prey for the devil movie review

an image, when javascript is unavailable

‘Prey for the Devil’ Review: A Passable Exorcism Horror That Says To Hell With Clerical Sexism

A demon who seeks a particular sparring partner forces church authorities to use a female exorcist in this OK supernatural melodrama from 'The Last Exoricism' director Daniel Stamm.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

‘The Bones’ Review: It’s Paleontologists vs. Profit in Entertaining Look at the Fossil Trade 2 weeks ago
‘5lbs of Pressure’ Review: Forgiveness Comes Hard for an Ex-Con in This Unconvincing Crime Drama 4 weeks ago
‘Stopmotion’ Review: Art Infects Rather Than Imitates Life in IFC’s Partly Animated Creepshow 1 month ago

Twelve years ago director Daniel Stamm was considered in some quarters as having revivified a subgenre with “The Last Exorcism.” That sleeper hit that was no classic, but it took itself seriously in the right ways, as put across by a good cast including the estimable (and still underused) Ashley Bell. Since 2014’s less successful “13 Sins,” he’s been occupied with episodic TV work. Unsurprisingly, his first feature in eight years marks a return to the general terrain that worked for him before.

Robert Zappia’s script opens with onscreen text informing us that a purported boom in demonic possession cases worldwide has led the Catholic Church to open a “School of Exorcism” in Boston. That combination seminary, dormitory and hospital for the “afflicted” counts amongst its current students Sister Ann (Jacqueline Byers), who’s transferred here from a convent as a sole female trainee — though it is still officially against doctrine for a woman to perform any of an exorcist’s functions. Nonetheless she feels a calling in that direction, not least because she believes her own violently abusive late mother (Konya Ruseva) suffered from demons more literal than her diagnosed schizophrenia.

That our protagonist may be some kind of exorcizing prodigy is apparent when her fellow student and friend Father Dante (Christian Navarro) asks her to try relieving his similarly afflicted sister (Cora Kirk). But such addled souls are, it seems, just a means for “the Devil’s foot soldiers” to access what they really want to seize and destroy: Sister Ann, apparently.

Why is that? Well, because she’s “God’s chosen,” whatever that means. We never learn the name, history, or anything else distinguishing about the demon causing the mischief here: It’s simply a generic device to put characters through the same mill of contortions, stunts, makeup and other grotesqueries Linda Blair endured half a century ago. (No pea soup course this time out, though.)

William Friedkin’s original “Exorcist” was terrifying because it was so soundly rooted in the real world, populated by people no less horrified by what was happening than by the fact that it even could happen. They tangibly felt the horror of rationality pulled out from under them like a rug. But movies like “Prey for the Devil” (which is getting released as “The Devil’s Light” in some territories) reside in a world of genre tropes. Demonic possession is no longer a mindblowing aberration, but an accepted path to familiar jump scares and fantasy FX. There’s no whiff of originality here, nor any sincerity that runs deeper than instructing the actors not to kid the material.

Still, those rather good actors do indeed keep a straight face, as does the film overall. And Stamm’s jump scares aren’t bad, as they go. He hasn’t made a very suspenseful movie, but he’s avoided both dullness and unintentional laughs. This Bulgaria-shot production would, however, benefit from richer atmospherics: Despite adequate design contributions and a widescreen format, Denis Crossan’s cinematography has a somewhat plain, televisual look.

Byers is likable enough to make her heroine one we wouldn’t mind seeing reprised. But it remains to be seen whether this first outing will linger in anyone’s memory long enough to generate the sequel we’re tipped (before a rote “boo!” blackout) would be something in the thematic realm of “Sister Exorcist 2: Vatican Boogaloo.”

Reviewed at AMC Metreon 16, San Francisco, Oct. 27, 2022. MPAA rating: PG-13. Running time: 93 MIN.

Production: A Lionsgate release of a Lionsgate, Gold Circle Entertainment presentation of a Lionsgate, Confluence production. Producers: Paul Brooks, Todd R. Jones, Earl Richey Jones, Jessica Malanaphy. Executive producers: David Brooks, Brad Kessell, Scott Niemeyer, Michael Flannigan. Co-producer: Jeff Levine.
Crew: Director: Daniel Stamm. Screenplay: Robert Zappia, based on a story by Zappia, Earl Richey Jones, Todd R. Jones. Camera: Denis Crossan. Editor: Tom Elkins. Music: Nathan Barr.
With: Jacqueline Byers, Colin Salmon, Christian Navarro, Lisa Palfrey, Nicholas Ralph, Posy Taylor, Ben Cross, Virginia Madsen, Konya Ruseva, Cora Kirk.

More From Our Brands

On fiji’s vomo island, warm vibes precede a slice of local life (and luxury), heesen’s most powerful superyacht yet comes with a remote-controlled rescue buoy, unequal 3-point lines mar ncaa women’s elite eight, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, chicago fire: rome flynn exits season 12 after six episodes, verify it's you, please log in.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Love Lies Bleeding Link to Love Lies Bleeding
Problemista Link to Problemista
Late Night with the Devil Link to Late Night with the Devil

New TV Tonight

Mary & George: Season 1
Star Trek: Discovery: Season 5
Sugar: Season 1
American Horror Story: Season 12
Parish: Season 1
Ripley: Season 1
Loot: Season 2
Lopez vs Lopez: Season 2
The Magic Prank Show With Justin Willman: Season 1

Prey for the Devil Reviews

While Stamm’s latest effort isn’t the worst the genre has on offer, it is one of the most frustrating— filled with promise that is quickly exorcized.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

Prey for the Devil tries to be religious, feminist, terrifying and led by a nuanced protagonist, but it fails on almost all fronts. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 3, 2023

Offering a little twist on the typical exorcist movie, Prey for the Devil combines jump scares with hypotheses on possession and exorcism...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 3, 2023

The viewer who came for more will be disappointed. Those who wanted impossible twists and sudden frights seen a thousand times get a fair amount. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 28, 2022

Ultimately, Prey for the Devil is a very hammy movie that almost feels like it was made in the 80s, back when audiences got these ridiculous horror films.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Nov 30, 2022

So derivate of (the Exorcist), and even the films it inspired… when there are so many better films like this flooding streaming services, it begs the question – why do we need another?

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 17, 2022

Dull, scare-free and absurd.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Nov 11, 2022

Not enough chills or thrills to make this anything but average entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 10, 2022

Prey For The Devil is as generic and cliche' as an exorcism/possession movie can be. The visuals, story, and scares are all retreads of things we have seen many times before and done much better in the past.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 4, 2022

Prey for the Devil could have been something, but is nothing more than average. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Nov 2, 2022

Prey for the Devil struggles to exercise the cliched demons haunting its runtime.

It feels like a movie that was built to come out in the dead zone of winter.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 2, 2022

[The film] is a tired-ass therapy session posing as a horror flick, one that would be far easier to endure if it wasn’t so self-serious, which makes sense given the thematics at hand, but robs the proceedings of anything even remotely resembling fun.

Full Review | Oct 31, 2022

If terror is often measured by the scares it causes, I suppose that in this line the balance is not so negative. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 50/50 | Oct 31, 2022

Interesting bits aside, “Prey for the Devil” still can’t quite get over the hurdle of familiarity. There’s just too much that feels rehashed from countless other films.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 31, 2022

Like many exorcist movies, this one is beautiful to look at (old churches, libraries, stained glass windows), but it has the energy of a sloth, as if it drifted off while gazing at things.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 30, 2022

Director Daniel Stamm brings a fresh take on exorcism movies for the first two-thirds of the movie until the final sequence when it treads familiar territory.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Oct 29, 2022

While it does attempt to modernize the subgenre with its setting and female lead, it lacks what makes exorcism films so affecting and makes some questionable choices that keep Catholicism’s archaic rule alive.

Full Review | Oct 29, 2022

Far from the worst exorcism story ever, it nevertheless squanders a potentially riveting premise in favor of the same old, same old.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 28, 2022

This is just another regurgitation of yesterday's devout scare tactics, spewing diet Exorcist clichés as freely as Linda Blair once painted the walls in pea soup.

Full Review | Oct 28, 2022

Prey for the Devil (2022)

User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

User Ratings
External Reviews
Metacritic Reviews
Full Cast and Crew
Release Dates
Official Sites
Company Credits
Filming & Production
Technical Specs
Plot Summary
Plot Keywords
Parents Guide

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits
Alternate Versions
Connections
Soundtracks

Photo & Video

Photo Gallery
Trailers and Videos

'Prey for the Devil' Review: Catholic Propaganda Disguised as a Cliche Horror Movie

Maybe the Devil is a better choice.

Possession films exist in a weird cultural landscape. On one hand, Western culture grew at the heart of Christianity, so it makes sense that we keep exploring demons as a source of horror. The idea of Hell is so engraved in our minds that even people who don’t identify as Christians might feel afraid watching a devoted priest perform an exorcism on screen. However, movies focused on demonic possession frequently feel like advertising, as if horror was a vehicle to spread the word that we should have faith in religion. More often than not, we can ignore the message if we’d like and just enjoy a scary movie. Prey for the Devil , however, seems to have been developed as deliberate propaganda.

Prey for the Devil takes place at a school of exorcism in Boston, funded by the Catholic Church. There, young priests learn how to save souls and fight demons, a knowledge they can frequently practice with the patients the Church keeps in the institution's basement. That’s because every person supposedly suffering from demonic possession gets isolated and followed closely by a medical team, with priests ready to act when science is no longer effective in treating illness. It’s an exciting concept. Or it could be if Prey for the Devil didn’t take itself so seriously. For example, the movie’s first scene tries to sell its wacky idea as something based on the real world. And that includes a wall of text right at the beginning explaining the dire state of a world where demonic possession has become an epidemic, and the Holy Church must act for the sake of humankind.

RELATED: 'V/H/S/99' Review: The Found-Footage Anthology Climbs to New Horror Heights

According to tradition, only male priests can learn how to perform an exorcism, so the classrooms are mostly occupied by men. Then comes the movie protagonist, Sister Ann ( Jacqueline Byers ), a rebellious nun determined to challenge a conservative structure and learn to perform exorcisms herself. On the surface, Prey for the Devil is a story about women's empowerment inside a patriarchal structure. However, that’s nothing but a façade, as the movie actually reinforces how the Church’s millenary teachings are the most effective tool to vanquish evil.

Image via Lionsgate

Prey for the Devil tries to follow PR-approved guidelines to show how religion has adapted to modern times. That’s why Sister Ann and other religious people are often seen in casual clothes. The main characters also have a past of partying and hanging out with the wrong people to show they are as sinful as everyone else. Finally, the three main characters of Prey for the Devil are a woman, a Latino man ( Christian Navarro ), and a Black man ( Colin Salmon ), as if the movie was trying to complete a checklist of political correctness. After all, if the Church is so diverse and so accepting of differences, that would mean this powerful institution has evolved past its historical errors. That would be all fine if Prey for the Devil didn’t constantly refer to said past, revealing the hypocrisy of its message instead.

Foremost, rather than ignoring the Holy Church’s genocidal history, Prey for the Devil turns the Inquisition into a plot point. However, instead of recognizing the true horrors of torturing and killing people in the name of God as something to be ashamed of, the movie wants to sell the idea that it was a necessary evil. It’s not a coincidence that an instrument used for executions many centuries ago becomes the main weapon to defeat Prey for the Devil 's antagonist. That alone would be enough to raise some eyebrows, but Prey for the Devil is filled with twisted moral messages.

For instance, when Sister Ann tries to break the pattern and ignore the exorcism playbook, she actually harms the person she is trying to save, proving that tradition is better than innovation. Even worse is that Prey for the Devil makes an uncomfortable comparison between demonic possession and mental health issues, suggesting the latter is proof of inner evil. There’s also the case of a woman who’s consumed by the trauma of having aborted a child after being raped. That’s right, the choice to get rid of the fetus is what threatens her integrity, not the unspeakable violence she suffered. And when the movie exposes its premise that people who carry shame and guilt invite demons on purpose because they want to be punished, it feels a lot like victim-shaming.

There's nothing particularly wrong with Prey for the Devil on a technical side. The whole cast does what it can to hold the movie together, with Byers and Salmon shining particularly bright. The special effects team also had fun conjuring some good creatures that pay homage to classic exorcism movies. So, even though Prey for the Devil doesn't do anything new with the genre and only copies the same scares we’ve seen dozens of times before, it might offer enough to please horror fans who really like the theme. That is, if they can get past all the propaganda bits that drag the movie down.

On the surface, Prey for the Devil tries to appeal to modern audiences by featuring a female protagonist and a diverse cast. And while these are usually victories to be celebrated, here they are actually a distraction. That’s because, at every turn, Prey for the Devil undermines how the battle against evil justifies any means. Even dark periods of history, such as the Inquisition, were worthy of keeping the souls of the faithful safe. It’s no surprise that the religious language used in Prey for the Devil is particularly warlike, with priests getting weapons to fight an unbeatable enemy. And wars always have casualties, including a woman's rights over her body and mental health patients accused of being possessed. But hey, what matters is that we preserve tradition and don’t change things too much, lest the Devil wins.

Prey for the Devil comes to theaters on October 28. Check out the movie’s trailer below:

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

DVD & Streaming

Prey for the Devil

Drama , Horror

Content Caution

In Theaters

October 28, 2022
Jacqueline Byers as Sister Ann; Christian Navarro as Father Dante; Virginia Madsen as Dr. Peters; Colin Salmon as Father Quinn; Posy Taylor as Natalie; Nicholas Ralph as Father Raymond; Ben Cross as Cardinal Matthews; Cora Kirk as Emilia

Home Release Date

January 3, 2023
Daniel Stamm

Distributor

Movie review.

Sister Ann knows exactly what she wants to be: an exorcist. But a glass ceiling—a stained glass ceiling—is in her way.

In the Catholic Church, only priests can be exorcists. And only men can be priests. Them’s the rules, and they’ve been in place for 2,000 years. The church isn’t going to change course now—even if today’s exorcists are dealing with a sudden surge in cases. Even if the Vatican has taken the unprecedented step of opening exorcist schools around the world—including right there in Boston.

Sister Ann accepts her status. Mostly. She is, after all, a nun these days—wedded to Christ and living under the vows of poverty, chastity and (sigh) obedience .

