User reviews

Well religious stuff seduce me in movies... i've seen many good ones in the past but last years every single movie i picked was literally empty.. maybe it's my fault.. i 've seen everything about this topic falling angels,demons, possessed kids,demons, curses. I don't know... i am sicked of that storyline, a possessed girl climbing the walls, harming herself, swearing the priest or exposing his past...every time i give a it a change and i say to my self.. it might be something new, with creepy atmosphere and plot twist.. but it's the same stuff.. maybe i should give it a break.. but i have to say at least this one had descent SGI and good acting.. i 've seen some similar movies that were completely trash...

I would agree with someone else I was expecting more but it has a few great parts the rest is just ok. Jaqualine Byers and the supernatural are defiantly the best aspects! I'm lucky I have the regal subscription cause I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. I'm nice about my reviews I think Pray for the Devil was solid for what it is, has a great story and awesome horror moments! Nice that Virgina Madsen is still going strong in horror she was best in Candyman and Ben Cross passed away in the last couple years I don't know why there wasn't a rest in piece for him. Solid for horror fans that's for sure.

Much to my pleasant surprise, Prey for the Devil actually does have a sufficiently unique and compelling take on the possession sub-genre. Early on, the script introduces character background and thematic depth that causes the plot to largely be driven by an emotional core.

In this film, unwillingness to forgive oneself becomes a poison that causes a person to lose themselves and gives demons power to take over their minds. Only complete and total self-forgiveness can eliminate the demonic threat in such cases.

I loved this addition to the story, as it gave me something to root for beyond the rote plot machinations.

I really just wish that the rest of the film was as compelling as this, because in terms of visual execution and story beats, this movie is as generic as they come.

It's shockingly uninspired in its direction and in the set-up of its scares. Never once is it surprising or stunning. The actors give it their all but they really don't have anything to work with, as all the development was given to the themes and no room was left to tell us anything specific about the characters as they are in the present.

The director used a lot of handheld camera work and close-ups, and this is sad as it doesn't utilise the insane potential of the gorgeous, often spacious location the film is set in.

If a more artistically daring director had taken this script, they could have made it incredible. Instead, it's pretty middle-of-the-road.

After the huge surprise of the awesome horror movie Smile, I'm brought right back down to earth with Prey for the Devil. Right back to where the expectation is the vast majority of horror flicks will be terrible.

There are two different routes to me giving a movie such a low score. One is that the movie is actively bad, laughable, filled with things to rip on. That's not the case with Prey for the Devil. It takes the second route, the one where the movie has nothing of value. Nothing about it is good.

This movie does a horrendous job at making you care. About anything. I couldn't keep track of how many times I thought to myself, "I DON'T CARE." Emotional moments, I don't care. Major horror moments, I don't care. Climax with stakes, I don't care.

If I were to rate the scariness, it's a two out of ten. Zero tension, zero suspense. It made me jump maybe three times. I watched these supposedly scary scenes and felt absolutely nothing. I also think I might be done with exorcism horror flicks. A couple come out each year and they're usually useless.

In the end, Prey for the Devil is almost a complete waste of time. It might be good to reset expectations so I could be as pleasantly surprised the next time a movie like Smile comes along. (1 viewing, opening Thursday 10/27/2022)

Now, I wasn't really harboring much of any high hopes or expectations for this 2022 horror movie titled "Prey for the Devil", as exorcism movies tend to be dubious movies. But since I hadn't already seen the movie, and had the chance to do so, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.

Writers Robert Zappia, Earl Richey Jones and Todd R. Jones actually put together a rather enjoyable storyline and script here for director Daniel Stamm to bring to life on the screen. Sure, there were some generic contents to the storyline, but the writers also managed to put in new and interesting aspects to spruce up the storyline. I have to be honest and say that I was not only entertained by "Prey for the Devil", but I was also pleasantly surprised with how enjoyable it was.

The storyline is pretty straight forward, as exorcism movies tend to be following the same formula, but director Daniel Stamm managed to add a twist to the movie that made it all the more enjoyable.

