The Devil Inside

I can't remember any time in my career as a movie critic when the crowd around me, winners of FREE tickets to see the movie before it was released, all started to boo. The ending for The Devil Inside was so bad and people were jeering so loudly you would have thought Mel Gibson just walked into the synagogue on Saturday.

Fernanda Andrade stars as Isabella Rossi - a woman whose mother, Maria (Suzan Crowley), murdered three clergy members of her church when they attempted an exorcism on her 20 years ago in Hartford. Oddly, Maria was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and remanded to the Centrino Mental Institution in Rome.

Now, Isabella wants to get to the bottom of what happened, so she, and a documentary filmmaker, Michael (Ionut Grama), have traveled to Rome to meet her mother and learn more about exorcisms. Of course, this brings her in touch with Father Ben (Simon Quarterman) and Father David (Evan Helmuth) - a pair of rogue exorcists who are willing to meet with Maria to free her from the evil spirit inside.

Is Maria possessed?

Can she be saved?

Are the four young people getting in over their heads?

I was surprised I stuck around for the ending that proved to be the worst ending I have seen in 10 years. Sadly, The Devil Inside is a poor, second rate, failure of a rip-off of Paranormal Activity as writer/director William Brent Bell and co-writer Matthew Peterman try to copy the techniques and attributes of the Paranormal Activity movies complete with a documentarian recording everything for our benefit, supposed security video and police file tapes, as well as hints at some deeper history.

However, Bell and Peterman don't give us good enough characters and story to be as compelling as the movie they want to emulate. The Devil Inside is a ridiculous film so predictable and absurd, it elicits more laughs than frights.

Plus, the cast is not accomplished enough to overcome the poor material. Andrade is pretty to look at, but has no ability to emote. She looks like a model, but she acts like a stone. Then, Helmuth, whose character is supposed to be ethically challenged and growing emotionally unstable comes off more like a child who wishes he could have ice cream for dinner. It's not believable.

Do yourself a favor and catch up with some of those holiday movies you missed. Heck, you would be better off reading a book than going to see The Devil Inside.

The Devil Inside is rated R for Language, Grisly Images, Disturbing Violent Content and Some Sexual References.