Director Daniel Stamm helmed one of my favorite horror films of all time: "The Last Exorcism." No doubt a controversial opinion, I believe that "The Last Exorcism" remains a genuinely unique and expectation-subverting scary movie that breaks down the exorcism genre and builds it back up in a way that hasn't been done since. So, you can imagine my surprise when it was revealed that Mr. Stamm was back in the director's chair, once again at the helm of another supernatural flick. You can also imagine my surprise when, sitting down to watch this movie, I slowly but surely started to realize how garbage it is. I watch over 100 movies a year, and I can't remember the last time I saw something so utterly irredeemable as "Prey for the Devil." In fact, this movie is so generic, so boring, and so insulting to audience intelligence that I don't even want to waste time writing about it, so I'm going to do my best to give the speediest, most efficient review ever, in hopes that you do literally anything else with your time except watch this movie. So let's get started.
Wooden acting. A lack of scares. Horribly written dialogue. An unoriginal and extremely predictable plot. "Prey for the Devil" has all of those things, and more, in mercifully short 90 minute run time that adds absolutely nothing new to the tired genre of exorcism films. Featuring a female exorcist, something that is forbidden in the Roman Catholic church, this movie wants its audiences to cheer for the movie's "daringness" to break new ground; the problem is the main character, played by the beautiful Jacqueline Byers, is the most boring, stale character known to mankind. A combination of poor dialogue and mediocre direction throws any believability and sympathy for this character out the window - Ms. Byers' acting ability doesn't help either, though I can't blame her when she's working with a script this terrible. And not just her, but every actor and character is as boring as a high school trigonometry class - everyone is repeating dialogue that you've already heard in a million other exorcism movies. And no one seems to be adding any personality to their character or spoken lines.
The story itself does have an opportunity to be interesting, but quickly devolves into a generic, predictable mess - complete with an utter lack of scares or clever exorcism sequences. Sure, you'll see bodies contorting and people climbing up walls, but it's not scary, and it's nothing new. The movie tries to shock its audience through climactic revelations that, in a better film, would genuinely shock - however, "Prey for the Devil" reveals said revelations with all of the impact of a cotton ball to the face due to actors and actresses reciting lines with the enthusiasm of a reanimated but still brain dead corpse. So, in other words, you're getting a story you've already seen done a hundred million times before, with plot twists that won't even register in your brain because of the inconsequential way that they are revealed.
I was also shocked by how poorly directed and edited this movie was; scenes feel scatterbrained and chopped up, almost as if the movie originally started with one tone but was edited to fit another. What's left is a very uneven and rapidly paced movie that, while quick on its feet, is simultaneously as boring as can be due to the movie rushing its audience to where it wants to go instead of leading viewers there through an engaging plot and empathetic characters.
Look, I can't write any more about this movie. Please don't go see it - I know for a fact that you won't enjoy it. I was disappointed beyond belief, and so bored that, if I wasn't going to review this movie, I would've walked out halfway through to spare myself from any further boredom. I didn't like a single thing about this movie, and I will never watch it again.
Wooden acting. A lack of scares. Horribly written dialogue. An unoriginal and extremely predictable plot. "Prey for the Devil" has all of those things, and more, in mercifully short 90 minute run time that adds absolutely nothing new to the tired genre of exorcism films. Featuring a female exorcist, something that is forbidden in the Roman Catholic church, this movie wants its audiences to cheer for the movie's "daringness" to break new ground; the problem is the main character, played by the beautiful Jacqueline Byers, is the most boring, stale character known to mankind. A combination of poor dialogue and mediocre direction throws any believability and sympathy for this character out the window - Ms. Byers' acting ability doesn't help either, though I can't blame her when she's working with a script this terrible. And not just her, but every actor and character is as boring as a high school trigonometry class - everyone is repeating dialogue that you've already heard in a million other exorcism movies. And no one seems to be adding any personality to their character or spoken lines.
The story itself does have an opportunity to be interesting, but quickly devolves into a generic, predictable mess - complete with an utter lack of scares or clever exorcism sequences. Sure, you'll see bodies contorting and people climbing up walls, but it's not scary, and it's nothing new. The movie tries to shock its audience through climactic revelations that, in a better film, would genuinely shock - however, "Prey for the Devil" reveals said revelations with all of the impact of a cotton ball to the face due to actors and actresses reciting lines with the enthusiasm of a reanimated but still brain dead corpse. So, in other words, you're getting a story you've already seen done a hundred million times before, with plot twists that won't even register in your brain because of the inconsequential way that they are revealed.
I was also shocked by how poorly directed and edited this movie was; scenes feel scatterbrained and chopped up, almost as if the movie originally started with one tone but was edited to fit another. What's left is a very uneven and rapidly paced movie that, while quick on its feet, is simultaneously as boring as can be due to the movie rushing its audience to where it wants to go instead of leading viewers there through an engaging plot and empathetic characters.
Look, I can't write any more about this movie. Please don't go see it - I know for a fact that you won't enjoy it. I was disappointed beyond belief, and so bored that, if I wasn't going to review this movie, I would've walked out halfway through to spare myself from any further boredom. I didn't like a single thing about this movie, and I will never watch it again.