"Prey for the Devil" has a good cast ensemble, with a great leading performance by actress Jacqueline Byers. The movie also have the likes of Colin Salmon, Virginia Madsen and the late Ben Cross on the cast list. I was really surprised to see Ben Cross in this movie, as he had passed away in 2020, so this was apparently his last movie performance.

Visually then "Prey for the Devil" was good, and it really added to the atmosphere of the movie that the special effects were so realistic and good to look at. These special effects definitely made it all the more of a convincing exorcism movie. Sure, there are an abundance of jump scares in the movie, almost to the point of where it was becoming a nuissance.

If you enjoy exorcism movies, then you definitely should check out "Prey for the Devil".

My rating of "Prey for the Devil" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

If you're possessed by evil spirits you might go, to a place where exorcists expunge your foe, with the power of the cross, they will make you turn and toss, until the beast is forced to flee your scarred torso (or you die). Ann works in this place and she's a nun, you have to say, it doesn't look too much like fun, but her faith is firm and strong, although she has her own demon, the events of her past life, can't be undone.

Far from original and not particularly rewarding although the performances are fine and the metaphors make sense but I'm not sure in this day and age certain institutions have that much relevance anymore, if indeed they ever did!

This film underpromised and overdelivered.

I read the scathing reviews and almost gave this movie a miss.

Until I got some free cinema tickets and decided to go and see this with my partner one night for the hell of it (no pun intended).

Let it be said, I'm both a cinephile and a huge horror fan - but almost to a fault.

I hate corny overuse of jump scares, I hate films that lack substance and just rely on tacky cheap thrills to get by.

You know, the kind of films like this year's box office smash hit Smile - which serve as a staple halloween flick for the average layman to get their yearly dose of scares.

I don't see how cr*p like Smile received such raving reviews for being utterly devoid of any originality, whilst this film actually dared to develop character and weave a solid story only to get review bombed as a result.

Prey For The Devil not only shook up the genre, establishing a unique story with a likeable protagonist, but it did well to space out it's scares and develop a story laden with spine tingling creep.

Honestly I do not say this much with horror cinema trips, but I came out of this experience feeling so respected by the writers.

I can see how the average layman would automatically give this a thumbs down even though I don't understand why people HAVE to make horror mutually exclusive from a well paced, patient script that goes for the long pay off.

A good horror film needs depth, it needs stakes, it needs a solid foundation of a story and a strong setting. Prey For The Devil has all of this, and paces itself evenly, making for fantastic pay off when the utterly disturbing scenes get underway (and under your skin).

I'm feeling restored after the absolute time waster that was Smile last month, and I have Prey For The Devil to thank for that.

If you're a true horror fan and love the sub-genre of possession films, you will be pleasantly satisfied by this film.

Honestly I'm a huge horror movie fan, from indies through to the big budget, I'll watch any but I just felt like I've seen this film a million times, done better and on budget dvd, there's nothing here that's new, fresh or interesting.

We've seen the women overcoming oppression a thousand times, whilst it's obviously vital and any decent person agrees women deserve the same opportunities, I struggle with the logic that women can't do exorcisms as there's no physicality it's just waving a book, cross and some water.

The acting is severely mediocre, the lead is someone I've known for years, at one point she looked extremely promising but she's definitely not a very good actor, very weak performance and poor delivery. Was disappointed massively in someone who's been around so long being so basic.

Then there's the twist, it's a sad tired cliche at this point that made it so predictable, plus the thing was you just didn't care, you can't just rely on the child being young to get viewers support, lazy writing and basic execution.

It's set up for a completely needless sequel that if it happens it'll be straight to dvd for half the price of one ticket.

Horror is such a good genre, yet people can't imagine some fresh stories? I have so much more respect seeing people try new things and failing that people making these kinda movies over and over.

First, I have to say that I am not the best review writer. What I can say about this movie is that it kept me entertained and engaged from start to finish. It by no means had the best back story but it was enough to let you know a little more about the person you are watching. I've also never been one to delve into artist expression sides. If I am entertained and am not thinking about other things while I watch a movie then keeping my attention is a solid feat in itself. All I can say if you like these sort of movies and aren't expecting epic blockbuster results, then you will find this one entertaining.

