The Wicked Within

A bunch of friends / family are together at a gathering, things turn for the worse, and more sinister back story is uncovered after one of the guests becomes possessed. The group, then are left with the duty of figuring out what to do, and how to vanquish the demon that has possessed the one character. I feel as if this movie had a clichéd plot, that being the typical gimmick of a bunch of victims in one isolated area with a ghost / demon after them. Luckily, on the other hand, I also felt as if this movie turned the cliché gimmick into something above average. Combining a series of story twists, and turns, of which relied on the uncovering of more, and more deeper secrets revolving around specific characters in the film as the story progressed, I felt as if the film succeeded in rising the audiences' shock value as the film dose indeed give some intriguing character depth with every twist, and turn it has to offer, those said twists, and turns not being cheap and revolving around character, but with each twist manages to pull all the characters together, thus adding in the audiences' suspense, handing out some interesting thoughts toward the audience. The characters in this film, I felt was a bit of a con, more or less than a pro. The characters seemed a bit flat, and they didn't exactly have the audiences' rooting for them, rather then just seeing them as, what seemed to be boring, cardboard characters. I felt as if the one character, of which became possessed ( Of which won't be spoiled ) had an interesting personality, possessed or not. She seemed sympathetic, at points emotionally damaged, adding more audience questions. When possessed, the character ( That being the demon ) Has what seemed to be a mixed-bag of personalities, and even tricks up it's sleeve, offering some interesting personality, character choices, and depth. The film's dialog seemed decent for what it stood for - that being each character's state of panic, and emotional breakdowns. The characters' actors weren't bad delivering those lines / emotions, giving us some semi-believable acts. Nothing Oscar worthy, but enough to hold the ground.

In conclusion, this film wasn't bad - in fact a decent horror film. I found it pleasant how the filmmakers turned a tired, clichéd plot into something above what it already was; the story additions of twists added audience tension, as well as interest. The film also succeeds to making said twists refreshing, and far from average. The characters may of seemed like cardboard cutouts at points, but once again, the film managed to keep it to a level where the audience would be entertained, and pleased. The demonic possession scenes weren't bad; it wasn't a film heavily reliant on the whole possession gimmick, rather than depth, once again a pleasant surprise. So in the end, this film was great. I personally think horror fans will like it, leading to the recommendation; Great, above average, depth reliant horror flick that'll please.

When you're tired of The Exorcist and those James Wan Conjuring movies and The Exorcism of Emily Rose, where do you go? Well, here is as good a place to start as any. Nary a big budget ego anywhere in this project to get in the way of a simple, bare bones, Lifetime Movie-ish look at what might happen when a young blonde, suburban beauty gets possessed by a demon. They strap the poor girl to a chair the whole time, and listen to her growl and divulge their dirty little suburban secrets, and it is hilariously over the top and engrossing.

The possessed girl's loopy performance is probably unique in the history of these possession movies, as she laughs and cries and roars her way into a performance that is sure to become a cult classic. There's a strange, end-of-the-world relevance to this little movie, its main strength being a script that someone like Robert Zemeckis or Ang Lee would have turned into a masterpiece of Kubrickian simplicity. But as it stands, it's a fascinating little peek at what happens when low budget Hollywood gets hold of another great script, and does the best they can to tell the story under the big budget radar. A worthy glimpse into the truth about the nature of mankind, and what lurks behind the façade of public hypocrisy we wear.

I don't even know where to begin - I started watching totally blind, no reviews read and no word of mouth.

It just doesn't make sense - establishing some things as facts and then from scene to scene acting as if no revelations or oddities had occurred.

Seems a waste of a good chance for the team to make a solid movie, most of the elements are there but it falls apart due to horrible storyboarding/writing/editing (could be any of those things... or all of them).

2/10 just because it begins quite well.

Following a tragic car accident, a family trying to grieve over the death of one of their children who was involved learns that one of them has become possessed by a demonic being looking to torment them and causes them to rely on a priest to battle the evil.

This was quite an enjoyable and highly surprising effort. One of the better elements present here is the fact that this one really does manage to work with the slow-building plot line rather nicely without really upsetting the film really working out a rather great way this goes about bringing the different details of what's going on here. Starting off with the freaky occurrences with the knife at the dinner table and the possession sequence in the bedroom, this turns out rather fun as it transitions away into the actual possession enables for the more lively as she turns against the family and begins not only tormenting them with the secrets and how the different physical torments she concocts makes for a really enjoyable time overall since this really makes the film pick up the pace with its action. Content to play it more low-key rather than going full-bore with the possession. There's plenty of great scenes here with the séance they conduct which comes off rather well with the demonic voices and blood-spurting around the room making for a great time along with all the different torments, the different confrontations along the way that makes for a great showcase of the demons' strength and vindictiveness and gives this one some pretty enjoyable moments throughout here with her attacks. As it slowly gets into the actual exorcism and the attempts to get her cleansed while she goes out on the rampage against the others it makes for a really exciting time here leading to some really fun action as they all continually stumble across her victims and kills piling up around the house which adds an extra urgency to the actual exorcism attempt, while all together having these help the film's pacing by having such great scenes play out in delivering a great bunch of action in the second half to counter-balance the somewhat slow beginning. That is one of the film's few minor problems, in that there's not a whole lot of action happening here in the first half which makes this tend to feature a somewhat lapse beginning where it doesn't quite get off to the start it really should. Focusing on the interspersed scenes of the psychiatrist that goes nowhere and the revelation of the investigation after-the-fact don't offer up any kind of emotional resonance that's being set-up with the storyline about the possession taking place due to the death in the family, a thread itself that isn't all that well thought-out since it's still a mystery why this one takes on the possession as it does here when being tormented would've been far more feasible so that doesn't really solve much of the problems here. The last problem with the film tends to revolve around it's rather confusing decision to keep almost all the deaths off-screen rather than up-front on-camera. Quite often throughout here they tend to stumble upon the mangled bodies of a friend and it leaves a big gaping hole as to why it never showed that occurring on-screen rather than doing it in this manner. Still, this one was quite a bit of fun.

Rated R: Graphic Language. Violence, suggested Rape and strong adult themes.

My quick rating 5,3/10. This time of year it seems the possession films come out of the woodwork. That being said, this movie does little to stand out from the others as far as the actual possession goes. A year after the death of one of the characters child, they all get together for the holiday and things go awry. The possession more or less just "happens" from there and the woman that ends up as the "host" (Sienna Guillory) does a good job acting a bit off the wall when need be. Some of the funniest lines do come from the demon but not in a comedic way. Meaning for me, timely swearing and divulging of peoples secrets. So as my one line states, the whole movies focus is upon ridding the demon from Bethany once and for all (without being killed) and of course all leads up to a climax. I will admit the trip is more or less just there for the means to getting to the destination. Enjoy.