I find it curious that The Devil Inside begins by warning us that "the Vatican does not authorize the recording of Roman Catholic exorcisms," when only five years later the then Vatican Chief Exorcist allowed William Friedkin to film one for his pseudocumentary The Devil and Father Amorth (it’s not impossible, mind you, that the Holy See changed its mind in the interval).
The Devil Inside adds that “the Vatican did not endorse this film,” a clarification for which the Bishop of Rome should be very grateful; with all the atrocities the Church has been and is responsible for, the last thing it needs is to be associated with this piece of shit movie.
Of course, saying that the Holy See did not "endorse this movie" falls shorter than CM Punk's UFC career; co-writer/director William Brent Bell's knowledge of the Vatican doesn't even meet Wikipedia standards.
In 1989, Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) committed a triple homicide while she was being exorcised. Twenty years later, her daughter Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) is the subject of a documentary about exorcisms. To learn more about her mother, she travels to Rome to visit the “Vatican Exorcism School”.
There is no such school, but if there were, I highly doubt its classes would be taught exclusively in English (the Vatican does offer a week-long course called Exorcism and the Prayer of Liberation). However, to the film’s great convenience, this is a Vatican where everyone is either fluent in English or Anglo-Saxon, and where no one, despite being in the world capital of Catholicism, seems to know the rites of the religion they supposedly profess.
Isabella meets two priests, Ben Rawlings (Simon Quarterman) and David Keane (Evan Helmuth), before going to see her mother Maria in the Catholic psychiatric hospital in Rome where, even more conveniently, she happens to be confined.
Isabella discovers that her mother has, among other things, carved inverted crosses on her arms and lower lip. "Inverted crosses are typically used in satanic rituals," says Ben or David, neither of whom seem to be aware that the inverted cross, known as the Petrine Cross or St. Peter's Cross, is in fact a Christian symbol (now, an inverted crucifix, that would be another story).
Ben and David are so obtuse that they calmly admit on camera that they perform unofficial exorcisms without the Church’s permission. In one of these exorcisms, one of the two exclaims "Saint Barnabas commands you!". Saint Barnabas? What happened to “the power of Christ compels you”? Barnabas is your go-to saint in case of hailstorm, not demonic possession.
For some reason, the topic of baptism comes up later; According to Ben, “If a baby died after being baptized, it would go to heaven. And if [it dies] before [baptism], it would go to hell.” Theologically speaking, the hypothetical permanent state of the unbaptized who die in infancy, too young to have committed real sin, but not having been freed from original sin, is the limbus infantium or Limbo of the Infants (Limbo is Hell-adjacent, not Hell itself); additionally, theological speculation tends to emphasize the hope, if not the certainty, that these children may reach heaven rather than Limbo. Most Roman Catholic priests and hierarchy would say that no child could be condemned for the sins committed by their ancestors and that they no longer believe in limbo for children.
With such profound ignorance of their own doctrines, it's no surprise that no one here is ever successfully exorcised (The Devil Inside is supposed to be a horror movie, but it might have done better as a comedy; The Fearless Demon Exorcisers, perhaps? ); what's more, demons come and go from one body to another as they please — so I guess INXS was right after all.
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