The Wicked Within

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.

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.

One of the things you have to accept about 'possession' movies is that they are generally similar. It is, therefore, what differs that usually determines whether they are decent or another forgettable story.

This movie actually has something that makes it different - the ending is actually not bad at all. The problem is though, almost the entire film until that point is so poor.

The dialogue come across as though written by someone who does not know how conversations should sound. The characters don't react to anything that happens - you have shocking revelations and events and they just continue on as though someone has told them the weather forecast.

The concept of this story was decent, they just really needed someone who could actually write dialogue to fill out the spaces between plot points. The dialogue made the acting - which wasn't fantastic - look and sound even worse.

DON"T WASTE YOUR TIME.Lazy, lazy writing. It's too bad, this movie started strong with family drama, mystery and secrets which lost steam about half way through, becoming nothing more than a "Mysterious Evil Spirit With Unlimited Unexplained Power". It's almost a modern cliché now, evil spirits that can do anything they want with no limit or rules. If there's no way to defeat the spirit, no "it can't go into the light/cross water/stand up to love/etc., why bother? Just shoot every character in the head, no reason to give a crap about doomed, stupid people. A weak attempt at a double twist ending is the final insult to the audience. Pointless and stupid.

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.