Still, she thinks she’d be a dynamite exorcist. And she has some deeply personal reasons for wanting to become one.

When she was growing up, her mother was … uneven. Sometimes she’d be loving and caring. Other times, she’d be a terror—yanking out Ann’s hair in clumps with her wicked comb, pounding at locked doors with her head as Ann, on the other side, prayed and prayed. The doctors said Ann’s mom was schizophrenic. But Ann suspected that her mother’s ills were more spiritual than mental: Mom was, Ann believed, possessed. And the demons she hosted eventually destroyed her.

Ann was terrified of her mother. But looking back, how Ann wished she could’ve helped her. Now, all she wants to do is help other people with the same infernal affliction: She sees the people behind the black eyes and snarling mouths. She wants to bring them back.

But for now, Ann only helps as she’s allowed. Boston’s exorcism school serves as sort of a possessed-person’s hospital, too—where those suspected of being possessed are held, observed and (if necessary) treated. Ann serves as a sort of nurse, visiting those under observation. She brings them food, gives them baths and talks with them when they’re in their right mind.

And she’s made a particularly strong attachment with Natalie, a 10-year-old girl. Ann admires her crayon drawings. She sneaks her a bit of candy now and then. As the doctors and exorcists discuss the child’s condition, Ann sits on the sad little girl’s bed and whispers to Natalie, with a wink and a smile, “She’s not as scary as she looks.”

Surely, a sweet little girl like this—who draws pictures of rainbow trains and who smiles as big as sunshine—couldn’t be really possessed, could she?

But the devil does not spare sweet little girls from his attentions. And Natalie is indeed under his sway.

For his infernal legions, the true prize isn’t this 10-year-old child: It’s Ann. In her, the demons see a grievous threat … and a coveted prize. If they can use Natalie to get to Ann, the realms below would ring their crooked bells.

If they have their way, Ann may soon see possession from the other side of the prison wall.

Positive Elements

Sister Ann certainly means well. She’s kind and generous and, indeed, truly wants to help both her church and those poor possessed souls. And as we learn more about her backstory, we discover just what sort of obstacles she had to deal with to get to where she is now. It’s not easy to overcome the childhood wounds she suffered, or to recover from her wayward teen years. But, through the grace of God (whom she would quickly credit), Ann did overcome those obstacles, finding a home and purpose in the sisterhood. She also chooses to commit an act of great sacrifice to save someone, too.

The priests around Ann eye her interest in exorcism with varying degrees of support or concern. Father Dante (Ann’s best friend at the school) would love to see her join him on the front lines. Father Raymond believes that allowing Ann to become an exorcist would be a mistake. Father Quinn, the primary spiritual teacher at the school, is of two minds: On one, he’s respectful of the Church’s laws and believe they’re there for a reason. On the other, he sees Ann’s passion and spirit, and he knows that Ann has a strong bond with the girl still inside Natalie’s body. Perhaps Ann can save her where nobody else can.

But regardless of how they view Ann, all of these priests seem committed to doing good here. They’re committed to fulfilling their vows faithfully and doing their jobs courageously.

We should also note that the school employs psychologists, too; they help both the exorcists and the patients themselves. In the movie, all sides acknowledge that it can be difficult to tell the difference between possession and mental illness, and the school responsibly tries to make the right determination—and thus give its patients the right sort of help.

Spiritual Elements

As you can tell—perhaps beginning with the movie’s title— Prey For the Devil is just dripping with spiritual content. (At times, quite literally: There’s a huge font of holy water in the school’s catacombs.)

We’re dealing with demonic entities and possession from the first scene to the last, and infernal forces are quite active throughout. But so are other, better forces. The demons we see are often impacted by signs of the cross and holy water and the like. We hear plenty of prayers and Scripture readings, too. “Always remember the Word of God is your most powerful weapon,” Father Quinn tells his students.

Prey for the Devil also seems to make an interesting point regarding the nature of possession: Many of the victims most grievously afflicted are those who feel so much guilt and shame over past sins that, they believe, the mercy of God doesn’t extend to them. They deserve whatever’s coming to them. While the film makes it clear that that’s not true—that no one is beyond God’s love and mercy—that sense of unworthiness cracks the door open a bit and leaves these struggling souls very vulnerable.

But sometimes, the film can spin that reasonably cogent take in unhealthy ways, too. During an exorcism, Sister Ann tells a possessed woman that God loves her—even though she committed an act that she feels incredible shame over. She is not beyond God’s mercy. The woman seems to believe it. And when the demon apparently disappears, Ann tells her, “You’re saved. You saved yourself.” In the context of the movie, I get what Ann means, but the statement still felt quite off.

[ Spoiler Warning ] The movie itself might debunk Ann’s assertion, too. The exorcism isn’t successful, and the consequences are tragic.

Prey For the Devil also has a religious feminist point to make.

A persnickety nun tells Ann that her duty is to “comfort, to pray, to show mercy” to those afflicted. “That is all.” It doesn’t matter to said persnickety nun, or to the Church at large, that Ann has both the aptitude and the inclination to become an exorcist. While the film points out that women have been exorcists before (name-checking Catherine of Siena as one in the 1300s), the theological tension about whether Ann should be one seems designed to point to the real-world tension over whether the Catholic Church should allow female priests. In one scene, Ann dresses herself in explicitly priestly garb, collar and all.

We see loads of crucifixes (including one used to, perhaps symbolically, pry open a lock) and rosaries. A statue of Jesus looms over a font of holy water; a statue of Michael about to stab the devil (depicted as half dragon) graces the school’s foyer.

Candles and Catholic iconography make appearances. Loads of characters pray and recite Scripture. We learn that the Catholic Church truly saved Ann—spiritually and perhaps physically—when as a teen she made some very poor decisions.

Sexual Content

Sister Ann and Father Dante attend to a woman who was raped and got pregnant. She eventually got rid of the baby (the movie doesn’t say how, but you could surmise she had an abortion), and the shame she feels over the act has apparently left her open for possession. We see her exposed tummy during the exorcism, though it’s obviously not designed to be at all titillating.

[ Spoiler Warning ] During the exorcism, the demon inside the woman points out that Ann, too, knows what it’s like to have a new life growing inside her—and what it’s like to give it up. It mocks Ann for not even knowing the father of her child. Later, Ann admits that she got pregnant when she was 15, and she was so “wasted” that she didn’t know the father’s name. She chose adoption for her baby.

Violent Content

Demons lash out in loads of ways—actually killing some folks who seek to dispel or curb them.

In perhaps the movie’s most violent scene (in the back of an ambulance), it appears as though a demon-possessed individual may separate a man’s arm from his body (the scene is incredibly quick, so it’s hard to say definitively) and sets a priest’s crucifix on fire—beginning a process of immolating the priest. When the ambulance arrives at its destination, it arrives with three corpses. (We’re not exposed to any graphic close-ups, though. Rather, we hear someone talk about the fatalities.)

We also see priests telekinetically hurled into walls and gates—sometimes killing them. A man is yanked off his feet. In flashbacks, we see a woman lying dead on the floor, her head laying in a pool of blood. (We hear that the woman killed herself.)

Grotesque scenes and images abound as well. Hair is pulled into a girl’s mouth, and a hand shoots out of that same mouth. Someone pulls what looks to be a strand of hair from her own eyeball. A woman removes what apparently was a prosthetic from her face, revealing a gaping maw of sinew and working jaw underneath. A woman seems to have something horrific crawling in her distended belly, and that same belly is covered in finger marks from the woman herself clawing at it.

Possessed individuals bend backwards in impossible positions (surely deeply painful to the possessed), scamper up walls and seem to try to lick others with long, pointed tongues. A possessed man’s back is scrubbed, and the water seems to burn him. Crosses burn. Someone is submerged in holy water—tormenting the demon inside and nearly drowning the mortal person.

We hear that centuries before, “hundreds” of women were drowned in a holy water font when they suspected of being possessed. (Whether they were or not is up for debate.) A wall is filled with pictures of exorcists who apparently died in the line of duty. We hear several references to possessed people who hit a “terminal” state of possession: Father Quinn says that while the soul may still be saved, death is imminent for the body. Later, we hear that 90% of people who enter that terminal state die, a figure that Sister Ann finds shocking.

In flashbacks, we see Ann’s mother pound her head against doors and comb Ann’s hair violently. Fan blades supernaturally fling off the fan itself, embedding in walls and crashing through windows.

Crude or Profane Language

One s-word, uttered by a very alarmed priest. But that’s it.

Drug and Alcohol Content

We hear references to Ann’s wild youth, where she apparently drank a lot of alcohol, did drugs or both. Ann and a couple of priests drink wine after a harrowing experience.

Other Negative Elements

One priest says that after being involved in an exorcism as part of his education, he’ll need to wear “adult diapers” to class from now on.

Father Dante and Sister Ann conspire to trick their superiors in order to get into restricted areas of the exorcism library and take part in an unsanctioned exorcism.

As a movie, Prey for the Devil feels a little unsure of itself. Though it often plays like a straight-up, not-particularly-original exorcism movie, it sometimes edges into more fantastical, Van Helsing -like territory. I could be wrong, but I’m assuming that the Catholic Church doesn’t actually run such well-appointed training schools, filled with handy possessed patients on which to train. It’d not surprise me if, by Prey for the Devil VI , Sister Ann is toting a crossbow that fires flaming, crucifix-tipped bolts.

Admittedly, the content here is more restrained than it could’ve been. This PG-13 movie can be grotesque, but it’s not wildly gory. The language is surprisingly reined in. And the explicitly religious heroes here are both heroic and devout. That, in today’s cynical landscape, is nice to see.

But those positives aside, Prey for the Devil comes with all the negatives you’d expect. Lots of demonic activity. Lots of scenes that’ll make you jump or wince. And it’ll have many would-be viewers casting it aside, if not casting it out.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

Latest Reviews

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Someone Like You

Ordinary Angels

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

Lionsgate Films

Summary Sister Ann (Jacqueline Byers) believes she is answering a calling to be the first female exorcist… but who, or what, called her? In response to a global rise in demonic possessions, Ann seeks out a place at an exorcism school reopened by the Catholic Church. Until now these schools have only trained priests in the Rite of Exorcism – but ... Read More

Directed By : Daniel Stamm

Written By : Robert Zappia, Earl Richey Jones, Todd R. Jones

Where to Watch

Jacqueline byers, debora zhecheva.

Christian Navarro

Father dante, posy taylor.

Colin Salmon

Father quinn, nicholas ralph, father raymond.

Cardinal Matthews

Virginia Madsen

Lisa palfrey, sister euphemia, koyna ruseva, ann's mother, elizabeth gibson, sister kylie, velizar binev, father bernhard.

Yana Marinova

Natalie's mother, keith bartlett, yanina kasheva, dante's mother, konstantin tomasini, father zajic - bulgarian priest, angie zampona, laura giosh, library nun, emona ilieva, critic reviews.

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

User Reviews

Related movies.

Rosemary's Baby

The Bride of Frankenstein

Don't Look Now

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Frankenstein

Repulsion (re-release)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

It's Such a Beautiful Day

Eyes Without a Face [re-release]

Night of the Living Dead

The Innocents

The Invisible Man

I Saw the TV Glow

The Wicker Man

DVD/Blu-ray Releases: New & Upcoming

Jason dietz.

Find a list of new movie and TV releases on DVD and Blu-ray (updated weekly) as well as a calendar of upcoming releases on home video.

2024 Movie Release Calendar

Find release dates for every movie coming to theaters, VOD, and streaming throughout 2024 and beyond, updated weekly.

SXSW 2024 Recap: Best and Worst Films

Keith kimbell.

Which films impressed reviewers during the 2024 edition of the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival? We recap the reactions of critics to all of this year's major SXSW premieres and tell you which titles won the festival's major awards.

Every Denis Villeneuve Movie, Ranked

Before French-Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve earned the attention of sci-fi fans with excellent Dune and Blade Runner films, he made a name for himself with crime thrillers and indie dramas. Here, we rank every one of his films to date from worst to best by Metascore.

March Movie Preview (2024)

The month ahead will bring a conclusion to the Dune saga, a Ghostbusters sequel, an indie comedy with terrific early reviews, and more. To help you plan your moviegoing options, our editors have selected the most notable films releasing in March 2024.

Prey For The Devil Review: Jacqueline Byers Blesses This Questionable Possession Film

Director Daniel Stamm’s Prey For The Devil isn't quite heaven-sent but it finds redemption in some of its bone-chilling thrills.

Battling demonic forces and the patriarchy run side by side in Prey For The Devil, Daniel Stamm’s ( The Last Exorcism ) new film. At times, the movie is a thrill fest able to hold your interest. Other times, it feels a bit hollow, rinsing out stories we’ve seen in other horror and possession films .

What to do? Well, it’s Halloween season . Don’t think too much about anything in Prey For The Devil. To truly enjoy it means to suspend any belief that the “devil,” or any kind of demonic force for that matter—something apparently so strong that it can possess a person—isn’t strong enough to, like the character of Carrie before it, bring down the whole damn house. But hey, this is Hollywood, not a Master Class on the power of the Gods. Even fallen ones.

Prey For The Devil has one great thing going for it: Jacqueline Byers . As Sister Ann, a nun who feels called to be the first female exorcist, the actress is a joy to watch, and you root for her character. In fact, should the film find financial redemption at the box office— Black Adam has, and think about how many times you may have rolled your eyes throughout that creatively challenged film—there could be a sequel. And if there is a Prey 2, I pray Sister Ann opens a rebel nun academy. How interesting would it be to see seven nuns on the run, kicking demonic ass? But I digress. Let’s dive into this movie a bit deeper.

A Nun on a Mission

In Prey For The Devil, Sister Ann must answer a deep calling to become the first female exorcist. Battling the devil is a bold goal, but first Ann must go up against the Catholic patriarchy and find a place within a newly formed exorcism school that’s popped up in response to a global rise in demonic possessions. It’s no picnic at the boy’s club. Only trained male priests can perform the Rite of Exorcism, but Sister Ann has a unique backstory. When she was younger, her mother was “possessed.” Or perhaps mentally ill. Hard to know for sure, but for the sake of argument, let’s say Ann’s mommy issues are deeply rooted in spiritual brouhaha.

