Ethics in product recalls

Ethics Discussion: Product Recalls

Familiar Flick

The concept is great -- take a classic horror flick theme (first pioneered in the Exorcist), update it with modern reality television details, and count how many screams, and box office sales, you can. Formulaic? Maybe. Done before? Certainly. But don't be surprised if there's a sequel to writer/director William Brent Bell's the Devil Inside. Despite a decidedly less-than-warm reception from critics, the film managed to topple Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol as the top seller during its opening weekend, set a record for the most revenues in the first weekend of January, and pull in over $30 million in its first three days. Not a bad start for a movie that was reportedly filmed for under a million dollars.

The Devil Inside is loosely based upon the experience of a woman who murdered three people in 1989 while allegedly possessed and undergoing an exorcist. The film intersperses actual footage from that traumatic occurrence -- such as the 911 call made by murderer Maria Rossi (portrayed in the film by Suzan Crowley) -- in an attempt to simultaneously underscore a sense of historical austerity and cash in on the contemporary voyeuristic value that is so popular in today's television. Confined to a mental institution in Rome that is assumed to be part of the Catholic Church, Maria spends the next 20 years or so mutilating her skin in both conspicuous and inconspicuous locations, leaving no doubts as to why she's there. The action heats up when her daughter Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) attempts to aid her mother by having another exorcism performed on her to restore her degenerate mind.

Doing so, of course, turns out to be a lot harder than expected for Isabella and the pair of priests (Evan Helmuth and Simon Quarterman) she recruits to aid her. There's other exorcisms to behold before they can get to poor Maria, so as to acquaint unsuspecting Isabella with the process as well as to drum up a few gratuitous scares -- or attempts, at least. Soon enough, Isabella and her pals are caught up in a whirlwind of multiple possessions, exorcisms, and rituals that combine both modern technology and conventional religious practices -- the best that science and faith can offer.