Lets all be real. The trailer literally GIVES AWAY EVERYTHING IN YOUR FACE FOR 2 minutes. Every demon scene, every scare, and everything that happens to the characters. POV: You are seeing it in the movie, but your first thought is "Oh this was in the trailer, I already know what happens." Smh. I was expecting this to at least be somewhat ok, but holy ####...no...not at all. Sure didn't turn out to be okay when it made me walk out. There's so many things wrong with this, I can't list them all. What do I even point out? Lets see, constant shaky handheld camera movement, overdone jump scares that happen every 5 minutes, priests that don't act like priests, nuns that don't act like nuns, CGI that looks like it was made by a high school student, characters that they would expect you to care about but you don't, zero character development, sub plots that they think you would easily follow aaaaand yeah. There ya go. I've seen a lot of possession movies. Good and Bad. But THIS?! Embarrassing. Something like this should not be on a big screen, not even any streaming platform either. Maybe could pass as a little short film on YT, but other than that, no. I just don't understand why the Hollywood industry does this to us. And I'm not only talking about them making bad movies and making their money off of us, I'm talking about them making almost every movie trailer 3 minutes, just to show the entire movie. If you're already shown SO much in that span of time, then what's the point of even going to see it in the first place? You can make an amazing trailer in just 30 seconds or a minute, not giving away much and that would be it. It's not a very hard thing to do, but they act like it is. Glad I'm not Prey For The Devil. I just wanna "Pray" for a refund....

Well here we are again. Halloween and just in time another possession film with every possible jump scare and cliche you've ever seen before. The formula is so worn out it's almost parodying itself unintentionally. Either way a new generation of horror fans will inevitably flock to it being the only other option than Halloween 37 this year. With plotting as hollow as ever and formulaic and cgi/jump scares that come Around nearly every corner, this film does nothing to separate itself. Attempts at ambitious twists fall short and end up being cheap. Actors are mtv caliber. Camerawork is rinse repeat. Just another possession film.

I cannot believe that this kind of movie got a theatrical release and soon a physical media release when films like Prey, Hellraiser 2022, Fresh and more went directly into streaming ?? My main issue with prey for the devil is how basic & unoriginal it is . There is nothing new about this film , it doesn't bring anything new to the table . I hate to talk this bad about movies because as a filmmaker student I look forward to check different kind of filmmaking but doesn't mean that every film made its incredible . I do appreciate the cinematography work and you can tell they were trying their best to save this film . I guess the ones to blame here are the writers and producers.

I usually enjoy possession movies , for example popular films like the conjuring movies are beautiful possession films . Prey for devil relies so much on cheap jumpscares, bad dialogue & bad characters ( which brings me to the point that i didn't believe at all that those people wanted to be studying whatever they were doing )

I wish the next possession films take different turns to be unique and different cause otherwise they shouldn't be made on the first place and instead , invert that time & money on another project.

Just finished watching a screener as I'm interviewing some the cast and thought this was a solid, well-directed and performed movie. When I watch horror films at home, the scares rarely get me but this one still managed to. Possession/exorcism films are nothing new, they've been around for decades but Prey For The Devil had some great surprises and twists to keep the story moving. Jacqueline Byers gives an incredibly vulnerable performance, with Posy Taylor also giving a great performance, sweet at times and disturbing at others.

Christian Navarro was a very sympathetic leading man and it was cool to see him in a role like and moving on from teen roles. Colin Salmon and Virginia Madsen both gave solid performances as well. Wish they had a bit more to do in this one besides giving exposition or being opposing voices of reason, but happy to see them in another horror project.

Overall I thought it was pretty scary, well executed and enjoyable.