Basically, Ann is a nun to watch out for. The demon/devil in Prey For The Devil knows this too. “He”—it’s safe to assume that, once again, the devil totes the XY chromosome—wants “in,” as the movie poster tells us. But why? Well, there’s what happened with mommy way back there in the spiritual rearview mirror, so, there must be some unfinished business.

Ann finds an ally in Father Quinn (Colin Salmon), who recognizes her gifts and agrees to train her. She’s taken into the Catholic battlefield with fellow student Father Dante (Christian Navarro). There, Sister Ann must battle for the soul of a young girl, but Ann suspects she’s possessed by the same demon that tormented her own mother years ago. Some of the horror scenes that ensue are among the film’s best—and kudos the VFX team. Posy Taylor plays Natalie, the possessed young girl. Her body contorts. She climbs walls. Her eyes darken. Her skin blisters and scars. Her hair is sucked down her throat. What a mess. In approaching Natalie, Sister Ann suspects that she’s been drawn to her by the demonic force that wants something from her. Newfound ways of negotiating with the devilish force—and the spirit of the young girl—become a priority and as the film moves along toward its final act, Sister Ann and Father Dante strengthen their bond in an attempt exorcize the demon once and for all.

Related: The Whale Review: Brendan Fraser's Awe-inspiring Performance Keeps Darren Aronofsky's Film Afloat

Go Along for the Ride

Robert Zappia’s ( Search and Explore, The Tom and Jerry Show ) screenplay—from a story from Zappia, and Earl Richey Jones and Todd R. Jones ( In Living Color, Rio )—does an effective job of creating a compelling character in Sister Ann. Byers is an engaging actor. Every scene she possesses—had to say it—adds a refreshing level of authenticity to what we’re seeing, and her raw, believable performance is noteworthy. Byers holds the film together and the story of Ann. What she goes through, and where she’ll end up works to a degree.

It's nice to see Navarro ( 13 Reasons Why ) here, too, although the material never allows this otherwise compelling actor to fully come across as believable in the role of a priest . One gets the sense that in an era when political correctness is at an all-time high, having a Hispanic priest and an African American mentor (Father Quinn) was a kind of checking-the-PC-box thing, but one can never know for sure.

Other creative things are questionable—again, best not to overthink. However, it’s curious that Hollywood continues to lean into stories that showcase demonic possession primarily in women. As if to say… women are more susceptible because…? And after more than 30 years of Oprah, Deepak, and Eckhart, are we to believe that Catholic priests are still the only spiritual beings on the planet with a refreshing viewpoint and the power to cast out dark forces?

Don’t dissect it. When you slip into the seat of a roller coaster, you don’t necessarily question how the metal bars are made or the size of the wheels. You go along for the ride. If you can do that while watching Prey For The Devil, the thrills will sustain you. Sister Ann will intrigue you. You may even cringe at the effective VFX. That said, Prey For The Devil will be a lovely guilty pleasure—one you don’t have to take to confession.

Prey For The Devil hits theaters on October 28.

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Prey for the Devil (2022)

December 12, 2022 by Robert Kojder

Prey for the Devil , 2022.

Directed by Daniel Stamm. Starring Jacqueline Byers, Colin Salmon, Christian Navarro, Lisa Palfrey, Nicholas Ralph, Ben Cross, Virginia Madsen, Tom Forbes, Velizar Binev, Owen Davis, Debora Zhecheva, Cora Kirk, Posy Taylor, and Elizabeth Gibson.

A nun prepares to perform an exorcism and comes face to face with a demonic force with mysterious ties to her past.

Filled with lazy jump scares and embarrassingly transparent plot twists and metaphors, Prey for the Devil is not a good movie. However, those aspects aren’t what bothered me; I somewhat expected director Daniel Stamm’s (from a screenplay by Robert Zappia, working on the story with Todd R. Jones and Earl Richey Jones) to go that route, but one character has a line lecturing that “exorcisms are about nuance” in a story as blunt as a hammer blow to the skull, which left me actively irritated for the remaining 45 minutes. The devil himself is probably laughing his ass off at the contradictory hypocrisy on display here.

Taking place at a Boston-based exorcism school, Sister Ann (Jacqueline Byers) has a tragic past involving her mother’s possession and subsequent death (which plays out in flashbacks drained of color to the extent of treating viewers like idiots, making sure they are aware the scene is from the past) that has fueled a close connection and rivalry with the devil. He wants to take over Ann and will stop at nothing. In general, demonic forces are rising in numbers with an unintentionally hilarious amount of ongoing cases that are so overblown in side effects and hellish behavior that everything comes across as cartoonish (the atrocious CGI doesn’t help matters).

Surprising no one, the Catholic Church is stuck in the past. Women cannot conduct exorcisms. It’s a status quo that Ann intends correct, especially upon developing a powerful link with the possessed young girl Natalie (Posy Taylor). With demons growing in numbers, Fr. Quinn (Colin Salmon) shows a progressive mindset and allows Ann to sit in on his courses detailing exorcism history and proper tactics. Amusingly, he doesn’t even seem like a good teacher, getting his ass handed to him during a hands-on lesson with one of the possessed individuals locked up for safety and treatment, but that’s beside the point.

Dismantling the patriarchy within this infrastructure is the one decent idea Prey for the Devil has, which is wasted on generic characters and bland plotting. The film also tries to get to the root of how people allow themselves to enter a weak enough state of vulnerability to be possessed, typically from grief and shame. While theoretically interesting, all this means is that Prey for the Devil is the most in-your-face and on-the-nose metaphor yet for facing trauma.

The connection between Ann and Natalie is believable enough, and the production design emphasizing religious imagery is occasionally well-constructed, but beyond that, there’s almost nothing to recommend. Even the seemingly forward-thinking intentions reverse backward as one contemplates the predictable twist and what Prey for the Devil is saying and shaming Ann for.

There’s just about every exorcism cliché in the book, from despicable remarks to bodily harm (a hand coming out of a mouth?), wall-climbing, crab-walking, and limb contortion. It didn’t take long before I was praying for this to end.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Who is the Best Final Girl in Horror?

The B-Movie Queens

Exploring George A. Romero’s Non-Zombie Movies

The Craziest Takashi Miike Movies

Philip K. Dick & Hollywood: The Essential Movie Adaptations

20 Epic Car Chases That Will Drive You Wild

Ten Action Sequels The World Needs To See

Essential Vampire Movies To Sink Your Teeth Into

House of the Dragon: All the Important Houses in Season 2 and Who They Fight for Explained

Yellowstone: What Will Happen to John Dutton in Season 5 Part 2? Fan Theories Explained

Comic Books
Video Games
Toys & Collectibles
Articles and Opinions
About Flickering Myth
Write for Flickering Myth
Advertise on Flickering Myth
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

For Parents
For Educators
Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

Get the app
Movie Reviews
Best Movie Lists
Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best TV Lists
Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
Common Sense Selections for TV
Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

Book Reviews
Best Book Lists
Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Game Reviews
Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Podcast Reviews
Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

App Reviews
Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

YouTube Channel Reviews
YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

Explaining the News to Our Kids

Family Tech Planners
Digital Skills
All Articles
Latino Culture
Black Voices
Asian Stories
Native Narratives
LGBTQ+ Pride
Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Prey for the devil, common sense media reviewers.

Lots of jump scares in tired demon-possession movie.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Jump scares are first and foremost, but, in a way,

Sister Ann has strong beliefs about the ways in wh

White males generally take a backseat in this stor

Characters possessed by demons. Several jump scare

Character talks about the consequences of having s

Single uses of "s--t," "bitch."

Two priests and a nun celebrate a victory with cup

Positive Messages

Jump scares are first and foremost, but, in a way, movie is about trauma, about reaching out, listening, understanding, finding compassion. Argues that it's time that nuns, as well as priests, be allowed to study exorcisms. Suggests the need to communicate with the possessed, who are so hurt and guilty that they don't believe they deserve God's love and therefore let a demon in without resistance.

Positive Role Models

Sister Ann has strong beliefs about the ways in which she can help people, but she must frequently break the rules to do so. She faces consequences bravely. That said, she seems rather passive in many scenes; she's not as fully rounded as she could be. Other characters, like Father Quinn, also seem kind, helpful, forward-thinking.

Diverse Representations

White males generally take a backseat in this story: Main character is a woman, and many characters of color are part of the group at the teaching hospital and church, including a major Black character (Father Quinn) and a major Latino character (Father Dante).

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Characters possessed by demons. Several jump scares. Dialogue about a woman being raped. Demon attacking woman, waggling long tongue at her. Dead body in pool of blood. Blood in IV bag. Images and dialogue about an abused child. Mother yanks and pulls child's hair; child screams. Violent attack in back of ambulance; three people killed. Demon throws priests across room; they're killed. Possessed nun tries to shove child into water. Possessed child with cuts and bruises on face. Character bangs head on door rapidly. Person claws at stomach as it swells to unusual size. Scary demon effects, bodies contorting in weird ways. Character pulls stringy thing out of eyeball. Character gags on own hair. Hand emerging from mouth. Character removes prosthetic nose/face, some gore seen. Maggots. Fan blades snapping from spinning fan, becoming deadly projectiles, sticking in wall. Ankle breaking. Nightmare sequence. Spooky noises.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Character talks about the consequences of having sex as a teenager while very drunk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Two priests and a nun celebrate a victory with cups of wine. Woman says about getting pregnant at age 15, "I was so wasted I don't remember who the father was."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Prey for the Devil is a demon possession/exorcism movie that argues that women should be allowed to learn the craft of exorcisms. It also urges empathy and understanding, but it's so sluggish and tired that it fails to make much impact. Expect lots of demon-related violence, several jump scares, bodies contorting in weird ways, moments depicting the abuse of a child, dead bodies, blood, and other gross, gory, and shocking digital effects. A woman talks about getting pregnant at age 15, adding, "I was so wasted I don't remember who the father was." Two priests and a nun drink celebratory wine. Language includes a single use of "s--t" and a use of "bitch." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (2)
Kids say (5)

Based on 2 parent reviews

I was surprised how much I liked it

Bad movie you will fall asleep, what's the story.

In PREY FOR THE DEVIL, Ann ( Jacqueline Byers ) suffers from childhood trauma. She believes that her mother was possessed and that the "voice" inside her made her harm her young daughter. Now a nun in a teaching hospital, Ann is determined to learn about exorcisms, even though the church forbids nuns to do so. Ann makes a connection with a young girl named Natalie (Posy Taylor). When Natalie shows signs of possession, Ann is able to help by reaching out to the girl inside, rather than confronting the demon. A young priest, Father Dante (Christian Navarro), asks for Ann's help with his sister, who also seems to be possessed. But when things go south, Ann must face the demon inside Natalie one more time and make a hard decision.

Is It Any Good?

Like many exorcist movies, this one is beautiful to look at (old churches, libraries, stained glass windows), but it has the energy of a sloth, as if it drifted off while gazing at things. Prey for the Devil has a good concept in that it argues that it's time to let women into the exorcism club. It also flips the script by suggesting that people can reach out to the possessed -- who are so hurt and guilty that they don't believe they deserve God's love -- rather than attacking the demon. But it doesn't use these ideas for more than a handful of typical, tired exorcism scenes. The only interesting thing that happens is that the demon makes a ceiling fan spin so fast that the blades snap off and fly across the room.

Everything feels sleepy in this movie, and even Ann delivers her lines in soft, hypnotizing tones. (This is great for the scenes in which she cares for patients, but not so great while fighting demons.) There's no urgency. The first exorcism we see is simply a class project, with two volunteers trying out the process as if they were taking a practical oral exam. It doesn't help that the demons aren't even scary, consisting of the usual low-budget sludgy-looking CGI effects and a handful of jump scares. At least Virginia Madsen is here, lending a little class to the movie, as the doctor in charge at the hospital. And Colin Salmon is great as Father Quinn, with his glorious voice. If only Prey for the Devil had roused itself enough to follow up on its ideas, it might have been worthy of its cast.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Prey for the Devil 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Does Ann's theory about the possessed allowing demons inside because of trauma and guilt make sense? How could this theory be applied to life?

Is the movie scary? What's the appeal of horror movies ? How can horror be a tool to grapple with issues going on in the real world?

Did you notice any positive diverse representations in the film? Why is that important?

Movie Details

In theaters : October 28, 2022
On DVD or streaming : December 13, 2022
Cast : Jacqueline Byers , Christian Navarro , Virginia Madsen , Colin Salmon
Director : Daniel Stamm
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors, Black writers
Studio : Lionsgate
Genre : Horror
Run time : 93 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : violent and disturbing content, terror, thematic elements and brief language
Last updated : June 19, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Want personalized picks for your kids' age and interests?

The Conjuring

The Exorcist

The Last Exorcism

The Possession

Best horror movies, scary movies for kids.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Jason's Movie Blog

A movie blog for movie reviews, trailers, and more.

Prey for the Devil (2022) Review

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

A battle for a person’s soul in the endless war between God and the Devil. Tales of exorcisms and demonic possessions have always been a fascinated points of scary interest amongst individuals. The idea of believing that particular individual being possessed by an unholy spirit and seeing a priest (or other religious authority figure) summoning the strength and courage to banish the being from the conjugate physical form has been the stuff of nightmares. And yet, this particular practice of holy rites has been accounted many times throughout the ages. Accounts of such individuals under the influence of possession have varied, yet all speak of a malevolent force behind such acts, with the Prince of Darkness (Satan) feeding such demonic presence within a person. Of course, such tales have become an interest in cinematic representation, with Hollywood finding an interesting in showcasing possession and the challenge of exorcisms, including films like 1973’s The Exorcist , 2005’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose, 2010’s Exorcismus , 2011’s The Rite , 2016’s The Conjuring 2 , amongst others. Now, Lionsgate and director Daniel Stamm present the latest film to examine the battle of demonic possession and the power of exorcisms in the movie Prey for the Devil . Does this feature spark an interest amongst this spiritual religious battle or is it a shallow and derivate attempt to depict God’s work against encroaching evil?

