Movie Review: INNER DEMONS

[youtube id=”IQiZndFPqZY” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Until this film, I had been under the impression that there was literally nothing new to do with the “possessed” archetype in films.  Okay, so seeing this didn’t exactly change that, because there’s literally nothing else we can do with this type of movie anymore to make it feel original.  The approach is what can be different, like Scott Derickson’s Exorcism of Emily Rose taking a majority of the film into a courtroom.  Seth Grossman’s Inner Demons is a notable and noble effort in trying to approach it differently, and does so by injecting possession into an Intervention show.  It’s a strong concept, but what does it do with it?

The beginning starts well with a reality crew setting up and interviewing the family of Carson (Lara Vosburgh), a troubled young girl who’s gotten herself into heroin and pills.  One of the camera men is a newly hired, sensitive guy named Jason (Morgan McClellan) who begins to take a personal interest and question the ethics the TV show’s crew are using.  He discovers books on demonic possession in her room and runs with the idea.  She reluctantly agrees  to enter rehab where things begin to appear less like simple drug addiction when post-detox, Carson appears to get worse.  Jason is determined to help the girl and prove that her demons aren’t treatable with therapy alone.

There’s some good acting to be found, and Vosburgh’s first feature role is one she owns fairly well.  She’s believable as both the helpless host and as the force inside of her in equal measures, only failing to find a bridge between the two.  All of the rehab center material is great, with a solid support cast of ex-junkies in some great support circle scenes.  This is where the only real tension in the film is built because you’re just not quite sure when something is going to happen or what these folks are going to say.

It’s after we leave the rehab facility that things SHOULD ramp up in intensity and supernatural/paranormal freakiness…but it doesn’t.  It squanders most of this with a heavy handed score that’s very similar to Intervention type shows.  This makes sense early on in the film when we’re watching “raw footage” from the filming which is more like a “rough cut” than anything.  Later, having music makes little to no sense as the “found footage” style seems to disappear a lot of the time — like scenes we see in which there would be no camera coverage.  No scares or tension is apparent or built, and there’s no real attempt to even make us jump outside of two moments.  Most of the actors outside of the rehab characters are much too stiff for found footage style, and I feel that’s essential to pull it off properly.  Either that, or just scare the shit out of me and make me not care.  Inner Demons does not.

A slightly surprising ending almost redeems a lot of the failures at hand, but something about the way it’s shot isn’t as shocking as it wants to be, and the final moment is an eye roller.  Inner Demons does have some stuff going for it that doesn’t make it a complete waste of time, but it’s hard to overlook the waste of concept.  It’s a shame, really.  The good (or bad) news is that we’ll get at least five more chances a year for another possession film to give a go at making something interesting.