The Devil Inside: Film Review.

The Devil Inside, a filmed directed by William Brent Bell that was produced in 2012 is a horror film that's storyline revolves around demonic possessions. The plot of the film is about Maria Rossi, who in 1989 committed three murders during an exorcism, 20 years later her daughter wants to know more about possessions, in particular, her mothers. Throughout the film, more possessions occur and it ends in a fatal car accident driven by a victim of demonic possession.

The two scenes which impressed me the most were:

1. Where the mother is having an exorcism, quick montage is used to make audiences feel tense and uncomfortable, it puts you into a position where you feel afraid for the other characters in the film as everything is happening so quickly. The scene used natural lighting and was in a setting which added to the realism, this intensifies the "horror" element of the film as it makes audiences believe it could happen to you. If there was bright, unrealistic lighting it'd reinforce the fact that what we're watching is just a film, however this wasn't the case and the lighting and setting used successfully added to the fear of the film. 
2. At the beginning of the film where the police are investigating the crime scene where Maria Rossi had committed the three murders, effective body horror is used. The three corpses are shown and it is obvious the murders were extremely violent with blood spatters, and deep, bloody wounds on the bodies. This was one of the only moments in the film where body horror was used in such a successful way, it did what it was supposed to do and made me shudder and made me feel extremely uncomfortable. This scene is set in a creepy location as it is in the basement of Rossi's home, this has connotations of coldness and feeling trapped in an uncomfortable environment. The lighting is low key adding to the mystery and the unbearable tension of the scene. 

How has watching this film helped me understand this genre of film making:

This film, although being one of my least favourite horror films, still made me feel scared and uncomfortable. This was done by use of horror conventions and successful acting. This shows me that when it comes to filming a horror, it is extremely important to use things such as creepy locations, low key lighting, close-ups and  collision cutting to succeed in doing what a horror should do: make audiences shudder. Without these conventions, a horror film is unlikely to succeed in making audiences feel fearful or disturbed.

Features I spotted in the film:

• Body Horror - this was seen in the film in several different occasions. One example was the wounded corpses at  the beginning of the film. The blood, gashes and bodies themselves looked hideous and I could barely look, but this simply means that it was done well as that is the intention of including body horror. Another example is the manipulation and distortion of the bodies whilst characters were going through a possession, when bones and joints were disconnecting, it made me feel uneasy and I found it disturbing, it is a convention of demonic possession films so was technically needed, however it was done successfully and I found it very disturbing. 
• Close-ups - these are almost compulsory to make a good horror film, I believe. This film used them very successfully and at the right frequency. An example of a close-up used is when Maria Rossi is being possessed and the camera is roughly two inches away from her eye, as an audience member I found this extremely uncomfortable and like I was invading the characters personal space, adding to the awkwardness of the shot. Every character that became possessed in the film had at least one close-up on their face, I think this is also to show their emotion and confusion about the occuring events and to put across to the audience that they are actually innocent, they are victims, they are the ones that need help.
• Collision cutting - there is a scene where this is used well in the film. It is dark and quiet in the shot and slow montage is being used. This very quickly changes when a character shoots himself, the movement was extremely fast and the gun shot was very loud, this part was very jumpy and shocked audiences. There is another part where something similar happens, a character is walking down the street and it is virtually silent, about 5 seconds later, a dog barks. Although it isn't anything conventionally frightening, it wakes you up and makes sure you are 100% watching the film. 
• Handheld camera - this was used constantly throughout the film as it was set as a "real-life" documentary. It was effective because of this and added to the realism of the storyline and made the events more believable. 
• Unhappy ending - it was an unhappy ending because the surviving characters who we believed were safe and unharmed all died in a car crash. The fact that we had sympathy and hope for the characters added to the sadness as we genuinely wanted them to get away from all of the negative things and demons but this ending proved it was too late for them. 

Which aspects of the film I'd include in my own trailer:

 I'd include brief moments of handheld camera, I don't want to do a documentary type film so I don't think that it'd work if there were lots of handheld camera, but to me it reinforces that what we're watching could actually happen to us. An element I'd definitely like to include is the use of collision cutting, I think this is vital to making audiences jump which with the storyline my trailer is going for, is going to be needed. Also, the use of low key lighting in the beginning scene inspired me to do something similar in one of the scenes in my horror trailer. Close-up's are extremely important to portray emotion and make audience members feel uncomfortable, this is a factor of The Devil Inside that I'd like to incorporate into my own trailer.

Which aspects of the film I'd avoid in my own trailer:

The ending spoiled the whole film in my eyes. I felt it was quite a pathetic way to end a film and to me, it looked like the director got lazy when it came to the ending. I was expecting a more exciting, momentous ending and was extremely disappointed with the one I received. This is not how I'd want the audience of my horror trailer to feel so after seeing this, I will put a lot of effort into making sure the ending/jump scare is as successful as it can be. The ending is also slightly an open ending, as there are some surviving characters that we don't know what happened to, I personally like finalisation when it comes to films so was also disappointed with this element, and won't be using one in my own horror trailer.

Context

This film was released in 2012 along with Woman in Black and Paranormal Activity 4. All films cover the paranormal theme and those of ghosts/demons and possessions. This shows there is a public demand for this type of film and explains as to why The Devil Inside was made and reached number one in the US box office and grossed around $144m. This was an extreme success as like Paranormal Activity, it was a low budget, low quality film.