THE GOOD / THE BAD

As I’ve stated many times before, I’m not really much a fan of horror movies. Yes, a few of them I do like, but the genre isn’t exactly my personal cinematic “cup of tea” for viewing entertainment. Although, the genre itself is starting to grow on me and I’ve started to appreciate these types of movies. Of course, tales of exorcisms and those particular nuances still give me the chills. I don’t know what it is about it, but it definitely gives me an unsettling feeling. Perhaps it’s because it deals with such religious stigma of good vs. evil. I mean…. a person who is possessed by a malevolent spirt / demonic host, who is causing an individual bend, twists, and crawls, in ways that seem unnatural as well as the guttural sound of speaking demonic speech. And then having a person of faith trying to exorcise evil presence with holy scripture and divine rite ceremony. It really has that spiritual battlefield mantra of God vs. Satan, and it all gives me a frighten feeling for my mortal soul. As I stated above, such an idea of possession and exorcisms has longed fascinated people (in a sort of dark and macabre way), which is probably why Hollywood studios have found a particular niche area to explore such a tale in a cinematic way. Of course, none is more famous than William Friedkin’s 1973 horror classic The Exorcist , which (to this day) still scares the living hell out of me. Like many, it was my first movie that depicted such events of a person being possessed as well as being exorcised and it literally gave me nightmares (I remember I saw a few scenes when I was younger). Looking back, one really does have to appreciate Friedkin’s work on the movie and, while Hollywood has done other movies that depicted such religious sequences of exorcisms (a much notable representation in the Conjuring movies), 1973’s The Exorcist stands out as the most memorable one.

Naturally, this brings me back to talking about Prey for the Devil , a 2022 horror movie and the latest film endeavor that shows demonic possession and practice of the exorcism rite. As I’ve watched the upcoming movies that are being released every so often, I do catch a horror movie that kind piques my interest to actually go seeing it. Prey for the Devil was such a feature. To be honest, though, I really didn’t hear much about it when it was first announced back in 2019 or even during its production back in 2020. The movie, which was originally set to be released at the beginning of 2021, before it was moved to February 11 th , 2022, and then moved again for a firm final theatrical release date of October 28 th , 2022. It was probably around April 2022 when I first got a glimpse of this particular horror film and I think first saw the film’s movie trailer when I went to go see Everything Everywhere All at Once . From the trailer alone, it definitely got me interested to see the feature, especially since it dealt with a more religious tone of Catholic faith so-called “armoring” its priests with the tools necessary for such hellish practice of performing exorcisms as well as the film’s main plot that seemed to focus on a Nun with a trouble past of dealing with a mother, who might’ve been possessed, as well as a young girl that needs to be saved from evil spirit within. To me, it looked like a solid horror flick, and I always remember seeing it during the “coming attractions” previews when I went for my weekly outings at the movie theaters. I mean…. I saw the preview a lot during the summer and early fall time period, especially if I went to go see a PG-13 or R rated feature. So, it goes without saying that Prey for the Devil got me “hooked” to see it during the end of October, which I did during its opening weekend. I did have to delay getting my review completed for it a few days after due to getting a few reviews out first. Now, I’m finally ready to share my thoughts on this horror movie. And what did I think of it? Well, it was just okay. Despite having an interesting concept nuances, a few intriguing story beats, and effective presentation, and several good performances, Prey for the Devil ends up a middling project that can’t come off as a predictable horror movie with only mild jump scares. It’s not as terrible as some are making it out to be, but it definitely isn’t all that was promised in the film’s marketing campaign.

Prey for the Devil is directed by Daniel Stamm, whose previous directorial works include such films as The Last Exorcism , 13 Sins , and A Necessary Death . Given his familiarity with horror films as well as the nuances of religious exorcism narratives, Stamm seems like suitable candidate for helming such a project as this film. With that in mind, Stamm approaches Prey for the Devil with a sense of knowledge of how to helm such a project that deals with demonic possession and holy exorcism rites. From the opening title crawl of the feature, Stamm sets the stage / mood of the feature, with proceeding text that talks about the practice of exorcism in the Catholic Church and how a large number of cases have arisen in recent years; finding Vatican looking to expand their practice of exorcism beyond their walls. It’s an interesting notion and further examined early in the movie, with the notion that “screening” individuals that are afflicted a round of psychological test to see if the so-called “possessed” is indeed in fact have spiritual host control them or are there borderline personality disorder / schizophrenia. Again, I found that to be an interesting concept in the movie, with Stamm making the case presented in the main character of Sister Ann and how her own personal dealings with her trouble d mother have a sense of duality within her plight. Maybe a small thing to examine and, while fully examined to its larger extent (more on that below), but it’s one that I found interesting more so than just the “run-of-the-mill” possession presentation.

Speaking of possession presentation, I do have to say that Stamm does a pretty decent job in staging such scenes. Of course, there are some problematic points of criticism in those said scenes that I’ll mention later on, but (in general terms) I found them to be quite effective. There were intense, shocking, and left me a slight unsettling feeling. Seeing body movement contort, move, and just plain unnatural ways of demonic possession were heavily utilized in these scenes and had more effective usage than some previous depictions of said exorcisms iterations. This also makes the purging of demonic spirits that much more interesting and has a large stake to play in the characters, which causes the scene to have more grit and action within. All in all, these sequences were chilling to watch and, while maybe a tad “over-the-top” still kept me glue to the screen and made squirm a little in my chair.

Also, I probably know that this probably could’ve gone into the presentation category, but I felt it was definitely one of the positive aspects of the feature…. the sound design / mixing. Part of the allure of horror movies, especially nowadays, comes from the effects that are utilized throughout the cinematic presentation. Of course, I’m speaking through the usage of sound and incredible mixing and editing that used throughout Prey for the Devil . The harsh and guttural almost otherworldly sounds of demonic possession are on full display and quite haunting / captivating to behold as I felt the encroaching evil rising in the various scenes that are depicted. This is in contrast to some other scenes in the movie, where the silent fills the air and can only hear the soft (terror-filled) breathing, the scratching on the walls, and the uneasy stillness of the “deep breath before the plunge” type nuances. The point I’m making is that the Prey for the Devil’s sound editing, and mixing team deliver some genuine creepiness and horrifying sounds that definitely help the feature’s more highlighted possession moments so engrossing and terrifying to watch (or rather to listen to).

In terms of presentation, Prey for the Devil is actually pretty good and definitely holds its own within its visual background aesthetics. As to be expected, horror movies don’t have a whole lot of expansive layouts of exotic locales or lavishing settings in foreign country, so I didn’t expect that with this movie. That being said, what is presented is actually quite compelling to look, with a lot of muted and faded coloring within almost every scene, which gives off a sense of dreariness. The settings inside the Catholic School, where majority of the film takes place in, looks quite magnificent, with its gothic architecture and biblical statues / portrays that really do look appealing and have that striking feature to the proceeding….as if the movie’s spiritual battleground is speaking through the background setting for the movie. Thus, the film’s “behind the scenes” team, including Jonathan McKinstry (production design), Lora Venkova (art direction), and Elena Stoyanova (costume design), for their efforts in making the film’s world have a very vivid and almost moody macabre feeling that speaks to both the horror genre as well as the darken foreboding of the narrative being told. Additionally, I do have to give credit to the movie’s makeup department, which was made up of Daniela Avramova, Milen Ivanov, and Anna Ivanova, that provide to be quite effective throughout the movie by showcasing some really good (and creepy) facial make-up that displayed demonic possession. Good job to them! Additionally, the cinematography work by Denis Crossan is also another big positive for the feature’s presentation, which utilized some slick camera work, shadowing effects, and lightning to make for some dramatic and cinematic moments come alive, especially in scenes that depict possession. Lastly, the film’s score, which was composed by Nathan Barr also provides to another catalyst for the feature’s solid presentation dealings, with the musical composition setting the overall mood for the movie as well as building the unsettling eeriness and dramatic build ups.

Unfortunately, Prey for the Devil doesn’t live up to the inherit trailer / marketing hype that was promised, with several large points of criticism that hold the feature back from being truly memorable. How so? Well, for starters, the movie itself is quite predictable and a tad bit generic at times, which is somewhat disappointing…. to say the least. That’s not to say that the movie has its moments of brilliance and utter scary / creepiness, but the idea of a movie involving demonic spirits possessing a person and the performing the rite of exorcisms has done many times over in other similar horror feature films. So, it goes without saying, that Prey for the Devil plays up those familiar tropes and cliches that usually are customary with horror narratives that deal with such religious circumstance and nuances. However, as I somewhat mentioned above, those traits are a “double edge” sword and are both good and bad in the movie. Thus, the film’s more terrifying moments and even some of the bigger twist reveals are a bit mundane and can be a little predictable, with the movie not really deviating from an already well-established depictions of exorcisms paths. Basically, if you’ve one or two movies about exorcisms, you pretty much seeing what the depiction can go from there. This means that Prey for the Devil plays with the convenient manner of storytelling and hits a lot of familiar beats and plot points, with very little ingenuity or anything surprisingly creative. It’s been done before, which diminishes what the marketing campaign sort of promised for the film.

Who is to blame? Well, it’s combination of both the director (Stamm) as well as the feature’s script, which was penned by Robert Zappia, Todd R. Jones, and Early Richey Jones. Let’s take a look at the script, which is kind of humdrum when examining everything about the narrative. Of course, the story being told in the movie is kind of captivating, with a primary focus on a Nun and her special connection that she has with the Devil. It’s quite unique and that particular “hook” is what definitely sells the feature (as stated above), but that “hook” can only carry the story for so much. The problem is the story is a little bit “fast and loose” on what it wants to tell, with some plot holes and fragmented pieces littering the feature’s narrative. There are several elements that are left unfinished or fully said, a few discussions examination points that are fully brought to light, and handful of relationships (platonic and deeper) that left unanswered that give a bit problematic area throughout the movie. Perhaps the one that sticks out the most (to me personally) is that the movie opens up the discussion of the rising cases of possession in recent years, with the Catholic Church adapting to modern times and having patients examined for mental disorder. It’s stated and heavily implied to be a major discussing point in the movie, yet the script never fully delves into the debate. Another one is why the Devil is seeking a special attachment towards Ann as well the special connection that her and Natalie share, which does seem half-baked. It’s never fully explained and is kind of left me befuddling. There are a few others that the script doesn’t completely unfold in those plot points, which makes Prey for the Devil feel like some narrative pieces feeling fragmented and incomplete.

As for the directing, Stamm, tries as he might, has a few difficulties in trying to manage everything that is happen in the movie. He definitely knows what type of film he wants to tell, yet there still some shakiness and hesitancy in a few key areas. Perhaps the script (as mentioned above) was part of the problem, with his ambitions limited to what the movie’s written story was given, with Stamm’s scope minimize to what type of motion picture he could capture. From that stand point, there is a possibility in that, with the script for the feature hindering the overall direction / execution of the movie. On the flip side, Stamm’s staging of events can be problematic, especially in a few There is also the film’s climatic third act conflict that takes place. Yes, I did like a few of the tactics and direction of where the movie / characters were going, but a lot of it feels quite rushed, especially since everything happens in a so-called “rapid fire” sequence with very little time to digest what is fully going on and how the characters are developed in their resolution. This particular “wonkiness” during this portion of the movie feels like Stamm doesn’t adhere to time constraint of picture and somewhat mismanages the “time management” of what is going on. Because of this, Prey for the Devil’s third act comes off as rushed, messy, and a bit haphazard. Additionally, some of the movie’s jump scares are bit “meh”. It’s sort of a “give and take” with horror movies nowadays, with director wanting to saturate their cinematic narratives with a buttload of jump scare moments / tactics. Sadly, Stamm does that in Prey for the Devil and ends up being overused and becomes less effective as the feature moves forward within those scary sequences.

Perhaps what helps overlook the movie’s criticisms is in the cast selected to play all the various characters in the feature, with most give some stirring performances that feels appropriate in the narrative as well as in the horror genre. Leading the charge in the movie is actress Jacqueline Byers, who plays the film’s central protagonist role of Sister Ann. Known for her roles in Roadies , Salvation , and Bad Samaritan, Byers isn’t really a household name of actresses, yet her past works definitely speaks for herself, which is probably why she landed the lead role in this particular film. And that’s good thing! Byers handles all the material she’s given quite well, and we have a great performance in Prey for the Devil and makes her character of Sister Ann likeable and relatable throughout the entire feature. There is a warmth to her character (as seeing in her several interactions with the character Natalie), but also tainted darkness that holds her back due to childhood experience. Perhaps the only downside is not in Byers’s acting, but rather how the character is handled in a few instances, especially in exploring more of her past dealings with demonic possession within her mother. Her backstory definitely needs to be fleshed out more and could’ve been easily expanded upon for a more well-rounded understanding of Ann’s traumatic childhood. Still, looking past that, Byer is solid in the movie and makes for a convincing Nun, who is caught in the middle of a holy war between God and the Devil in the form of wanting to learn the practice of exorcism.

Behind her young actress Posy Taylor, who makes her theatrical debut with Prey for the Devil , makes for a convincing tortured individual in the character of Natalie, a young girl who has recently been possessed by evil spirt and has a special connection to Sister Ann. Despite not having prior experience, on such projects, Taylor handles her scenes quite well in the movie by capturing the duality nature of Natalie as a sweet young girl and the monstrous demonic possession when the evil spirt takes hold of her. Next, actor Christian Navarro ( 13 Reasons Why and Vinyl ) does a decent job in playing the character of Father Dante, a priest who makes a connection with Sister Ann as the pair try to help save Natalie from being consumed by the evil spirt. As to be expected, the character of Father Dante is quite straightforward, so there’s not really much growth to him. That being said, I felt that Navarro gave a good performance to help elevate the character’s shortcomings. Lastly, actor Colin Salmon ( Alien vs. Predator and Arrow ) delivers a terrific performance in the movie as the character Father Quinn, the leading priest who studies / teaches exorcism rites to others. While the character is just a side supporting player in the film and is pretty straightforward in his position, Salmon handles the dialogue lines incredibly well and carries the weight and believability in talking about Authority of God, the spiritual battlefield, and the seductive powers of the Devil. I couldn’t think of anyone else to play such a character and easily chews through the lines of Father Quinn with grace.