After reading quite a lot of negative reviews I didn't have too high expectations for Prey For The Devil, but I'm glad I gave it a chance because it turned out to be much better than those bad reviews made it sound like. Possession movies, there are just a lot of bad ones and only a few really good ones. This one is certainly worth watching if you like this genre. The possession scenes were well made, quite creepy sometimes and that's what makes these movies stand out from the rest. The story itself is obviously déjà vu so no surprise here but it's all well done. As for the acting it wasn't bad at all. Glad I watched Prey For The Devil, again a proof I shouldn't pay too much attention to very negative reviews as there are just a lot of people that are never satisfied.

A shallow and one-dimensional attempt to explain females right and equality.

The men are played dumb and useless, Its all about the main female character who wants to be the first female exorcist despite of men controlling the high positions in the church.

Too much drama for an horror movie.

Its like they're only aiming for female audience.

Why do I have to seat there and watch this cheap and shallow feminism values?

Why can't we present each side's strong qualities and show how each can contribute from their own perspective?

The movie feels like a feminist activist time-traveled to the sixties to explain about female equality and also be an exorcist.

Slow paced with a couple jump scares, probably a few shy from being too many but most still genuinely startled me. I think that was due to the movie maintaining a constant eerie aura, it doesn't lighten up at any point. The somewhat novel story was decent, as well as the acting, but not entirely spectacular. Thought Smile was the best horror this year because it was an actual horror instead of just throwing some gore into psychological thriller; Smile was more of a fun horror to jump out of your seat with your friend and this was more of a scare you to death horror. I constantly had a chill in my tummy and had forgot what that felt like. Maybe this scares me more than Smile did because that was more reminiscent of other horrors like the Ring.

Over recent years I stopped watching horrors because new ones didn't scare me anymore and I thought oh maybe I'm just older; but now that I've found something one that's actually scared me to my core I don't know why I missed this. I think exorcist horrors are spine-chilling because demons are actually real to you especially if you grew up around church, unlike let's say vampire, psychological or zombie slasher.

Didn't give it a 10/10 mainly because plot progresses pretty generically, even the twist felt lazy writing, but the fact that this is scary is really all you could ever ask a horror movie for. It could have been more graphic too, doesn't have a lot of images that stick with you and maybe the pg13 rating was limiting. A few unanswered questions i.e. Why Sister Ann was chosen. The story also lacked depth, not that it needed much though; I love that the runtime is relatively short and it uses the little it has effectively. Loved that the movie leaves an impression, not just to scare you while watching it but for you to think about it later before you sleep.

Also, hopefully not a spoiler but that scene in the ambulance with the rosary was so bad ass, the demon knew he was bossing it with that pose waiting for the door to open. Favorite scene even though it's another were we whisked past the gore.

I'm so happy this lived up to my expectations because it was the first time I was excited for a horror in years and it delivered so check it out. Reminded me why I used to enjoy horrors as a kid.

Sure it reeks of B-grade cinema but that's okay. It was an effortless watch with some likable things in it.

It's an exorcism movie, and underneath that it has a little Hogwartsian 'exorcism training academy'thing going on. But there is a reality to it. There are scenes where you believe the actors and all.

A couple decent jumps. A couple predictable ones.

The back story of the lead has some heart to It.

The case of the young girl that they're examining is interesting enough to drive the plot a bit.

It's nothing new. But it entertained me for the hour and half run time and that's what it was supposed to do.

The production quality was admirable but the weak script + dialogues, cheap CGI, amateur direction and sloppy performances made a huge mess that affected the whole movie. They dragged the story through the mud and made it unbearable and boring. I'm expecting horror from horror movies not some tiresome psychological drama that I hate and despise. The filmmakers had high hopes for this movie that's why they kinda build up the ending with a sequel set-up and turned Sister Ann into an action adventure superheroine.

This film made a decent profit at the box office and it's an another example of low budget horror success.

