Prey for the Devil review.
Director Daniel Stamm previously found success in the exorcism movie world with The Last Exorcism. He returns to the subgenre with Prey for the Devil in theaters now. Lacking suspense and filled with borderline effects, the movie wisely sets its focus on being more of a character study. Unfortunately, an unearned story turn undoes the decent set up.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Prey for the Devil
Directed by Daniel Stamm
Screenplay by Robert Zappia
Starring Jacqueline Byers, Colin Salmon, Christian Navarro and Virginia Madsen
Prey for the Devil Review
We’ll start this Prey for the Devil review by stating the most important thing up front. The movie doesn’t work. It’s a shame, really. There are hints of an interesting idea here. If this was marketed as a drama about a young nun taking on the patriarchy of the Catholic Church…well…no one would go to see it, but at least it would have a purpose. That aspect of the movie is, sadly, more interesting than the actual possessions and exorcisms. It’s also woefully underdeveloped because this is a movie about possessions and exorcisms.
Specifically, it’s a movie about nun named Ann (Jacqueline Byers) with a connection to a demon. Although women are not allowed to perform exorcisms by the Catholic Church, Sister Ann manages to become a part of exorcism training due to that connection. The demon the academy is dealing with seems to be one that has haunted Sister Ann since she was a child.
That’s a decent set up to an exorcism story and Byers is in fine form as the persistent but haunted Sister Ann. The ingredients are there for a good movie. Prey for the Devil only manages to be one for a little while. Sister Ann’s infiltration into the exorcism academy is aided by Father Quinn (Colin Salmon). Their relationship is the most interesting one in the movie. Salmon brings a level of understanding and authority to the role that makes the scenes between the characters work.
The problems begin whenever special effects are needed. They aren’t the worst you’ve ever seen but they are obvious enough to take you out of scenes. Everything looks and moves just wrong enough that it doesn’t quite work. Some of this could have been covered for if the movie even attempted to build suspense first, but Prey for the Devil doesn’t seem interested in being scary.
Instead of scares, we eventually get a bit of investigative horror. Sister Ann investigates previous exorcisms in hopes of helping a little girl possessed by a demon. This could have opened a path for an interesting second act, but like everything else in Prey for the Devil it is underdeveloped.
If Prey for the Devil isn’t about a woman challenging Church patriarchy…and it isn’t about learning the history of a demon, then, what is it about? The answer is the movie’s biggest flaw. It takes an hour to get a hint of what the endgame of the movie is…and it is an unearned turn at best. There is no build to any of it…just an information dump that leaves you thinking “oh I see where this is going” and then waiting for the characters to catch up. It’s not that the turn doesn’t make sense…its that the turn comes out of nowhere with no build up.
The theme of Sister Ann believing in possession because of her mother’s history is a thread that Prey for the Devil revisits often. It first exists to explain Sister Ann’s persistence. It later becomes entangles in the current possessions the academy is dealing with. Finally, it becomes important to the unearned climax of the film. This is where Prey for the Devil abandoning the investigative horror element becomes annoying. If the backstory is meant to be so important, why do we leave knowing so little about it? Everything seems to be half thought out.
While we can’t discuss the climax of the movie without getting into spoiler territory, we can discuss why it doesn’t work. Prey for the Devil botches its big reveal. First it doesn’t provide any clues or set-up. Then it drops it in an exposition dump. Finally, it doesn’t even give you the full story for another few scenes. You will have no doubt figured it out long before the movie makes it explicit. You’re left scratching your head at the execution of all of this. And that’s before the iffy effects take hold of the final action.
Prey for the Devil is one of those movies where you feel like things went sideways that were out of the director and actors’ control. The script is all over the place. PG-13 ratings don’t have to be death sentences in horror…but not being able to turn to gore can be detrimental to a movie that just isn’t working. A third act that goes balls out may have been able to salvage Prey for the Devil. What we get instead becomes eye rolling and predictable.
Scare Value
Prey for the Devil is not at all scary and drops a few intriguing threads to end up at a predictable, generic climax. If it wasn’t for the efforts of the cast, it could have been an unwatchable mess. Watchable mess isn’t that much better. If it was worse, you wouldn’t be so aggravated that it should have been better.
2/5
Prey for the Devil Links
Prey for the Devil Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of Prey for the Devil, check out Consecration
2 thoughts on “Prey for the Devil Review”