The rest of the cast, including actress Virginia Madsen ( Sideways and Candyman ) as Dr. Peters, actor Nicholas Ralph ( All Creatures Great and Small and The Most Reluctant Convert ) as Father Raymond, actress Lisa Palfrey ( Pride and Line of Duty) as Sister Euphemia, actress Cora Kirk ( Midsomer Murders and Doctors ) as Father Dante’s sister Emilia, and actor Velizar Binev ( Hitman and The Grey Zone ) as Father Bernhard, are delegated to minor supporting characters in the movie. Most of these players have only a couple of scenes in the feature, but I did like all of them in their respective roles. Lastly, actor Ben Cross ( Chariots of Fire and Star Trek ) who plays Cardinal Matthews in the movie passed away ten days after filming all his scenes for Prey for the Devil . Rest in peace, Ben Cross. You will be missed.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Once you know the devil, the devil knows you! A cautious warning that is echoed in Sister Ann’s mind as she valiantly tries to attempt to save a young girl’s life for demonic possession in the movie Prey for the Devil . Director Daniel Stamm’s latest film takes an examination of the horrors of demonic possession and the religious ways of how exorcisms must be conducted to save a person’s soul. Unfortunately, while the movie makes for a strong interpretation of such material, several effective chilling scenes, a solid presentation, and some good performances (most notable in Beyers and Salmon), the rest of the movie doesn’t quite click as much as intended, especially from some sluggish pacing issues, a few non-jump scares, confusing storytelling elements, a couple of missed opportunities, and some wonky decisions. Personally, I thought that the movie was okay. Yes, it had a few good moments where I think the movie was terrifically frightening, but a lot of the film’s substance is a bit middling and doesn’t really live up to what was promised. It’s not bone-chilling like any of the Conjuring movies or memorable like the original Exorcist , but it’s not as terrible as some are making it out to be. Still, the movie is just okay. Thus, my recommendation for the movie might be either an “iffy choice” as some will like, while others might be a bit disappointed or just a watchable “rent it” for those who are looking to catch this movie sometime later on. No really rushed to see it in theaters. In the end, while the lure and fascination of possession and spiritual discussions of God and the Devil’s work will continue to be a focal point in the subject matter of horror, Prey for the Devil is project that has its intention on the right path (and does get somethings right), but gets befuddled within its own storytelling and execution, making this tale of religious rites and demonic spirits a tad underwhelming.

3.2 Out of 5 (Iffy Choice / Rent It)

Released on: october 28th, 2022, reviewed on: november 4th, 2022.

Prey for the Devil is 93 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing content, terror, thematic elements, and brief language

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

Start a new list…
Add all films to a list…
Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

Prey for the devil.

2022 Directed by Daniel Stamm

It wants in.

In response to a global rise in demonic possessions, the Catholic Church reopens exorcism schools to train priests in the Rite of Exorcism. On this spiritual battlefield, an unlikely warrior rises: a young nun, Sister Ann. Thrust onto the spiritual frontline with fellow student Father Dante, Sister Ann finds herself in a battle for the soul of a young girl and soon realizes the Devil has her right where he wants her.

Jacqueline Byers Colin Salmon Christian Navarro Lisa Palfrey Nicholas Ralph Ben Cross Virginia Madsen Tom Forbes Velizar Binev Owen Davis Debora Zhecheva Cora Kirk Posy Taylor Elizabeth Gibson

Director Director

Daniel Stamm

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Asya Chakarova Tsvetelina Mateeva

Producers Producers

Paul Brooks Todd Jones Earl Richey Jones Jessica Malanaphy

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Scott Niemeyer Michael P. Flannigan David Brooks Brad Kessell

Writers Writers

Robert Zappia Todd Jones Earl Richey Jones

Casting Casting

Jill Trevellick Preslava Hristova

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Denis Crossan

Production Design Production Design

Jonathan McKinstry

Art Direction Art Direction

Lora Venkova

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Peter Krumov

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Laurent Spillemaecker Marie-Pierre Boucher

Composer Composer

Nathan Barr

Sound Sound

Roland N. Thai Tom Marks P.K. Hooker Nicholas Cochran Randy Torres Justin M. Davey Matt Yocum

Costume Design Costume Design

Elena Stoyanova

Makeup Makeup

Daniela Avramova Anna Ivanova

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Milen Ivanov

Lionsgate Gold Circle Films Confluence Productions

Releases by Date

23 oct 2022, 26 oct 2022, 27 oct 2022, 28 oct 2022, 02 nov 2022, 03 nov 2022, 07 dec 2022, 12 dec 2022, 28 dec 2022, 13 dec 2022, 02 mar 2023, releases by country.

Theatrical MA 15+
Theatrical 14
Digital 12 VOD
Physical 12 DVD, Blu-Ray & 4K UHD
Theatrical 16
Theatrical K15
Theatrical IIB
Theatrical R13+

Saudi Arabia

Theatrical NC16

South Korea

Theatrical 15
Theatrical ท
Theatrical PG-13
Digital PG-13

United Arab Emirates

93 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by CinemaJoe ★½ 5

Prey for the devil, more like I prayed to the devil for this to end.

Review by Katie 2

the girlbossification of exorcisms

Review by minx ★★½ 1

imagine being slut shamed by the devil

Review by Bryan Espitia ★½ 7

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

That last shot of her dramatically grabbing the cross and holding it up to the screen…always leave them laughing I guess

Review by ndc32002 ★★ 4

natalie was worse at hide and seek than she was at drawing trains

Review by anc ★★★

“i can fix her” says girl literally plagued by a demon

Review by Adrienne 🗡 ★½ 5

Catholic anti-choice propaganda for girlbosses.

Review by Sydney🚀 ★★ 11

Video here!

TL;DW: Lean for sure but not nearly mean enough to be interesting. Actually, it’s kind of shocking how boring this is because it seems like demons are possessing people left and right in this world, but it foregoes being scary for the type of metaphor that is finally starting to annoy me in modern horror. Jaqueline Byers and Christian Navarro are admittedly charming if not as paper thin as the plot. A very meh time. Come on people! What happened to when demons had a sense of humor and called everyone a whore!

Review by Sethsreviews ★ 5

I’m sure I’ve seen this exact film 40 times now. This could easily go down to a 0.5/5 if Colin Salmons’ voice wasn’t so calming.

VIDEO REVIEW HERE

Review by bryn ★★★★½ 2

bitch that’s THE BEST hiding place you could find!?!????

Review by matt

Christian Monsters Inc.

Review by Claire ½

eat hair bitch

Similar Films

Mentioned by

Select your preferred poster

Upgrade to remove ads.

Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account —for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example ), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!

Prey for the Devil: 4K UHD Review

Posted on December 31, 2022 by popcornnights in DVD/BLU-RAY REVIEWS // 0 Comments

Arriving on Blu-ray and 4K UHD this week is Prey for the Devil , directed by Daniel Stamm ( The Last Exorcism ) with a screenplay by Robert Zappia ( Halloween: H20 ). Originally released theatrically during Halloween weekend, the film was dealing with quite a bit of horror competition at the box office with Halloween Ends and the word-of-mouth firestorm that was Terrifier 2 , the late October release of Prey for the Devil seemed to get lost in the shuffle. The extremely poor critical response I am sure didn’t help. While not a great film, it isn’t nearly as terrible as many had been saying.

The world has seen a rise in demonic possession cases. In response, the Catholic Church has reopened exorcism schools which trains priests in the Rite of Exorcism. While nuns are forbidden to perform exorcisms, the personal history of Sister Ann (Jacqueline Byers) plays a part in a special connection with Natalie (Posy Taylor) a young girl who is being observed at the school for possession. Because of this and Ann’s obvious gifts, Father Quinn (Colin Salmon) agrees to train her, making Ann the only female student. She also finds a friend in fellow student Father Dante (Christian Navarro) who is also dealing with a personal family issue in-regards-to demonic possession. This is just one of the reasons he feels a connection to Ann whose mother was possessed when she was a child. Ultimately everything in Prey for the Devil will lead up to Ann’s final confrontation with the demon that is possessing Natalie. There is a twist, but it is a very predictable one.

Prey for the Devil takes itself pretty seriously, no matter how cheesy it gets as it moves along. There are some poorly done CGI moments and a lack of scares. However, the cast is solid, and I liked the school/hospital setting which blended old world design with some high-tech features. For the most part, Prey for the Devil is a decently produced reproduction of better exorcism films. Even Stamm’s The Last Exorcism featured much more originality.

The 4K disk features a beautiful image. While much of Prey for the Devil features darkly lit settings, there are a few locations which show off a much sharper image, like the school lobby and hospital hallways. When it comes to horror, Dolby Atmos usually shines, especially when it comes to the jump scares and other spooky sounds. Prey for the Devil takes full advantage.

Bonus Features:

Audio Commentary with Director Daniel Stamm and Actress Jacqueline Byers
Possessed: Creating Prey for the Devil
A Lullaby of Terror
The Devil’s Tricks: Visual Effects
Prey for the Devil Cast-Read: The Original First-Draft Screenplay
Speak No Evil: A Real Exorcist and Church Psychologist Discuss Possession

By: Marc Ferman

Prey for the Devil

Special Vudu Offer

Buy a ticket to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire on Fandango and get $10 off the Godzilla/Kong 5-Film Bundle.

All your entertainment. all on fandango..

One Fandango. For all your entertainment.

Movie tickets and home entertainment are now united under one iconic name

Halloween in the spring, who’s ready to scream, special offer.

Buy a ticket for The First Omen and earn 3x loyalty reward points

Save $5 on ghostbusters 5-movie collection.

Buy a ticket to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Fandango and get $5 off the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Buy 2, get 2 to see inside out 2.

Buy Pixar movie tix to unlock Buy 2, Get 2 deal

Buy tickets to see Soul, Turning Red, and Luca to unlock this special offer. Save on tickets for the whole family to Pixar’s latest feel-good movie.

‘Prey for the Devil’ Review – This Possession Horror Movie Is in Need of an Exorcist

A tale as old as time; a Catholic church representative must battle their inner demons to save the soul of a possessed child. Prey for the Devil attempts to retell this tired story with the gimmick of an aspiring female exorcist but never manages to pull together a narrative cohesive or scary enough to rise above a patchwork of familiar possession horror tropes.

It’s 2018. Demonic possession cases have become so prevalent that the Catholic Church has created schools with the sole purpose of teaching priests the Rite of Exorcism while nuns act as bedside nurses to the possessed. Sister Ann ( Jacqueline Byers ) finds herself drawn to the role of exorcist, even sneaking into exclusive male classes taught by Father Quinn ( Colin Salmon ), to the chagrin of her superior. Her persistent pursuit of exorcism studies and personal approach to nursing eventually puts her on the frontline of the battle to rid young Natalie ( Posy Taylor ) before her possession case becomes terminal.

Robert Zappia’s script favors telling over showing, at least in worldbuilding and narrative. Sister Ann is a special chosen one with a traumatic childhood linked to possession, but Prey for the Devil never makes a concise, compelling case for why or how. Instead, Ann’s gift seems based on nebulous concepts of empathy and deep-seated guilt. That’s the crux of the entire film; a series of underbaked plot points without depth or purpose.

Jacqueline Byers as Sister Ann and Posy Taylor as Natalie in The Devil’s Light Photo Credit: Vlad Cioplea/Lionsgate

For example, Dr. Peters ( Virginia Madsen ) coaxes exposition out of Sister Ann through their therapy sessions. Dr. Peters also works for the school, monitoring its locked-up patients to determine whether they’re possessed or mentally unwell. We understand this through straightforward dialogue early on but never see it in action to fully understand why a skeptic would assume this position or why the Church would enlist someone at odds with their ideology for their demon cleansing aims. Dr. Peters never amounts to anything more than a means of encouraging Ann along some incoherent and vague path to greatness. Not even exorcisms get defined. Priests often stare at the possessed in horror, attempt to read a bible verse, then cower until Sister Ann’s empathy prompts her to take over.

Director Daniel Stamm attempts to fill in the gaping story blanks with jump scares and horror imagery, often resorting to the same tactics from The Last Exorcism . Stamm employs a variety of cheap scare tactics in between bursts of overwrought emotional revelations for Sister Ann. There are no immediate tell-tale signs of possession, just a fuzzy notion that someone might be harboring a demon like a tingling spider-sense. It’s an attempt to catch audiences off guard when the suspected possessed unhinges their jaws, eyes roll up, and bodies contort into a backbend.

Prey for the Devil is messy and nonsensical. It’s so haphazard in its ideas and plotting that it makes less sense the more you think about it. There’s a lack of precision in its rules or lack thereof, and it creates bizarre mixed messaging—the clash of medicine and religion, for one. Or the subplot about Father Dante ( Christian Navarro ) and his sister gripped with grief and guilt for aborting a product of rape. Never mind that Sister Ann seems to cause harm to everyone in her path and gets heralded a divine hero for it. It might be easier to overlook if any of the horror had bite.

It’s as though Prey for the Devil pats itself on the back for coming up with the novel idea of a female exorcist and diversity within the school, then stops there lest it shakes up the status quo too much. Behind the gimmick is a vapid and hollow exorcism horror movie we’ve seen countless times before. Instead of grappling with faith, the protagonist struggles to keep guilt and trauma at bay. A possessed little girl serves as the battleground, complete with all the possession trimmings . Prey for the Devil at least gets one thing right; you’ll be praying for the Devil to put an end to this wackiness.

Prey for the Devil is out in theaters now.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ Character Posters Spotlight the Masked Killers

The first installment in a brand new reboot trilogy from Lionsgate and director Renny Harlin , The Strangers: Chapter 1 will be available in theaters everywhere on May 17, 2024 .

While you wait, check out three new character posters below, which spotlight Dollface, Pin-Up Girl, and Scarecrow, the latter character previously known as “The Man in the Mask.”

Whatever you want to call them, they’ve all got killer looks…

Madelaine Petsch (“Riverdale”), Froy Gutierrez ( Hocus Pocus 2 ), Rachel Shenton ( The Silent Child ), Ema Horvath (“Rings of Power”) and Gabe Basso ( Hillbilly Elegy ) star.

Based on the original 2008 cult horror franchise, the project features Petsch, who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.

Here’s the full official synopsis: “After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive .”

