Picture the scene. There you are, in January 2012, seeking out a little bit of horror goodness amongst the Platinum Dunes remakes and Saw sequels. But what’s this? A possession horror movie called The Devil Inside? With a cool poster? Well, you might think to yourself – why not?
And perhaps you might have enjoyed the slight but moderately entertaining hour and a half, following the fictionalized case of Maria (Fernande Andrande), a nun who committed a triple homicide in the middle of an exorcism. The film tracks the investigation of her daugher, Isabella, and priest Ben Rawlings (Simon Quarterman), a priest looking in to the bizarre case, and ticks off the usual stack of tropes the genre had already wrung to death by that point anyway – fugue states, dramatic recitations of the Lord’s prayer, every bit of Christian imagery you can imagine turned upside down that comes off more as a box-tick than a genuine attempt at subversion. The climax approaches – Maria starts slashing at people in the hospital she’s being held in, only to apparently pass on the possession to Ben, who gets involved in a fiery car wreck. And then-
And then, the movie cuts to a URL link directing audiences to a website for “more information” on the investigation. Cue credits, confusion, frustration, and accusations that this is the worst movie ending of all time. But is that an entirely fair conclusion? Let’s talk about The Devil Inside, and the legendary ending that has cemented itself into movie history for all the wrong reasons.
Dumped in the dead January release block, The Devil Inside clearly wasn’t something the distributor, Paramount Pictures, had a whole lot of faith in, despite the religious tone of the film itself. Directed by William Brent Bell (creator of some of the most raucously entertaining trash I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying on the big screen, even if a lot of it is, undeniably, extremely bad), it’s one of those movies that has become a shorthand for a third act so bad that it renders the entire movie worth skipping. And, look, there’s no way around it – choosing to make a movie like this that was primarily intended for release in cinemas is still one of the most bizarre, batshit, and obviously bad ideas I’ve ever come across.
If the film had advertised itself openly as a mixed-media project, maybe it would have been met with less ire, but there’s just no way to see this as anything other than false advertising that buried the lede well after the point that the tickets had been sold. For those of us decrepit enough to remember going to the cinema when this came out, smartphones did not have the hold on culture they do now, leaving audiences with little choice but to hope they remembered the URL well enough to stick it into their home computer by the time they got back from the trip. And that’s assuming they cared enough, after having a middle finger stuck up to them so resolutely by the movie’s non-ending, to actually follow up on those events.
And the website itself, if audiences could even be bothered checking it out, is a pretty crummy ending to the movie in its own right. It invites viewers to join the investigation, with a discussion board where theories could be exchanged about the real nature of the case, along with images from the movie and, bizarrely, a link which purported to teach viewers how to become an exorcist from the comfort of their own home. The discussion itself is either full of outrageously credulous viewers (“All of this stuff had to be true, it’s not like you can fake all the crazy, insane body movements,” wrote one, while my personal favourite announced “THAT MOVIE WAS GREAT LIKE FROSTED FLAKES! I WAS ALMOST CRYING!”) or commenters associated with the film who had been sent there to stir up conversation in the hopes of making it look a little less dead. The website itself featured next to nothing that hadn’t been included in the film, rendering it little more than a promo site for a movie that, by the time most people would have discovered the website, they had already seen. It’s an evidently, abjectly stupid idea to begin with, and the website itself does nothing to dissuade you of that fact.
But! In the film’s small and slight defence, I do think an approach like this could work in the era of streaming and ARG horror. Excellent modern horror movies such as Bring Her Back have used websites that are hinted at within the movie itself to build the world of their story in a more impactful way for those interested enough to seek it out, and, in my opinion, The Devil Inside could have done something similar with its third act if it were to be released directly to streaming today, and, crucially, marketed itself more honestly – the movie’s presentation as a sort of true crime case could have made for an interesting starting point for audiences to come up with their own theories by way of a third act. In an era where social media and forums dedicated to specific movies and genres has become one of the primary methods of discourse around film, a movie like The Devil Inside might make more sense in today’s landscape than it did in 2012.
But, as it stands, The Devil Inside has well earned its reputation as one of the worst movie endings of all time – lazy and cheap, even if the website had been somewhat passable, it would still have felt like a kick in the face due to its bizarre execution and misleading advertising. I’d love to hear your take on it, especially if you caught this movie when it came out – would you like to see a filmmaker have a crack at another movie like this in the streaming age, or is this best left in the annals of movie history where it belongs? Let me know in the comments below!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via We Live Entertainment)
No But Listen 
