The Wicked Within (2015)

I love this movie so much

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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.

Seeing in the credits that most of the lead actors also served as producers of one sort or another, I was shocked when I checked their credits to learn that they are all trained actors with hefty resumes. I was sure that one or more were simply wannabe movie stars with more money than talent. Although a few of the lead actors were attractive, on the whole the cast was dowdy and unengaging. One of the lead males looked like Ross from "Friends" if he'd put put in a trash compacter then dressed in an outfit designed for a five year old boy. His haircut didn't help -- it looked like he had an accident with a Flow-bee. His thick Gaelic accent made him stand out even more, not in a good way.On balance the lead female characters were more likable than not, despite the ham-handed direction. The rest of the cast were just annoying, from the "sassy" psychic to the harpy of a mother and the poorly cast priest. With his unkempt shoulder length hair and grubby whiskers he looked like the guy who'd bring a keg and an eighth of weed to the party, not the gravitas of an exorcist.The script starts off on a fairly solid collection of clichéd story points but halfway through the characters go off on illogical tangents and there's little suspense throughout. (What man wouldn't be tempted to French kiss his wife after she'd been possessed for a day, complete with deep processed demon voice.) Character emotions change erratically and the horror comes in choppy doses, but there's no one to care about anyway. Eric Roberts collected a day's pay for his wraparound stint as a police psychologist. Whatever they paid him wasn't enough.

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.

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.