Renny Harlin ( Cliffhanger , Deep Blue Sea , Die Hard 2 ) is directing from a script by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland ( The Freak Brothers , Due Date ). Lionsgate will distribute worldwide.

The Strangers began in 2008 with Bryan Bertino’s original home invasion horror movie, a terrifying film that introduced three masked killers who returned 10 years later with The Strangers: Prey at Night in 2018. The first film took place in a remote house in the woods while the sequel brought the murderous Man in the Mask, Dollface and Pinup Girl into a trailer park.

‘Late Night with the Devil’ – When Is the New Horror Movie Streaming at Home?

‘Monster Mash’ Trailer – Michael Madsen Assembles His Own Monster Squad in New Indie Horror Movie

Godzilla: Ranking All 35 Live Action Movies – Including ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’

Stay Home, Watch Horror: Five Good Horror Remakes to Stream This Week

Dane DiLiegro as Chauncey Beast in 'Imaginary'

Blumhouse Horror Movie ‘Imaginary’ Will Be Available to Watch at Home This Week

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Today's news
Reviews and deals
Climate change
2024 election
Fall allergies
Health news
Mental health
Sexual health
Family health
So mini ways
Unapologetically
Buying guides

Entertainment

How to Watch
My watchlist
Stock market
Biden economy
Personal finance
Stocks: most active
Stocks: gainers
Stocks: losers
Trending tickers
World indices
US Treasury bonds
Top mutual funds
Highest open interest
Highest implied volatility
Currency converter
Basic materials
Communication services
Consumer cyclical
Consumer defensive
Financial services
Industrials
Real estate
Mutual funds
Credit cards
Credit card rates
Balance transfer credit cards
Business credit cards
Cash back credit cards
Rewards credit cards
Travel credit cards
Checking accounts
Online checking accounts
High-yield savings accounts
Money market accounts
Personal loans
Student loans
Car insurance
Home buying
Options pit
Investment ideas
Research reports
Fantasy football
Pro Pick 'Em
College Pick 'Em
Fantasy baseball
Fantasy hockey
Fantasy basketball
Download the app
Daily fantasy
Scores and schedules
GameChannel
World Baseball Classic
Premier League
CONCACAF League
Champions League
Motorsports
Horse racing
Newsletters

New on Yahoo

CA Privacy Notice

Prey for the Devil Review: A Derivative Demon Movie

Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Every Halloween gives audiences a new horror movie to watch in theaters to spice up the spooky season. This October gave us films like Halloween Ends and the Netflix original Wendell & Wild , but the weekend of Halloween gave us Prey for the Devil , a horror movie with a tumultuous production history. Originally set for a release under the title The Devil’s Light in January 2021, this movie has been pushed back a few times. Now that it’s finally here, the best thing to come from its release is that we no longer have to watch the same trailer before every horror movie in theaters.

Prey for the Devil is a familiar, poorly-crafted horror film that never takes advantage of its premise. This movie is set during a global rise in demonic possessions, where the Catholic Church has reopened exorcism schools to train priests in the Rite of Exorcism. The idea of a world where demonic possessions are a regular occurrence can be terrifying in the right hands and unintentionally hilarious in the wrong ones, but this movie goes down neither route. It leans more toward the latter, recycling horror ideas without executing them in an interesting way.

Every horror movie these days must tackle trauma somehow. The protagonist must have a traumatic past they are dealing with, which ties into the main story. We saw this most recently with Smile , a horror film that made up for its on-the-nose themes with genuinely frightening tension and scares. This movie tackles that theme similarly with our protagonist, Sister Ann (Jacqueline Byers), a nun who grew up with an abusive, mentally unstable mother. Her mother’s bursts of frightening, violent behavior are answered by the idea of a demon who possessed her to abuse her child. The demon in the film feels so vague that the fear factor is lost.

A movie like Smile is scary because, in that film, the demon could possess anyone at any given moment and we would not know until we saw their smile. This film has fragments of that, but it never pulls the tension the way that it should. The scare sequences feel pedestrian, using the age-old flickering lights and the occasional overreliance on CGI to create supernatural entities. A film that directly deals with exorcisms is a gold mine for horror, but Prey for the Devil ‘s execution of these ideas is so over-the-top that it can almost reach comical territory.

One of Prey for the Devil ‘s early scenes features Sister Ann tending to a patient, when the demon suddenly possesses the patient. A song plays over the speaker, the door slams shut, the lights flicker, and all of this sets the atmosphere well. However, the patient then grabs Ann, screams, “LET ME IN!” and begins waltzing with her while sticking out a tongue that looks like it belongs to Venom. Scenes like this are rampant throughout the film, where everything feels so excessive. It seems like director Daniel Stamm is always actively trying to scare the audience without knowing when to pull back, making it feel like he’s committing to a lack of subtlety.

The horror can almost become mundane as a result. There are a few scenes where your heart may race a little from the tension, but typically, every scene builds up to a jump scare. The characters are thin, with a relationship between Sister Ann and Father Dante (Christian Navarro) that feels very underwritten. Ann’s only character trait is her traumatizing past, and while the screenplay from Halloween H20 writer Robert Zappia effectively uses that past to deliver a plot twist, nothing about the movie builds to anything too unexpected or satisfying.

Ultimately, Prey for the Devil is a very hammy movie that almost feels like it was made in the 80s, back when audiences got these ridiculous horror films. The uninspired execution of the concept never allows the movie to take full form, leading to a film that takes itself very seriously while never fully exploring any of its themes of gender inequality in the Catholic Church. The groundwork was there for a thrilling horror picture, but the result is a bland, poorly-crafted film that you won’t remember long after the credits roll.

SCORE: 4/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 4 equates to “Poor.” The negatives overweigh the positive aspects making it a struggle to get through.

The post Prey for the Devil Review: A Derivative Demon Movie appeared first on ComingSoon.net .

ESPN broadcast tips Dodgers pitches vs. Cardinals during in-game interview with Kiké Hernandez

Hernandez's PitchCom speaker was broadcast for all the world to hear.

NFL mock draft: Trades galore as one of the best QB prospects slides outside the top 10

Charles McDonald and Nate Tice's latest mock draft has five quarterbacks off the board in the top 13, a big-time weapon for Aaron Rodgers and some steals in the second half of the first round.

Longtime ESPN anchor John Anderson says he's retiring from 'SportsCenter:' 'The operation has changed'

Anderson has been hosting "SportsCenter" since 1999.

Tesla’s $25,000 car means tossing out the 100-year-old assembly line

Tesla has a plan to fend off cheaper competition from China with a $25,000 electric car. But first it has to overhaul a 100-year-old manufacturing process pioneered by Henry Ford.

The 'extreme' Social Security move that actually makes sense

The election year battle over cherished retirement programs is a microcosm explaining why Washington doesn't solve solvable problems.

Stocks just had their best first quarter in 5 years — here's where strategists think the market is headed

With stocks off to their best start in five years, many strategists on Wall Street still make a case for the S&P 500 to keep chugging higher.

Is UConn beatable? Here's how the 3 other remaining Final Four men's teams stack up

Which team can topple UConn in this year's men's Final Four? The better question is which team can keep up.

Mets pitcher ejected for throwing behind Brewers' Rhys Hoskins a day after heated exchange

Rhys Hoskins had a big day for the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday, continuing his grudge match against the New York Mets.

One fateful decision summed up North Carolina's Sweet 16 demise

Jae’Lyn Withers shot UNC's most important 3-pointer of the game when he had no business firing away. And now the No. 1 Tar Heels are going home.

Thanks For Rating

Reminder successfully set, select a city.

Nashik Times
Aurangabad Times
Badlapur Times

You can change your city from here. We serve personalized stories based on the selected city

Edit Profile
Briefs Movies TV Web Series Lifestyle Trending Medithon Visual Stories Music Events Videos Theatre Photos Gaming

Gujarati web series 'Satya' unveils intriguing motion poster star: 'The game is set’

Gujarati web series 'Satya' unveils intriguing motion poster starring Hiten Kumar: 'The game is set’

9 popular K-Drama actors to follow on Instagram

Ranveer Singh reveals he was secretly engaged to Deepika Padukone three years before marriage; here's what the actress hilariously called it

Koffee With Karan Season 8: Will cousins Kajol and Rani Mukerji reunite after 14 years? Here is what reports say

10 records Jung Kook broke ahead of GOLDEN album launch

Lee Dal, Song Joong Ki, Chen: Korean stars who married non-celebrity partners

Inspector Rishi

The Baxters

3 Body Problem

Palm Royale

Apples Never Fall

Big Girls Don't Cry

Turning Point: The Bomb...

Matsya Kaand - An MX Original Series

Sabka Sai - An MX Original Series

Samantar 2 - An MX Original Series

Indori Ishq - An MX Original Series

Runaway Lugaai - An MX Original Series

Ramyug - An MX Original Series

Hello Mini 3 - An MX Original Series

Bisaat - An MX Original Series

Hey Prabhu 2 - An MX Original Series

Chakravyuh - An Inspector Virkar Crime Thriller - An MX Original Series

Filmfare OTT Awards

Bengal 1947

Woh Bhi Din The

Patna Shuklla

What A Kismat

Swatantrya Veer Savarka...

Madgaon Express

Ae Watan Mere Watan

Boomer Uncle

Veppam Kulir Mazhai

Kaa: The Forest

Netru Indha Neram

Idi Minnal Kadhal

Aansplaining

Yaavarum Vallavare

Tillu Square

Babu: No.1 Bullshit Guy

Om Bheem Bush

Happy Ending

Bhoothaddam Bhaskar Nar...

Operation Valentine

Siddharth Roy

The Goat Life

Jananam 1947 Pranayam T...

Manjummel Boys

Anweshippin Kandethum

Malaikottai Valiban

Vivekanandan Viralanu

Abraham Ozler

Karataka Damanaka

Matsyagandha

Mr.Natwarlal

For Regn: For Registrat...

Shakhahaari

Bonbibi: Widows Of The ...

Pariah Volume 1: Every ...

Shri Swapankumarer Bada...

Manush: Child of Destin...

Bogla Mama Jug Jug Jiyo

Ektu Sore Boshun

Sarabha: Cry For Freedo...

Zindagi Zindabaad

Maujaan Hi Maujaan

Chidiyan Da Chamba

White Punjab

Any How Mitti Pao

Gaddi Jaandi Ae Chalaan...

Buhe Bariyan

Alibaba Aani Chalishita...

Aata Vel Zaali

Shivrayancha Chhava

Delivery Boy

Sridevi Prasanna

Sur Lagu De

Chhatrapati Sambhaji

Devra Pe Manva Dole

Dil Ta Pagal Hola

Ittaa Kittaa

Jaishree Krishh

Bushirt T-shirt

Shubh Yatra

Prey For The Devil

Your rating, write a review (optional).

Web Series /

Would you like to review this movie?

Cast & Crew

Prey For The Devil Review : Just another possession film full of clichés

Videos left arrow right arrow.

'Prey For The Devil' Trailer: Jacqueline Byer...

Photos left arrow right arrow

Users' Reviews

Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Visual Stories

9 new words to learn from Shashi Tharoor's vocabulary

Entertainment

Monalisa's jaw-dropping pics in black

8 habits to upgrade and transform your life

In pics: Rajkummar Rao and Patralekhaa's beautiful home in Juhu

10 herbs that help reduce cholesterol naturally in summer

A peek into Tanisha Kuppanda's star-studded jewelry store launch

India for adventure junkies: 10 activities to enjoy this summer!

Alia Bhatt exudes regal vibes in a maroon velvet gown

Beautiful snakes that have gone endangered

Samyuktha Hegde's March timeline through mirror!

Latest Reviews

Gujarati web series 'Satya' unveils intriguing motion poster star: 'The game is set’

Popular K-Drama actors to follow on Instagram

Actress Puja Joshi announces an exciting new Gujarati web series; see pictures

Pratik Gandhi kicks off shooting for the Vitthal Teedi 2' web series; see pic

Malhar Thakar talks about his three recent projects - Exclusive!

The Puja Joshi and Maulik Chauhan starrer ‘Kokila Case’ wraps up the shoot

Promoted Stories

Prey for the Devil

Prey for the Devil is a 2022 supernatural horror film directed by Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, 13 Sins) and written by Robert Zappia (Halloween H20), based on a story by Todd R. Jones and Earl Richey Jones. It is the final film to feature actor Ben Cross before his death in 2020, and is dedicated to his memory.

In response to a global rise in demonic possessions, the Catholic Church reopens exorcism schools to train priests in the Rite of Exorcism. On this spiritual battlefield, an unlikely warrior rises: a young nun, Sister Ann. Although nuns are forbidden to perform exorcisms, a professor recognizes Sister Ann’s gifts and agrees to train her. Thrust onto the spiritual frontline with fellow student Father Dante, Sister Ann finds herself in a battle for the soul of a young girl, who Sister Ann believes is possessed by the same demon that tormented her own mother years ago, and soon realizes the Devil has her right where he wants her… and it wants in.

The film stars Jacqueline Byers, Colin Salmon, Christian Navarro, Lisa Palfrey, Nicholas Ralph, Virginia Madsen, and Ben Cross.

Prey for the Devil is scheduled to debut in theaters on October 28th, courtesy of Lionsgate. Watch the official trailers below.

Supported by

3 Body Problem

‘3 Body Problem’ Episode 1 Recap: The Final Countdown

Suicidal scientists and flashing stars highlight the first episode of this new series by Alexander Woo and the “Game of Thrones” creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

Share full article

A stage is set and an angry crowd pressas against it

By Sean T. Collins

Season 1, Episode 1: ‘Countdown’

The plot of “3 Body Problem” is not going to be the thing that grabs you about “3 Body Problem.”

Perhaps because of the actions of a rogue scientist at a Chinese installation in the 1970s, an alien intelligence has instituted some kind of countdown. The decreasing numbers appear in the minds of the world’s bleeding-edge scientists, who are driven by the countdowns to end either their life’s work or their lives. According to a secret code blinked out by the stars in the sky in a phenomenon that spans the globe, all of humanity may be headed for the same result. Also, a possibly evil virtual-reality video game is involved.

