting storyline at all.

The film follows Isabella Rossi (Andrade), as she tries to discover what really happened 20 years ago on the night her mother murdered three people. Her mother (Rossi), supposedly committed the murders whilst under the influence of a demonic possession. Isabella's journey takes her places she never expected to go, and things soon take a turn for the worst when more people get tied up in the horrific story. The main story is basically a weak and uninteresting trail that's only purpose is to give the film an excuse to take the audience from one boring scene of failed jump-scares to another. 

Here's an example, you know when you drop your mobile phone, and as it falls to the ground, life goes in slow motion, and your heart stops and you think 'shit, please don't break', well that feeling is 10x more terrifying than anything in this film. There is no moment where the film ever moves past the use of predictable and boring scares that, let's face it, have been done many times before. There is one scene where a possessed woman, Rosalita (Morgan) contorts into disturbing, bone-popping positions and then proceeds to climb the walls. The scene in trailer actually made me uncomfortable, but in the film the cringeworthy sounds and awkward movements get old extremely quick.

The complete lack of tension or suspense running through the film is what is most annoying because the trailer was so good at building it up. There is absolutely no buildup or tension as the film reaches its eye-roll-inducing conclusion. There are just parts that are supposed to be scary and parts that are supposed to explain the story. Those parts are strung together so abysmally that it makes it almost impossible to actually care about what is happening from scene to scene. 

The performances in the film don’t do much to raise the overall quality either, with each actor failing to create any emotional depth or connection. Suzan Crowley does a mediocre job of acting creepy and possessed as Maria Rossi, but it ends up falling flat because the mother-daughter relationship between her and Isabella is completely unbelievable. Father Ben Rawlings (Quarterman) has what is possibly the only interesting back story in the whole film, but nothing is ever done with it. In the end, the scariest thing about The Devil Inside is that it has made enough money to possibly encourage the production of a sequel.

The Devil Inside - Trailer