HOLLYWOOD JUNKET recently interviewed stars Evan Helmuth and Fernanda Andrade of Paramount Pictures “The Devil Inside” exorcist film.

With an opening weekend in the total of $33.7 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, this is a realistic look at exorcisms not done this well since “The Exorcist” in 1973 many might say. Andrade, the actress that plays the daughter of the possessed victim, Isabella Rossi, said that the film is based on a book written by a real-life exorcist. In her preparation for the film, she looked at a lot of YouTube videos.

Actor Evan Helmuth who plays Father David Keane said that people who watch “The Devil Inside” can’t leave the theater “without having some sort of extreme reaction” either loving it or hating it. The audiences have widely embraced the movie, but it hasn’t gone without its negative comments as well.

Andrade stated that her response to people who don’t believe that demonic possession is real is the old-saying that “the Devil’s greatest trick is convincing people that he doesn’t exist!”

Helmuth said that the movie is short and people want it to keep going. “It’s a slow build-up”. However, this allows viewers of the film to get pulled into it and get invested in the characters. The actor also stated that “this movie puts you into the room (with the exorcism).

In “The Devil Inside” Helmuth’s character goes to the actual school that exists in Rome where he is studying. In 1999, 99.9% of all demon possession cases were turned-down by the Roman church. Helmuth said his character (Father David Keane) “is at a vulnerable state of believing in Science but seeing things that he can’t explain”. This is why he decides to perform exorcisms without the church’s consent.

One of these things would be “when a 90 lb girl throws a 200 lb guy across the room then you can’t call it mental illness”. Helmuth states the actress playing the possessed victim in the movie, Suzan Crowley as “an amazing actor. She’s intense”.

Andrade said that she speculates that the church re-opened the schools recently because so many priests were doing exorcisms without the church’s consent.

When determining mental illness vs. possession, certain signs that tip off a possession are speaking in different tongues said Helmuth, as well as when neither Science nor the medical fields can fully explain what is happening.

In a modern digital age where films are being enhanced by computer programs and software, Helmuth said “The Devil Inside” which is a low budget film was done “practical” and old-style where 98% of the movie is done using real props and makeup much in the same vain as movies like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, and “The Exorcist”. “The best part of the movie is how realistic it is…no computer effects” said Helmuth. That means, yes – those scenes with the character Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) wildly bending random joints throughout her body was done using a real-life contortionist! His favorite films, “I love science fiction when they’re terrifying”.

According to Andrade, she stated that “The Devil Inside” is “the closest yet to portray authentic view and look at it (exorcisms). The film makers went into it to make a film that felt and looked real according to Andrade.