Le démon au coeur

I'm not sure what it is that makes me like this movie so much, because as I said it is rather cliche, but I don't think it makes the film bad just because the script isn't totally original, because let's be honest, nothing is original nowadays. I loved The Crush and think Miss Silverstone is a talented actress, but her appearances itself is too sweet for you to actually believe she was psycho, Rose on the other hand has established herself as a, let's say "doomy" actress and she knows how to throw those "f*ck off" looks around perfectly which made things a little more realistic. She basically carries the film, of course that's what she was supposed to do... if you love Rose you definitely need to rent this one or watch out for it on HBO because personally, I think it's cool and one of her better movies.

P.S. -- Skip that dreadful sequel!

If you've seen more than a handful of thrillers, you will almost certainly have seen this plot line before; it's just the basic stalker theme only set in a school. This idea has been used in many movies previously, and was also the main theme in the excellent 'Wild Things' that was also released in 1998. Devil in the Flesh is a very low key film and actually feels like a TV movie at times; yet despite this, it does at least manage to stay entertaining enough for it's ninety minute duration, which is quite an achievement when you consider how unoriginal it is. The plot focuses on a young girl named Debbie Strand. After her parent's house burns down in mysterious circumstances, she is sent to live in a different town with her religious grandmother. She also has to start a new school and gets that same locker every new girl in American school gets (the sticky one that needs a man to come over and punch it). Anyway, it's not long before she starts to develop a crush on hunky English teacher Mr Rinaldi, and she'll stop at nothing to get what she wants.

I have to admit that I have a track record of enjoying low key thrillers like this one, and for what it's worth; Devil in the Flesh is not too bad. It does suffer from a poor script that fails to flesh out it's central characters properly and doesn't contribute a logical narrative, so at times the film just seems to jump from one thing to next without a lot of cohesion. There's also a fair few clichés on display too, which is somewhat annoying and tiresome. On the plus side, the acting is rather good. Rose McGowan was one of my main reason for tuning in and she does the bitchy weird chick thing very well. Starring opposite is Alex McArthur as her crush who also performs well in his role as well as well as Peg Shirley as the overbearing grandmother. The plot moves along at a steady pace for the first half and gets going properly in the second, albeit a bit too fast at times. There's a twist towards the end which is both highly predictable and very unbelievable. Overall, this is a long way from brilliant; but it has a few good elements and there's worse films of this ilk out there.

We've seen it all before -- the troubled, love-struck psychopath who develops a deadly obsession with her hunky high-school teacher. She likes him, he rebuffs her, she kills some people, yada-yada-yada...

Rose McGowan is a hottie. No doubt about that. But even her sleaze-pot sexual energy can't save this dud (the fact that she isn't naked in the film doesn't help either). Within thirty minutes, you know what's happening and how the film is going to be resolved (even worse, you don't really CARE).

If you're in the mood for a student-teacher stalker flick, skip this one and pick up "The Crush" instead.

Okay, so the plot was fairly standard, but this film still worked for me, thanks in large part to Rose McGowan. She did a terrific job in this movie, and actually, she practically carries this film single-handedly. To be fair, scenes with the detectives and her grandmother were among the best in the movie, but make no mistake about it, this is Rose's film. This film is also filled with lots of silly humor, but unlike most thrillers, the jokes actually work in this movie. You have to give the filmmakers some credit too, because they took a tired story, and they kept the predictable storyline, and yet, they made a good movie.

I really liked this as a piece of late night trashy noir cable junk because it pushed the extremes of bad taste. I saw it late at night and was impressed with the sharp dialog and witty put-downs uttered by its femme fatale protagonist, Debbie Strand (in a wonderfully vampy and campy performance from Rose McGowan). Yes, the set-up is contrived and the outcome is cheesy but along the way I was impressed with the audacity of the film's comic-book nastiness and the sheer determination of the protagonist to get what she wanted. However, what's most disappointing is the end, which merely opens the way for another film, without truly exploring why Debbie Strand did what she did. Another annoying trait in these films is to resolve issues in an unambiguous manner, usually absolving the complicity of the lead male. A simple-minded, formulaic tale saved by Rose McGowan and some witty one-liners. As for the rest, cable fodder.