See? It doesn’t take long to sum up what happens in “Countdown,” the premiere of the new series from the “Game of Thrones” impresarios David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and their collaborator, Alexander Woo (“The Terror: Infamy”), adapted from a trilogy of books by the Chinese novelist Liu Cixin. Nor is it hard to run down the characters, who at this point are primarily pieces moved from place to place to advance the aforementioned plot.

Half the episode is set in Mao’s China during the 1960s and 1970s. Our viewpoint character here is Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng). She’s the brilliant daughter of a scientist whose adherence to concepts like relativity and the Big Bang puts him at odds with the values of the Cultural Revolution. As Wenjie watches, he is accidentally beaten to death by keyed-up teenagers during a struggle session, in which his own wife, Wenjie’s mother, denounces him.

At first condemned to hard labor, Wenjie catches the eye of the architects of a nearby scientific project run by the government. They offer her a job working alongside them, but given her checkered political past, the job is a life sentence: Once she goes to work at the secret installation, she can never leave it. Wenjie is already on thin ice after taking the fall for a heterodox journalist who passed her a copy of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” and at risk of being physically forced to incriminate other innocent scientists if she stays in prison. She takes the deal.

At the installation — a cliff-side redoubt overlooking vast deforested areas and topped with a gigantic transmitter — Wenjie quickly learns the truth. This isn’t a test site for some experimental weapon. It’s an attempt to communicate with worlds beyond our own.

Decades later, in 2024, all of science is in sudden turmoil. Particle accelerators around the globe have spent weeks returning results that are either a complete contradiction of 60 years of physics or complete gibberish. The scientific establishment, and more important its financial backers, have to use Occam’s razor and assume the latter — that the particle-accelerator game has somehow become rigged, and is therefore useless. One by one, they’re shut down for failure to justify further funding.

The latest victim is Oxford University. Its picturesque particle accelerator, a vast chamber seemingly walled with giant bubbles made of gold, is minutes from shutdown, to the great chagrin of the project boss, Vera Ye (Vedette Lim), and her brightest protégé, Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo). After uncharacteristically asking Saul if he believes in God, Vera takes her own life by diving hundreds of feet into the pool of water at the base of the accelerator. It’s a hell of a way to go.

It’s also far from unique. Clarence Shi (Benedict Wong), an investigator with the Strategic Intelligence Agency, is on the hunt for suicides like Vera’s. Turns out there’s been a rash of them around the world — all involving brilliant scientists, all involving strange countdowns, and at least two connected by a strange virtual-reality gaming headset.

The next victim appears to be Auggie Salazar (Eiza González), a former classmate and lover of Saul’s currently helming her own nanofiber startup. She and Saul belong to a small, still close-knit group of Vera’s former students, including Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), still doing advanced research at the university; Jack Rooney (John Bradley), the private-sector class clown of the group; and Will Downing (Alex Sharp), a comparatively nebbishy educator.

Jin is the one who has given one of the mysterious headsets by Vera’s mother (Rosalind Chao), and uses it to enter a frighteningly convincing virtual world. But it’s Auggie who is experiencing the constant hallucination of a fiery golden countdown hovering in the air before her. (It’s unclear if she hears the sound as well, but the repetitive metallic alarm sound that accompanies the countdown is incredibly unnerving.)

And it’s Auggie who receives a visit from a mysterious woman (Marlo Kelly) who seems familiar with her plight. Though she at first comes across as a Christian proselytizer looking to recruit lost souls in need of a light for their smoke, this woman brings up the countdown without prompting. There’s only one way to stop it from reaching zero, she says, and that’s to shut down her experimental nanofiber project, permanently.

The woman offers a demonstration by way of proof. Look up at the sky at midnight tomorrow, she says. “Has a universe ever winked at you?”

The universe winks, all right — not just at Auggie and her friend Saul, who comes along as an independent observer, but at everyone on the entire planet. The stars in the night sky literally start blinking on and off en masse, flashing out some kind of Morse-style code.

Auggie and Saul are baffled, as is most of the world, one presumes. But Clarence’s reclusive boss, Wade (Liam Cunningham), has it figured out. “That, Clarence,” he says, referring to the force behind the blinking lights, “is our enemy.” Wade’s men have cracked the code, too. It is, of course, a countdown.

The blinking lights in the sky make the episode, and not just because they’re the cliffhanger leading you to the next. While the characters seem prepared to take this event in stride, I sure wouldn’t! For something so contradictory of every scientific principle we have to take place, at that large a scale … it virtually demands the existence of a force beyond human comprehension, and thus beyond humanity’s power to defend itself. It’s like God flicking the switch for the basement lights, telling you it’s time to stop playing Xbox and go to bed, on a global scale.

Plus, if you’re the type of person who’s ever looked up at the clouds or the stars and suffered the irrational fear that you might somehow defy gravity and fall up, the image is a vertiginous nightmare. Speaking as a sufferer of this particular fear myself, this is the second time a show this year has forced me to endure it, after Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s wondrously excruciating “The Curse.” I humbly request that future showrunners refrain from exploiting my specific phobias from this point forward.

We’re in the early going yet, but it would be a tough sell to say the plot and the characters are strong suits of “3 Body Problem.” The actors are entertaining, but so far they’re playing not much more than broad personality types engaged in a mildly interesting sci-fi mystery. Chao has the more dramatic backdrop of the Cultural Revolution, depicted here as a full-on “1984” meets “The Crucible” dystopian nightmare, to play against — not to mention the more dramatic setting of that satellite installation. But it’s a low bar to clear.

No, it’s the imagery that lingers more than anything else. The colossal transmitter, roosting at the cliff’s edge like an enormous bird of prey. The gradual way the countdown clock emerges into Auggie’s consciousness, from a blur on a karaoke video to a full-on superimposition over the face of anyone she tries to talk to. The uncanny sight of the stars flickering as one. Can the story and the characters rise to that level?

I’m a great admirer of the final season of “Game of Thrones,” in which the characters’ and audience’s long-held hope for heroic violence was revealed as disastrous folly. So I’m excited to see what the co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have in store for this latest venture. (Their former “Thrones” collaborator, the novelist George R.R. Martin, is a vocal admirer of the Liu books that inspired “3 Body Problem.”) Their co-creator and co-writer Alexander Woo’s tenure on the second season of the anthology series “The Terror,” meanwhile, left me cold.

But it pays to go into new shows with an open mind if getting maximum enjoyment out of the work is your ultimate goal. So I’m inclined to give “3 Body Problem” time to develop into something more than a few interesting images with just enough story to connect them.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

“X-Men ’97,” a revival on Disney+ that picks up where the ’90s animated series left off, has faced questions after the firing of its showrunner ahead of the premiere.

“3 Body Problem,” a science fiction epic from the creators of “Game of Thrones,” has arrived on Netflix. We spoke with them about their latest project .

For the past two decades, female presidential candidates on TV have been made in Hillary Clinton’s image. With “The Girls on the Bus,” that’s beginning to change .

“Freaknik,” a new Hulu documentary, delves into the rowdy ’80s and ’90s-era spring festival that drew hundreds of thousands of Black college students to Atlanta.

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime and Hulu to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

This new horror movie with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score is today’s answer to cult classic Ghostwatch

Following in the footsteps of cult favorite Ghostwatch, new horror film Late Night with the Devil is exactly what the found footage genre needs right now

Do not adjust your television sets – new horror movie Late Night with the Devil has arrived and yes, it’s just as good as that perfect Rotten Tomatoes score suggests it is. In fact, I’d go as far to say that it has restored my faith in the found footage genre .

Now, that’s not to say that there haven’t been excellent films in the sub-genre over the past decade or so. In fact, most recently director Rob Savage’s 2020 viral pandemic hit Host thrilled with its spooky Zoom seance gone wrong – a simple premise that was brilliantly executed. However, that’s a rare jewel that shines brightly within a crowded market, with many filmmakers drawn to found footage as it allows them room to experiment within smaller budget parameters. It’s hard to pull off though, with the majority of directors being overly reliant on cheap tricks audiences have long grown bored of, from static on the screen to jump scares.

It’s therefore about time a film came in to shake things up, bringing back the imagination and electric energy found footage movies were once famous for. Enter Late Night with the Devil, which manages to make its mark and excite audiences by turning to the past.

Hello 'Night Owls'

David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy in Late Night with the Devil

Written and directed by Australian siblings Cameron and Colin Cairnes, the new film stars David Dastmalchian ( Oppenheimer , Dune , The Suicide Squad) as presenter Jack Delroy, the host of ‘70s late-night talk show Night Owls. During an episode broadcast on Halloween 1977, Delroy invites parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) onto the show alongside teenager Lilly (Ingrid Torelli) who is the sole survivor of a Satanic church’s mass suicide. As expected, events take a turn for the worse.

Presented as a rediscovered master tape of the notorious episode, it feels like we are watching an actual talk show in real time as Delroy presents the spooky special.

Segments include an interview with skeptical magician Carmichael Hunt (Ian Bliss), mystic Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) doing readings for the audience, and there’s even an in-house band providing mini sketches as comic relief. Watching it brings to mind the 1992 cult favorite Ghostwatch , which surely also must have been on the Cairnes brothers’ brains while making their new horror. It can’t be a coincidence that early on in Ghostwatch presenter Michael Parkinson refers to the audience as “night owls”, which is also the name of Delroy’s show in this new film.

Just like Late Night with the Devil, BBC’s Ghostwatch is also presented as a live television show, this time focusing on paranormal ongoings at a house on the fictional Foxhill Drive. There was even a telephone number you could ring to share your ghost stories, with the BBC receiving an incredible one million calls to their switchboard on the night of the broadcast, as many viewers believed what they were witnessing was real thanks to the film’s sharp execution.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

However, while the two films share this critical DNA, Late Night with the Devil decides to ratchet things up several notches, expanding upon the idea for a new era and a modern audience who have already borne witness to countless Ghostwatch tributes over the years. This film couldn’t just be Ghostwatch 2.0, it had to do something strikingly different.

Arguably it does this best with its cuts to commercials. With Ghostwatch coming from the BBC there are no ad breaks, but Night Owls is an American TV show so there are plenty. The filmmakers could have potentially shot fake adverts to fill these gaps, therefore not breaking away from the live TV show format, but instead we have scenes presented in black-and-white that show how the tension is unraveling whilst the microphones are off.

Giving us this glimpse behind the scenes adds another layer to the drama, as Delroy and the Night Owls team become increasingly strained both on and off set. Arguments during advertisements help fuel the on-screen theatrics and we also learn critical information about our host which foreshadows the horrific reveals that are to come. As Delroy and his aggressive producer keep pushing for the episode to continue despite the increasingly traumatic events – in a desperate attempt to increase the show’s ranking of course – we too feel the pressure, with this secondary perspective proving to be critical when it comes to escalating the drama.

Going all in

And this episode of Night Owls is seriously dramatic, coming complete with death and a possession – which really is just the start of the spooky shenanigans. The scares hit a level Ghostwatch wasn’t interested in which instead took a more subtle approach. Where that film used tactics such as hiding its ghost in the background of shots, Late Night with the Devil sees its characters doing everything from levitating to pulling worms out of their bodies thanks to some rather impressive practical effects.

It all builds to a surreal, wild, and extreme finale which sees the Cairnes brothers’ go all in. This bold climax isn’t something that would ever have worked for Ghostwatch, but is not only pulled off beautifully here, it feels right for a film that aims to escalate the ideas the 1992 classic introduced to our screens.

These fireworks certainly make an impression and provide a spark that the found footage sub-genre has long been searching for. By looking back at a classic like Ghostwatch and expanding upon that brilliant concept, Late Night with the Devil has paved the way for an exciting future. What this thrilling film shows is that reinvention is the way forward, not repetition - hopefully this is the lesson other filmmakers learn here.

Late Night with the Devil releases in US theaters and UK cinemas from March 22, with previews from March 19.

For more chilling films coming your way, stay up to date with our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies to watch out for.

As Entertainment Editor at GamesRadar, I oversee all the online content for Total Film and SFX magazine. Previously I've worked for the BBC, Zavvi, UNILAD, Yahoo, Digital Spy and more.

X-Men '97 proves Marvel Studios should totally embrace the '90s X-Men aesthetic in the MCU

Twisted Metal star Anthony Mackie says making Marvel movies "is completely different" because it’s a "controlled environment"

The Terraria x Factorio sandbox game dreamed up by automation nerds everywhere finally exists and is off to a great start on Steam

Most Popular

By Eric Francisco March 27, 2024

By Megan Garside March 27, 2024

By Emily Murray March 27, 2024

By Joe Donnelly March 27, 2024

By Tom Regan March 27, 2024

By Austin Wood March 27, 2024

By George Marston March 26, 2024

By Jasmine Gould-Wilson March 26, 2024

By Jamie Graham March 26, 2024

By Joe Donnelly March 26, 2024

By Heather Wald March 26, 2024

Screen Rant

Late night with the devil review: found footage feels fresh again in thrilling horror movie.

Late Night with the Devil is the kind of horror movie that plays just as well with a group of friends huddled around the TV as in a crowded theater.

Familiar horror elements in "Late Night with the Devil" build anticipation for unexpected twists.
Excellent performances anchor this fun, scar-infused narrative of possession and the occult.
The film's immersive '70s found-footage framework keeps viewers on edge until the thrilling finale.

Late Night with the Devil should feel familiar. Horror relies on familiar forms perhaps more than most genres, to the extent that when I say this movie is a combination of possession, occult, and found-footage, you can already picture it pretty clearly. And you wouldn't be off, exactly. But one of the great things about horror is that it's familiar until it suddenly isn't. No matter how stale a scenario or monster or format seems, through the right filmmaker's lens, it can feel like invention.

Late Night with the Devil is a horror thriller starring David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy. Delroy is a late-night talk show host in 1977 trying to keep his broadcast on the air. But when he tries to communicate with the devil through a young girl live on the air, things don't go according to plan.

Fun, creative restaging of established horror tropes
Script economically develops compelling characters
Immersive approach to '70s found-footage framework
Anchored by an excellent performance from David Dastmalchian

If it doesn't quite make what's old feel new again, Late Night with the Devil gets excitingly close. Cameron and Colin Cairnes, the Australian siblings who wrote, directed, and edited this film together, have carefully crafted our journey through its 93-minute runtime. They've laid a fun, scary premise over a character-driven drama about a talk show host desperate to emerge from Johnny Carson's shadow, and wrapped that in the immersive specificity of their '70s-footage framework. It's easy to imagine a version of this film without the horror elements being just as compelling.

