346. Prey For The Devil; movie review

 

PREY FOR THE DEVIL

Cert 15

93 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong supernatural horror, domestic abuse

The straggly hair, white scarred skin, rasping voice and limbs moving at alarming angles.

Yep, another year and another representation of a child possessed by demons.

This one appears in Daniel Stamm's Prey For The Devil whose apparent point of difference is a female exorcist.

It stars Jacqueline Byers as the aforementioned nun/nurse who has grown up with a possessed mother.

Her background has prompted her to be interested in those who suffer from mental illness or diseases which confound medics.

Thus, even though women are forbidden by the Catholic church to be exorcists, she gatecrashes seminars by priests on the subject.

These are led by a benevolent senior clergyman, played by Colin Salmon, who encourages her thirst for knowledge.

However, the more she delves, the more dangerous the territory becomes and the more she finds out about herself and her past.

She is also the key to helping a young girl (Posy Taylor) who is apparently under the devil's spell.

The sad truth is that, unless audience members are 15 years old, they will see nothing new in Prey For The Devil.

Those of us who are considerably older will have been watching movies like this since The Exorcist shocked cinema audiences across the world 50 years ago.

Ok, there is a slice of politics because the demon-fighter is a woman and the film prompts three jumps but this is not enough to believe it is worth watching.

Indeed, I felt I was drowning in a sea of horror movie cliches.

Reasons to watch: Jumpy horror

Reasons to avoid: been down this street so many times

Laughs: None

Jumps: Three

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 4/10

Did you know? In September 2021, a three-year-old was killed during an exorcism in a small Pentecostal church in San Jose, California. The child’s throat was allegedly squeezed and her head was held down during the ceremony, which likely asphyxiated her. In May 2022, three members of the victim’s family were charged with felony child abuse. 

The final word. Daniel Stamm: "A story about a male exorcist has one point of conflict: church vs. demon. But a female exorcist needs to fight the demon AND the church to whose doctrine she poses a much bigger threat than the devil himself does." Bloody Disgusting

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