A nun prepares to perform an exorcism and comes face to face with a demonic force with mysterious ties to her past.
As a Catholic, exorcisms are rituals I am familiar with. I’ve never seen one in real life (and I hope I never do), but a priest who is a family friend is close friends with the Chief Exorcist of Dallas, so it’s never too far away. As a kid in the ’70s and ’80s, I grew up watching horror films religiously, and many of them incorporated exorcisms. Movies like “Exorcism,” “Possession,” “The Exorcist,” “Exorcist II: The Heretic,” and “Amityville II: The Possession” were titles that were very impressionable on me, especially as a kid, but as my love for filmmaking grew, and I began making my own movies, I was able to watch these films more from a filmmaker perspective, and suddenly they weren’t that scary anymore.
While “The Exorcist” still holds up well today, this particular genre has always intrigued Hollywood and audiences. “The Exorcist III” was a very underrated sequel, and in 2004, “Exorcist: The Beginning” was released and showed a young Father Merrin, played by Stellan Skarsgård, in Africa many years before the events of the 1973 original. It failed miserably at the box office because of a poor script and terrible direction, but it might be worth a look if you are a fan of the original trilogy. Instead, I would recommend Paul Schrader’s “Dominion” over “Exorcist: The Beginning,” a terrific psychological horror film with the same actors and characters. For a more detailed description, Google “Exorcist The Beginning vs. Dominion” for a complete breakdown.
In “Prey for the Devil,” Ann (Jacqueline Byers) is a young nun who attends St. Michael The Archangel School of Exorcism in Boston, Massachusetts. With an interest in demonic possession, she knows that only ordained priests can perform exorcisms, but Father Quinn (Colin Salmon) recognizes her gifts, including empathy with possessed victims of demons, and takes her under his wing, agreeing to train her for her own personal safety. When a young girl named Natalie (Posy Taylor) is brought into the school for observation, she appears to be possessed by a demon, and Ann agrees to help her, but when the demon possessing Natalie reveals itself to her, she quickly realizes it is the same demon that possessed her mother many years ago, forcing her to take her own life. Now Ann must prepare for an epic battle between good and evil, with her and Natalie’s souls on the line.
Thankfully, “Prey for the Devil” relies more on atmosphere and ambiance over conventional jump scares and stereotypical possessions accompanying most films of this ilk. While it employs a few of the aforementioned horror tropes, they are brief and well-structured. Jacqueline Byers brings empathy and pathos to her role as a young woman who wants desperately to understand the very phenomenon that tormented her mother when she was young and now confronts her. The story is passé, but the cast makes the best of what they have to work with. While “Prey for the Devil” adds nothing new to the possession genre, Ms. Byers proves her worth as a strong, determined woman who wants to conquer evil at any cost so that families won’t be torn apart, like hers was. Maybe the Vatican needs to re-evaluate its stance on Female Exorcists; after all, St. Catherine of Siena might have something to say about it.
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