Late Night With The Devil Remembers To Be A Good Movie

The horror hits harder when the drama delivers.

That's a decided strength, and something that might've tripped up other movies with a similar structure. The first few minutes fill us in on the context, documentary-style, and promise the long-lost master tape we're about to see builds to something truly shocking. Our desire for payoff is virtually guaranteed to keep our attention from then on. A lesser film might've coasted on that, devoting all its resources to drip-feeding us clues. This one, even if it does drop us the occasional puzzle piece, lets no moment be uninteresting.

Is Late Night With The Devil Based On A True Story?

It's hard to single anything out to credit for that, because everything works so well in concert, but arguably the most important factor is the way Late Night with the Devil handles the talk show's commercial breaks . The behind-the-scenes footage of these brief stretches between segments, in which host Jack Delroy ( David Dastmalchian ) talks to his sidekick Gus (Rhys Auteri), his bullish producer Leo Fiske (Josh Quong Tart), and various guests, create a wonderful tension between reality and performance. The dialogue and acting quickly establish layers to each relationship that then simmer beneath the characters' on-camera exchanges.

These scenes are when Dastmalchian really gets to shine. Jack has an easy, slick stage presence and a range of emotions hidden underneath, but unlike the other characters, there's a falseness to him that never quite falls away. He's different with the cameras off, but not in the way you'd expect from someone in a make-or-break situation. His emotions flicker over an odd calmness; his behavior is mutable in a way that feels manipulative. It's a performance that proves the Cairneses were right to cast Dastmalchian as their movie's fulcrum .

Everything In Late Night With The Devil Serves The Scares

And the climax earns all that buildup.

I don't highlight Late Night with the Devil 's strong foundation to suggest horror comes second for it — quite the opposite. It's easy to just enjoy the ride of this movie, but look back at it more critically, and you'll see how every creative choice was designed to set, manage, meet, and subvert our expectations for the finale. Subgenres are winkingly signposted. When supposedly possessed cult survivor Lilly (Ingrid Torrelli) is introduced with Dr. June Ross-Mitchell, her parapsychologist handler, we have an idea where things will go. The '70s aesthetic also sets expectations for how it will look, effects-wise.

But the question really driving us (and, indeed, the fictional documentary we're watching) is, what actually happened that night? As an audience, we go in wanting to see; the film makes us want to understand. The performance-reality question explored in the character work bleeds over to the plot, and the directors sow doubt all across the movie. Firstly, though the fact that we're watching a horror movie inclines us to believe in the supernatural, the found-footage device is embraced so fully that Late Night with the Devil always keeps one foot in the real world.

Late Night With the Devil

Secondly, the characters are uncertain of what to believe. Though Delroy invites Lilly, June, and the celebrity medium Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) on his show, he also brings in Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss) as the voice of skepticism. The magician-turned-debunker, though antagonistic, pokes holes in what we might otherwise just accept, and the film doesn't reduce him to the arrogant non-believer destined to get his just deserts. His opportunity to respond to a chilling display from Lilly is when the film starts to levitate.

Late Night with the Devil 's ending capitalizes on all that groundwork and goodwill. It's narratively satisfying, resolving an arc for Jack that is developed more subtly throughout, and channels its inevitable wildness into some pretty creative images. The directors do allow themselves some freedom from their conceit to achieve their finale, and part of me would've liked to see what they would've done with the formal rigor of something like Lake Mungo , which lingers in large part because the faux-documentary element is never abandoned.

But their choice works, especially for the tone they're chasing, so I can't judge them too harshly. Late Night with the Devil is tremendously fun . It should be watched after dark, and with some kind of audience - it's the kind of horror movie that would play just as well, maybe better, with a group of friends huddled around the TV as in a crowded theater.

Late Night with the Devil is rated R for violent content, some gore, and language including a sexual reference.

IMAGES

Prey for the Devil Movie Review
Prey for the Devil (2022)
PREY FOR THE DEVIL (2022) 20 reviews plus two trailers, two clips and
Prey for the Devil
Watch Prey for the Devil (2022)
‘Prey for the Devil’ Review

VIDEO

Prey for the devil movie review
Devil Movie Review
DEVIL'S PREY Trailer Official (2024)
Prey to the Devil #viralvideo #viral #movie #movietime
Prey For The Devil (opinion)
#Devil Movie Review 🤯💥👌

COMMENTS

Prey for the Devil
CLIP 1:14 Prey for the Devil: Movie Clip - First Female Exorcist. Prey for the Devil: Movie Clip - First Female Exorcist.
'Prey for the Devil' Review: To Hell With Clerical Sexism
'Prey for the Devil' Review: A Passable Exorcism Horror That Says To Hell With Clerical Sexism Reviewed at AMC Metreon 16, San Francisco, Oct. 27, 2022. MPAA rating: PG-13.
Prey for the Devil
Ultimately, Prey for the Devil is a very hammy movie that almost feels like it was made in the 80s, back when audiences got these ridiculous horror films. Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Nov ...
Prey for the Devil (2022)
Prey for the Devil: Directed by Daniel Stamm. With Jacqueline Byers, Debora Zhecheva, Christian Navarro, Posy Taylor. A nun prepares to perform an exorcism and comes face to face with a demonic force with mysterious ties to her past.
Prey for the Devil (2022)
This film, also known as The Devil's Light, is an exorcism-based horror story, and it's decent enough. The story is fine and has a couple of twists. There are some good effects, albeit not over-horror-y (recently rewatched The Exorcist, and the effects here are lightyears better). There several jumpscares.
Prey for the Devil Review: Catholic Propaganda Disguised as Horror
Finally, the three main characters of Prey for the Devil are a woman, a Latino man (Christian Navarro), and a Black man (Colin Salmon), as if the movie was trying to complete a checklist of ...
Prey for the Devil
As a movie, Prey for the Devil feels a little unsure of itself. Though it often plays like a straight-up, not-particularly-original exorcism movie, it sometimes edges into more fantastical, Van Helsing-like territory. I could be wrong, but I'm assuming that the Catholic Church doesn't actually run such well-appointed training schools ...
Prey for the Devil
Thrust onto the spiritual frontline with fellow student Father Dante (Christian Navarro), Sister Ann finds herself in a battle for the soul of a young girl, who Sister Ann believes is possessed by the same demon that tormented her own mother years ago. Determined to root out the evil, Ann soon realizes the Devil has her right where he wants her.
Prey For The Devil Review: Jacqueline Byers Blesses This ...
By Greg Archer. Published Oct 28, 2022. Director Daniel Stamm's Prey For The Devil isn't quite heaven-sent but it finds redemption in some of its bone-chilling thrills. Lionsgate. Battling ...
Prey for the Devil (2022)
Prey for the Devil, 2022. Directed by Daniel Stamm. Starring Jacqueline Byers, Colin Salmon, Christian Navarro, Lisa Palfrey, Nicholas Ralph, Ben Cross, Virginia ...
Prey for the Devil Movie Review
Parents need to know that Prey for the Devil is a demon possession/exorcism movie that argues that women should be allowed to learn the craft of exorcisms. It also urges empathy and understanding, but it's so sluggish and tired that it fails to make much impact. Expect lots of demon-related violence, several jump scares, bodies contorting in weird ways, moments depicting the abuse of a child ...
Prey for the Devil (2022) Review
3.2 Out of 5 (Iffy Choice / Rent It) Released On: October 28th, 2022. Reviewed On: November 4th, 2022. Prey for the Devil is 93 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing content, terror, thematic elements, and brief language.
‎Prey for the Devil (2022) directed by Daniel Stamm • Reviews, film
In response to a global rise in demonic possessions, the Catholic Church reopens exorcism schools to train priests in the Rite of Exorcism. On this spiritual battlefield, an unlikely warrior rises: a young nun, Sister Ann. Thrust onto the spiritual frontline with fellow student Father Dante, Sister Ann finds herself in a battle for the soul of a young girl and soon realizes the Devil has her ...
Prey for the Devil (2022) Movie Reviews
The Catholic Church combats a global rise in demonic possessions by opening a school to train priests in the Rite of Exorcism. On this spiritual battlefield, an unlikely warrior rises: a young nun, Sister Ann (Jacqueline Byers). Although nuns are forbidden to perform exorcisms, a professor (Colin Salmon) recognizes Sister Ann's gifts and agrees to train her. Thrust onto the spiritual ...
Prey for the Devil Review
Prey for the Devil arrives in theaters October 28, 2022 from Lionsgate. Prey for the Devil. GOOD. 7 - ... More Horror Movie Reviews . Late Night With The Devil Review. Immaculate Review.
Prey for the Devil: 4K UHD Review
Arriving on Blu-ray and 4K UHD this week is Prey for the Devil, directed by Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism) with a screenplay by Robert Zappia (Halloween: H20).Originally released theatrically during Halloween weekend, the film was dealing with quite a bit of horror competition at the box office with Halloween Ends and the word-of-mouth firestorm that was Terrifier 2, the late October release ...
Prey for the Devil (2022) Movie Reviews
Prey for the Devil (2022) Fan Reviews and Ratings Powered by Rotten Tomatoes Rate Movie. Close Audience Score. The percentage of users who made a verified movie ticket purchase and rated this 3.5 stars or higher. ... Megan is Missing, Cobweb, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Prey for the Devil. Promo code expires on 3/23/24. *Limited time ...
Prey for the Devil
Prey for the Devil is a 2022 American supernatural horror film about a nun who trains as an exorcist under the Roman Catholic Church and confronts demonic possession.The film is produced under the studio Lionsgate and is directed by Daniel Stamm.It stars Jacqueline Byers, Colin Salmon, Christian Navarro, Lisa Palfrey, Nicholas Ralph, Virginia Madsen, and Ben Cross.
'Prey for the Devil' Review
A tale as old as time; a Catholic church representative must battle their inner demons to save the soul of a possessed child. Prey for the Devil attempts to retell this tired story with the ...
Prey for the Devil Review: A Derivative Demon Movie
Ultimately, Prey for the Devil is a very hammy movie that almost feels like it was made in the 80s, back when audiences got these ridiculous horror films. The uninspired execution of the concept ...
Prey For The Devil Review: Just another possession film full of clichés
Abhishek Srivastava, TNN, Feb 24, 2023, 09.00 AM IST Critic's Rating: 2.5/5. Story: "Prey for the Devil" is about a nun who receives training as an exorcist under the Roman Catholic Church and ...
Prey for the Devil (2022 Movie) Official Trailer
Prey for the Devil - In Theaters October 28. Jacqueline Byers, Colin Salmon, Christian Navarro, Nicholas Ralph, Ben Cross, Academy Award Nominee Virginia Mad...
Prey for the Devil
Prey for the Devil. Prey for the Devil is a 2022 supernatural horror film directed by Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, 13 Sins) and written by Robert Zappia (Halloween H20), based on a story by Todd R. Jones and Earl Richey Jones. It is the final film to feature actor Ben Cross before his death in 2020, and is dedicated to his memory.
'3 Body Problem' Episode 1 Recap: The Final Countdown
Season 1, Episode 1: 'Countdown'. The plot of "3 Body Problem" is not going to be the thing that grabs you about "3 Body Problem.". Perhaps because of the actions of a rogue scientist ...
This new horror movie with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes ...
Following in the footsteps of cult favorite Ghostwatch, new horror film Late Night with the Devil is exactly what the found footage genre needs right now. ... GAME REVIEWS MOVIE REVIEWS TV REVIEWS. 1.
Late Night With The Devil Review: Found Footage Feels Fresh Again In
Summary. Familiar horror elements in "Late Night with the Devil" build anticipation for unexpected twists. Excellent performances anchor this fun, scar-infused narrative of possession and the occult. The film's immersive '70s found-footage framework keeps viewers on edge until the thrilling finale. Late Night with the Devil should feel familiar.

‘Prey for the Devil’ Review: A Passable Exorcism Horror That Says To Hell With Clerical Sexism

Dennis Harvey

Reviewed at AMC Metreon 16, San Francisco, Oct. 27, 2022. MPAA rating: PG-13. Running time: 93 MIN.

More From Our Brands

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Movies / TV

Prey for the Devil Reviews

Prey for the Devil (2022)

Did You Know?

Photo & Video

Related Items

Recently Viewed

'Prey for the Devil' Review: Catholic Propaganda Disguised as a Cliche Horror Movie

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

Prey for the Devil

Content Caution

In Theaters

Home Release Date

Distributor

Positive Elements

Spiritual Elements

Sexual Content

Violent Content

Crude or Profane Language

Drug and Alcohol Content

Other Negative Elements

Latest Reviews

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Someone Like You

Ordinary Angels

Where to Watch

Christian Navarro

Colin Salmon

Cardinal Matthews

Virginia Madsen

Yana Marinova

User Reviews

Rosemary's Baby

The Bride of Frankenstein

Don't Look Now

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Frankenstein

Repulsion (re-release)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

It's Such a Beautiful Day

Eyes Without a Face [re-release]

Night of the Living Dead

The Innocents

The Invisible Man

I Saw the TV Glow

The Wicker Man

DVD/Blu-ray Releases: New & Upcoming

2024 Movie Release Calendar

SXSW 2024 Recap: Best and Worst Films

Every Denis Villeneuve Movie, Ranked

March Movie Preview (2024)

Prey For The Devil Review: Jacqueline Byers Blesses This Questionable Possession Film

A Nun on a Mission

Go Along for the Ride

Movie Review – Prey for the Devil (2022)

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Who is the Best Final Girl in Horror?

The B-Movie Queens

Exploring George A. Romero’s Non-Zombie Movies

The Craziest Takashi Miike Movies

Philip K. Dick & Hollywood: The Essential Movie Adaptations

20 Epic Car Chases That Will Drive You Wild

Ten Action Sequels The World Needs To See

Essential Vampire Movies To Sink Your Teeth Into

House of the Dragon: All the Important Houses in Season 2 and Who They Fight for Explained

Yellowstone: What Will Happen to John Dutton in Season 5 Part 2? Fan Theories Explained

Or browse by category:

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12