Director Daniel Stamm helmed one of my favorite horror films of all time: "The Last Exorcism." No doubt a controversial opinion, I believe that "The Last Exorcism" remains a genuinely unique and expectation-subverting scary movie that breaks down the exorcism genre and builds it back up in a way that hasn't been done since. So, you can imagine my surprise when it was revealed that Mr. Stamm was back in the director's chair, once again at the helm of another supernatural flick. You can also imagine my surprise when, sitting down to watch this movie, I slowly but surely started to realize how garbage it is. I watch over 100 movies a year, and I can't remember the last time I saw something so utterly irredeemable as "Prey for the Devil." In fact, this movie is so generic, so boring, and so insulting to audience intelligence that I don't even want to waste time writing about it, so I'm going to do my best to give the speediest, most efficient review ever, in hopes that you do literally anything else with your time except watch this movie. So let's get started.

Wooden acting. A lack of scares. Horribly written dialogue. An unoriginal and extremely predictable plot. "Prey for the Devil" has all of those things, and more, in mercifully short 90 minute run time that adds absolutely nothing new to the tired genre of exorcism films. Featuring a female exorcist, something that is forbidden in the Roman Catholic church, this movie wants its audiences to cheer for the movie's "daringness" to break new ground; the problem is the main character, played by the beautiful Jacqueline Byers, is the most boring, stale character known to mankind. A combination of poor dialogue and mediocre direction throws any believability and sympathy for this character out the window - Ms. Byers' acting ability doesn't help either, though I can't blame her when she's working with a script this terrible. And not just her, but every actor and character is as boring as a high school trigonometry class - everyone is repeating dialogue that you've already heard in a million other exorcism movies. And no one seems to be adding any personality to their character or spoken lines.

The story itself does have an opportunity to be interesting, but quickly devolves into a generic, predictable mess - complete with an utter lack of scares or clever exorcism sequences. Sure, you'll see bodies contorting and people climbing up walls, but it's not scary, and it's nothing new. The movie tries to shock its audience through climactic revelations that, in a better film, would genuinely shock - however, "Prey for the Devil" reveals said revelations with all of the impact of a cotton ball to the face due to actors and actresses reciting lines with the enthusiasm of a reanimated but still brain dead corpse. So, in other words, you're getting a story you've already seen done a hundred million times before, with plot twists that won't even register in your brain because of the inconsequential way that they are revealed.

I was also shocked by how poorly directed and edited this movie was; scenes feel scatterbrained and chopped up, almost as if the movie originally started with one tone but was edited to fit another. What's left is a very uneven and rapidly paced movie that, while quick on its feet, is simultaneously as boring as can be due to the movie rushing its audience to where it wants to go instead of leading viewers there through an engaging plot and empathetic characters.

Look, I can't write any more about this movie. Please don't go see it - I know for a fact that you won't enjoy it. I was disappointed beyond belief, and so bored that, if I wasn't going to review this movie, I would've walked out halfway through to spare myself from any further boredom. I didn't like a single thing about this movie, and I will never watch it again.

Very close to an 8, but I can't put it on the same level as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which I find to be by far the best supernatural horror film out there. Still, for a long time I never thought a movie would come close.

My first interest in these exorcism flicks is to see how they handle the actual evil at hand. The good ones make it realistic enough without crossing the line into what I'd call flamboyant territory. This is a good example of that.. although it does have a few things that are the slightest bit ridiculous. For the most part it stays intelligent enough to make you think about the diabolical's motives and is consistent with its character.

The acting is really pretty good. Some side characters are like cardboard cutouts, but the protagonist and other main characters feel lifelike. I especially think the main Father character is well done.

Perhaps my favorite part, however, is how they approach the very real controversy behind the role of women in the Catholic church. There are the odd lines of dialogue that sound like caricatures of patriarchal ideas, but they are few. The theme is very much about the issue, but it isn't pandering or overzealous. The lead, Ann, is a flawed person-something too often overlooked in favor of 'I am woman hear me roar!' or such absurdities as a lady that weighs a buck-ten beating the tar out of a hulk of an enemy. No, she has her thoughts on the matter, but her entire being isn't defined by it. Very nice to see.

Finally, story wise it's a bit 'meh' but it did keep a twist for about half the movie for me. And it isn't just a mish-mash of old hat content. The end does leave it open to sequels, but I really hope they don't go that route.

If I could give it a 7.5 I would, but this is one of those cases where I'll have to round down.