Horror, 108 Minutes, 2012
[Wife and kids are away visiting for the holidays. I’m staying home with movies. Just call me “Scrooge”.]
Yet another movie with multiple title disorder. “The Devil in Me” on IMBD and “Devil Seed” on Netflix. This is usually does not bode well for the experience.
The story is a weird mash-up of “Rosemary’s Baby” [IMDB] and “The Exorcist” [IMDB]. Alex has just returned from her grandmother’s funeral. Her roommates have moved into a new apartment while she was gone. They go out to party and drunkenly patronize a fortune-teller where Alex has a seizure that she promptly forgets about the next morning.
The movie can’t decide what it wants so it tries everything. Alex is possessed by the devil… but also raped by the devil. Then she’s pregnant with the devil. Did the fortune teller sic the devil on her? Well, she seems to know what’s going on but isn’t responsible. Something to do with the new house? Well, they move heavily in that direction at first but then drop it cold. Something with her grandmother, maybe? Who knows? There are some weird dream/flashback things that aren’t explained so, maybe that’s it.
Despite being relatively new the movie has as cheap, 80’s look to it. The scenes, even at night, are bright and over-saturated exacerbating problems with the effects. The acting is universally emotionless and bland, especially from the lead who seems to top out at two expressions. Three if she squints.
The movie moves through possession classics like a scroll from a K-Tel collection commercial. There’s blinking to reveal demon eyes. There’s unexplained cuts and bruises appearing magically via crappy CGI. There’s the sweet girl saying nasty things with scratchy demon voice. People get thrown around the room. The victim is restrained by invisible hands. We meet a defrocked priest with experience in exorcism. You get all these classic hits and… no more.
There’s really nothing more. If you’re a BIG fan of the possession sub-genre you might have some fun with this one, but that’s a big might.
