18
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 58Entertainment WeeklyClark CollisEntertainment WeeklyClark CollisWhile this religio-horror effort does contain some nice scares, and a memorably unnerving turn from Crowley, The Devil Inside's biggest shock arrives when it abruptly ends - just as it hits its stride. The result is a found-footage movie whose third act remains missing.
- 50VarietyJoe LeydonVarietyJoe LeydonDespite the palpable air of deja vu that hangs over it like a light fog, The Devil Inside generates a fair amount of suspense during sizable swaths of its familiar but serviceable exorcism-centric scenario.
- 50The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie PunterThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie PunterAll hell breaks loose and it's a heck of a lot of fun to watch.
- 40Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoBoxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoThe mother/daughter drama should have played a bigger part in this film as the 87-minute runtime passes quickly and leaves us feeling utterly short-changed.
- The reality of The Devil Inside is that it's a half-hearted patchwork of ideas blatantly lifted from better films, with characters who have to act increasingly foolish in order to allow the action to go forward and an ending so anticlimactic and abrupt that the audience at the screening I attended erupted in enraged boos as the credits rolled.
- 38Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThe film's contradictory and nullifying dilemma of wanting to be both scripted and vérité at once, a plight that affects so much contemporary TV, is temporarily quelled in heated scenes of curse-laden levitation and Linda Blair contortion, which dutifully deliver the scares.
- 30The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenNever gets off the ground, trotting out the same predictable twisting heads and psycho-babble without a whiff of originality or discernible visual flair. As a result, the would-be thriller proves as scary and unsettling as a slab of devil's food cake - only considerably less satisfying.
- 25Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsThe Devil Inside joins a long, woozy-camera parade of found-footage scare pictures, among them "The Blair Witch Project," the "Paranormal Activity" films and certain wedding videos that won't go away.
- 20The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisThe scariest thing about The Devil Inside is that a major studio like Paramount Pictures, which is distributing it, may be able to squeeze more profit out of a tedious, tediously exhausted subgenre that was already creatively tapped out when "The Blair Witch Project" spooked audiences more than a decade ago.
- 0The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe hilariously convoluted thriller contains all the elements for a wacky parody of exorcism movies, except a sense of humor about itself: The Devil Inside never acknowledges its innate ridiculousness, so the laughs are unintentional.