Reviews; OW $7m #3

Film review: Prey for the Devil. Heaven help us (1/5)
https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/movies/film-review-prey-for-the-devil-heaven-help-us

Sister Ann is working at Saint Michael the Archangel School of Exorcism, where the potentially possessed are housed, studied and either released or sent along to the Vatican for special treatment. The institutional rooms and corridors look like a cross between a hospital and a jail.

Ann wants to become the church’s first female exorcist in seven centuries, and finds an ally in the head priest Father Quinn (Colin Salmon) and another in student Father Dante (Christian Navarro). But she’s also befriended Natalie (Posy Taylor), a little girl who is sweet one moment, devilish the next.

Can the nun save the girl from the clutches of Satan? She’s certainly got the demeanour for it, calling for Scripture readings the way an ER doctor in another movie might demand 2 cc’s of clichéd dialogue. And as the plot rattles forward, and Virginia Madsen pops in to give the whole thing an air of respectability, it seems Sister Ann and Natalie may have more in common than they think.

This Possession Horror Movie Is in Need of an Exorcist (3/10)
https://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3738431/prey-for-the-devil-review-this-possession-horror-movie-is-in-need-of-an-exorcist/

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.

Still no metascore. RT is 18%! Deadline: Last night, Prey for the Devil did $660,000 at 2,450 theaters.

‘Prey for the Devil’ Review: A Passable Exorcism Horror That Says To Hell With Clerical Sexism
https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/prey-for-the-devil-review-a-passable-exorcism-horror-that-says-to-hell-with-clerical-sexism-1235416731/

Ticket to Paradise was #2 at $10m, so Prey lost to a chick flick. So much for targeting women.

https://deadline.com/2022/10/black-adam-super-83m-first-week-eyes-27m-2nd-frame-prey-for-the-devil-previews-box-office-1235157235/

Also not overindexing, no thanks to Halloween syndrome, is Lionsgate’s PG-13 horror film Prey for the Devil at 2,980 theaters, which made $2.8M yesterday (including Thursday previews) for what looks to be a $7M start third place. That’s where Lionsgate was projecting the film. It arrives in an already horror-laden marketplace, with Halloween Ends set to finish its third weekend with $60M-plus, and Paramount’s slasher sleeper Smile going to $92M-plus by tomorrow. Prey for the Devil, despite being a slightly different kind of exorcism film in its female-driven conceit, isn’t spreading the spirit all over this land, with a C+ CinemaScore, 68% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, and 64%/2 1/2 stars on Comscore/Screen Engine’s Posttrak.

I liked it 6/10