Jamie
BMT Live is always a tricky balancing act. On the one hand you want to hit the big bad films when you get the opportunity. You don’t want to pull a “Keeping up with the Joneses.” You know, where you wait so long into a year to watch BMT Live that you end up watching Keeping Up with the Joneses… a comedy film so forgotten that I myself (a person who watched it in theaters), remembers nothing of the experience. At the same time you want a balanced year, one where you don’t just crush out a bunch of action films from January to March and call it a year. So we were in quite the panic as the end of the year approached and major releases were dwindling. Thank god for Halloween. Can always count on at least one horror film that fits the bill. We prayed for it and we got it, Prey for the Devil.
To recap, Sister Ann is a nun working at the major American exorcism school in Boston (you know the one). She really wants to learn, but exorcism is a man’s job and so she settles for being a nurse. One day a young girl comes in and Ann feels a connection. As things spiral out of control for the young patient and Ann is attacked by a possessed elderly patient, the school agrees to let her learn. In particular, the main priest recognizes that she brings something new to the table: the outlook that the possessed could fight back against the demon and not just rely on the priests’ prayers. She works well on an attempted exorcism of the young patient, so another student in the class asks her to help with his sister. He can’t get the church to do an exorcism, so they decide to do an illegal one. Ann uses compassion to try to help and it seems to work! But, uh oh! Turns out it didn’t cause the sister ends up killing herself and Ann is sent back to the convent as punishment. While there she hears that the young girl, who had been released from the hospital, has had a full blow demonic relapse (you know how that goes). Ann knows she can help. Why? Because she realizes that the girl isn’t any ol’ girl… she’s the daughter she gave up when she first ended up at the convent! (What a twist!) She arrives just in time to go down into the school’s dungeon (you know what I’m talking about), save the girl, get possessed herself, and then defeat the demon. NBD. The school agrees to send her to the Vatican for further training, but will she get there safely or will the demons get her first. Find out in Prey for the Devil 2 (probably). THE END.
Ehhhhh, I don’t have much patience for films like this. They all seem kind of the same as anything else you might find on Netflix. Sure maybe it’s a step above the thousand weird Amityville stuff that gets churned out, but really there isn’t much to write home about in this one. It’s got a very obvious twist that is rotely set up and knocked down. The one fun angle is just how ridiculous the whole school is. It’s like Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital from House. Just like super new age hospital… specifically for possessed people. And they have their own set of doctors and ambulances. How do we know? We see the little girl totally kill a whole mess of priests, demonolgists (I presume that’s what they are called) and demon EMT’s. It makes for a very funny last third of the film. We can only assume it takes place in some other universe. Overall just meh, meh, meh.
Hot Take Clam Bake! Some regulatory agency needs to step in here. How are these patients being treated? Are the doctors certified? We are told that numerous patients are deemed lost causes, shipped out of the country to the Vatican, and die. They die! No one is asking any questions about that? Where’s Geraldo with the inside scoop? And it’s not just the patients. The little girl rips apart numerous people. Then kills two or three priests as Ann helps depossess her. Families aren’t asking what happened? Police aren’t interested? Government isn’t organizing a committee? I want a sequel where it’s just a Spotlight style thriller about the investigation into what is happening at this “school.” They sit there asking how a girl who killed between 6 and 10 people walked out a couple days later. Hot Take Temperature: Spicy Garlic. Patrick?
Patrick
‘Ello everyone! Prey for the Devil? More like Prey for the Bad Movie Twins! You know what horror fans were clamoring for? Another exorcism film, obviously. Can’t get enough of those. Let’s go!
- When Jamie and I exited the theater. I posed a question: how many exorcism films had we actually seen for BMT? I thought it was like … ten. Really we’ve seen three others for sure (The Rite, The Nun, The Devil Inside) and there are probably four others that range from “probably not” to “maybe” (Season of the Witch, Bless the Child, Seventh Son, The Haunting in Connecticut). I guess that it is a testament to the genre that watching even four exorcism films feels like watching a dozen …
- The main thing this film has going for it is the set design is pretty cool. It posits a world where there is an ultra sophisticated possession hospital in the middle of Boston (complete with ambulances) and that is just a thing. That people get possessed and go to the possession hospital when they do.
- I didn’t think the main character was necessarily good as far as acting, but I liked the arc she went on.
- Specifically that she’s the Michael Jordan of exorcists, people just overlook her because she’s a woman.
- That she basically invents the Triangle Offense of exorcism tactics by deciding that the devil is taking advantage of the most devout by preying on their extreme catholic guilt, and so to combat the devil is basically to forgive oneself for the sins you believe you have committed.
- And in the end they send her off to the National Exorcism League in the Vatican to train up other exorcists and start in on Advanced Exorcism Theory.
- But the movie is silly and does absolutely nothing new. It generally feels like we’ve seen this film a dozen times so far and it begs for a raison d’etre.
- Setting as a Character (Where?) for a fictionalized Boston which is all about exorcisms. Worst Twist (How?) option for the obvious and inevitable reveal that the possessed girl is the daughter of the main character, which can be seen a million miles away. Closest to BMT I think, there is something there about it being a very silly exorcism film in the end.
- I actually do think I’ll have to stop doing the Live Theater Ratings because we now go to the same one each time and it is a solid theater. I guess the only amusing thing about this particular trip was it was a beautiful sunny 70 degree day in October and we roll up to the theater to watch a bad horror film at 1PM on Saturday. I looked into the mirror in the bathroom and asked “Who am I?” before shaking the ennui off and heading in.
Check out the sneaky sequel preview Prey for the Devil 2: Armageddon in the Quiz. Cheerios,
The Sklogs.
Bad Movie Twins 