Blu-Ray Review: Inner Demons

By Jeffery X Martin

You’ve seen it before and there’s no sense in denying it. Some things just shouldn’t be paired up. Maybe there’s a couple whose relationship dynamic seems odd and impenetrable. Perhaps someone likes to do strange things with their food. I, for example, put peanut butter on hot dogs. My wife is displeased with this choice.

These examples of poor matching can be applied to the horror film, Inner Demons, a found-footage film which shouldn’t be a found-footage film.

It’s a dandy concept. Carson (Lara Vosburgh, who wears black eye makeup like it’s her job) used to be such a sweet, sweet thing until the drugs got hold of her. She went to a good Catholic school and got straight As. She wasn’t even Catholic! But her behavior degraded. She became violent and hateful. Carson’s good Christian parents are at a loss and realize the only way Carson can be helped is through an intervention.

They decide to make Carson’s intervention public by inviting a documentary-style television show to record and broadcast the whole thing. This is where the found-footage aspect rears its floating head, as cameras are placed all over Carson’s parents’ home. There’s even a confessional camera set up for Carson, a la The Real World.

It is no spoiler to reveal that there’s more to Carson’s problem than just shooting up junk in the bathroom. She’s been demonically possessed, and the drugs are the only things that are keeping the demons at bay.

Conceptually, that is fantastic. It’s not often audiences are presented with the concept of addiction as a good thing, something that could possibly benefit a person and those around them. The potential in that swerve is so great, it’s a shame that the creators chose to go the found-footage route.

Audiences have grown used to the tropes and conventions of the found-footage horror genre. They know what to expect and when to expect it. They know that when the image starts to pixelate, that’s when the ghosts show up. When it’s too quiet for too long, that’s when the jump scares occur. It is as limiting a form as Dogme 95 and less open to bursts of sheer creativity.

Because of the box Inner Demons hurls itself into, the story suffers from non-expansion. There’s room within the plot concept to explore further, particularly within Carson’s character. We don’t get a lot of before and after with her; we’re not sure just how far she has fallen from grace. We hear her parents telling us she used to be nice, but that’s what parents are supposed to say.

Inner Demons isn’t a bad film, but most of it feels like a prequel. When we get to the inevitable violence in the third act, there’s the sensation of having leap-frogged over a lot of information that would have helped solidify the story into a more cohesive whole. A straight, linear narrative could have brought those points more into focus. There’s an implied responsibility for filmmakers to tell their stories in the way that best serves the story. Inner Demons fails in that regard, to its own detriment.

Lara Vosburgh is a dark Goth dream girl, though, and her performance steers clear of being overwrought. This is a good, grounding thing for the film, and she deserves kudos for that. Perhaps a more conventionally constructed film will give her a chance to act instead of reacting.

Inner Demons isn’t as much of a misfire as it is a mismatch, the filmic version of Joe Jackson’s “Is She Really Going Out with Him?” It’s the right story told the wrong way, leaving the audience wishing for more.

Inner Demons is available from MPI Home Video and is currently streaming on Netflix US.