‘Pray for the devil’: The religious exorcist

It’s increasingly common for a horror proposition to premiere in the middle of the Christmas season, a dissonant way to celebrate the holidays, having scary moments on the big screen. If in 2021 it was “Demonic” who broke into the middle of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, “Mom or Dad”, “Sing 2!” or “West Side Story”; now it’s up to ‘Pray for the devil’, which becomes one of the last previews of this 2022 which is coming to an endbetween titles such as ‘Avatar: the sense of water’, ‘Puss in Boots: the last wish’, ‘Full Train 2’ or ‘Whitney Houston: I want to dance with someone’.

It is the truth, As happened with Neill Blomkamp’s film, Daniel Stamm’s film is also destined to fall into total oblivion. In a year where horror has stood out as one of the most successful genres, with blockbusters such as ‘Scream’, ‘Smile’, ‘Nop’ or ‘Barbarian’; in addition to all those mentioned, they have also convinced the critics; the arrival of proposals such as “Pray for the devil” seems like a step backwards. especially because It gives you the awful feeling of watching a TV movie on the big screen.

Yup, horror productions are known for their low budgetss (for example, “Smile” was originally intended to be released directly to Paramount+). However, this does not mean that it is not used well, obtaining very valid proposals, thanks, above all, to a good screenplay jobas can well be seen in “X” or its prequel “Pearl”, which cost one million dollars each. None of that happens in “Pray for the Devil,” which tries to be an attempt to create terror from a believer’s perspective. It’s as if religious cinema wanted to try the genre, as if ‘Miracles from Heaven’ or ‘Beyond Hope’ opted for supernatural horror elements to explain their plots.

A proposal of terror with the spirit of a tabletop TV show with a religious flavour

‘Pray for the Devil’ shows its backbone from minute one. Not only that, it’s that produces the feeling of being the private label of a spin-off of “The Warren File”. His possessions aren’t scary, nor are his scenes scary, the plot isn’t just predictable, it’s also boring. The empowerment of his female protagonist produces the feeling of being something imposed, as if she wanted it creating a Netflix-style warrior nun, but turning her into a pious exorcist. Also, the school of exorcism for priests, which tries to give an academic look at the plot, is implausible, as if schools of spells exist in real life.

With a cast that seems to go on autopilot and that has the feeling of stepping out of an after-dinner soap opera (Jacqueline Byers is not at all convincing, religious and Christian Navarro does what he can with his role); ‘Pray for the devil’ is a proposition made for the fans of B-series productions who don’t even bother to create a coherent storyline. The worst part is that it leaves one feeling that the idea wasn’t bad and that, in other hands, it would have been a smart genre proposition. This just causes that feeling of missed opportunity that titles like this leave behind.

Note 3

The best: Feeling that the premise, in other hands, might have worked.

Worse: That it causes yawning in its first part does not bode well.