Found Footage February Day 3 The Devil's Doorway

Day 3

The Devil’s Doorway

Not to be confused with ringing the devil’s doorbell, that’s the clitoris.

Not to be mistaken for the Devil’s Backdoor, that’s your butthole.

Not to be misunderstood for The Devil’s Hallway in the Guadalupe mountains.

No, no today we are all about the film, The Devil’s Doorway.

This is a fairly recent film but I liked its setup so figured why not give it a twirl. It’s also an hour and 10 minutes. Which is massively appealing too.

But no, I really dig movies made in the vein of 60’s-70’s films. Which for some reason tend to also be mostly about demons because well. Satanic Panic was a thing.

SO! The plot of this film, in the 1960’s, two priest are sent to investigate a miracle in an irish home for unwed mothers, only to discover that one of the residents is….possessed by the devil!

Naturally this sounded perfect. I mean what better fit for found footage than evil shit. I mean we did just get through the rise of the devil….or antichrist in The Monster Project. So, here we go again! It’s the bread and butter of found footage films. If ghost are the cumin in found footage chili. Devilry is the cinnamon on jasmine rice of the genre.

Which is really good if you’ve never tried it.

In fact you really should experiment with your rice more. The possibilities are endlessly delicious. We’ll discuss that later on though. For now. Lets get our priest on!

Because this is gonna be funny as hell. Explaining how people in the 60’s carried a huge ass camera during some scary shit, I’m into it, let’s fucking goooooo!

The movie.

Thank the irish! They’re the ones bringing us this film today, as well as laying down some wholesome catholic knowledge on our asses, as the film opens up and informs us all that, “For over 200 years, the Catholic Church in Ireland held women in asylums called Magdalene Laundries” these places were composed of prostitutes, orphans, mentally disabled, unmarried pregnant woman, as well as abused women.

So of course that means it’s a happening place.

But we’re not here for mingling or the dating scene of 60’s Catholic Ireland.

No, we are here for creepy shit. Which the movie is not skimping out on. At all. Right off the bat we go from an introduction of the ladies of this church lined up for filming. To what looks like an actual scene straight out of hell, as a camera toting priest calls out for another priest while running through dirt corridors. Littered with rib cages as he desperately calls out for his friend. Only to find himself speared by a nun.

I don’t mean literally speared like run through with a spear. Though a nun with a spear would be an amazing thing to see. No. No I mean a Goldberg spear. A nun in a wide leg stance staring down the man with a camera, and the moment he turns her way she brings the pain and spears him to the ground victoriously shouting WHO’S NEXT!

But the fun ends there, as it seems the movie forgot we need to GET THERE first, instead of just dropping us right into the middle of the orgy without any lube.

So here we are, Quarter to 8 in the morning, the 23rd of October in the year of our lord nineteen hundred and sixty. We are introduced to our two miracle investigating priest, Father John Thornton and Father Thomas Riley. The most Irish name to ever Irish.

They’ve been sent photos depicting the virgin Mary leaking bloody tears. There are nuns trying to conceal this miracle, and others attempting to have the miracle shown to the world. Which we are told about by the mother superior. She informs us that there are not ‘all’ good girls in this place. There are some bitches, and they likely messed with the statue, so they’re wasting their time. Which I mean it happens, a lot yeah. BUT this time could be different!

Thankfully the film is setting up not only that this head Nun is not having miracle talk in her house of bad girls. But also that this camera and its equipment are no joke.

In an opening scene we have Father John futzing about with the camera and we see it’s a huge beast of a thing with built in lenses which operate on what was commonly back then called a turret lens. Because it looks like a turret gun with multiple lenses attached to a wheel which you turned to fix onto depending on what you were aiming to record.

It’s a hefty beefy boy.

Our priest are in for a long boring time it seems. Which makes sense. I mean miracles aren’t on a Disney timed schedule ready to occur at the top of every hour. Though that might get more people in churches if they released scented mist into churches that smelt like churro’s, or I guess communion wafers and sin. But I digress.

Immediately we are given the odd couple pairing of our young go getter ready to believe anything you tell him Father John Thornton, who during the first 5 minutes of setting up camera’s, lights and framing the statue, is right in its face taking pictures, eagerly waiting for that trickle of blood. Excited for a miracle. While Father Riley is happy just chilling and relaxing because he knows, this is gonna be a long day, and more so. He knows if this guy is going to be that annoying and excited in just the first 5 minutes, he’s gonna need a few packs of cigarettes to make it through this. It’s actually pretty funny because he tries being subtle and telling the eager priest that maybe he should chill out a bit and get comfy. But the guy is just super excited to see Jesus tab the statue make it bleed and do a dab. So Father Riley tells him in the most politest way to fek off and record the single moms who need ‘saving’.

Which he doesn’t actually. But he does tell him to go waste time filming around the building. And we should be thankful for this as it’s a creepy ass moment.

Not creepy in the sense evil is partying and spooking people. But just creepy in how holy buildings can be creepy. Father Thornton passes a large sleeping quarters for some of the women and he records them as the women are all kneeling at their bed sides, forehead planted to cupped hands in prayer, and all of them whispering quickly mumbled prayers. It’s just…..creepy.

Which maybe Catholics should look into updating so as not to give off the creepy vibes. The film Dogma wasn’t wrong. Buddy Christ was a good idea, you want a savior figure that looks chill and ready to hang with the boys, not look sad and like he just got tortured and hammered to a cross.

But enough about the J man, there’s a scene I really enjoyed here, and it just carries a nice creepy vibe that really encapsulates the film I feel. As Father Thornton wonders around filming. He catches sight of Mother Superior taking a girl who was scrubbing the floors and scolds her, leaving behind another girl to finish the job, so he decides to interview the girl as part of their case on whether or not this miracle is real.

Instead of showing us the actual interview, it’s a nicely edited scene with a soundtrack I love, where we see the ladies working on the laundry, cleaning and scrubbing, while the priest interview plays off in the background over the scene and music. During the interview he ask her if she’s seen the statue or is aware of the miracle, she flatly tells him she’s heard nothing about it and knows nothing. However when prompted about having seen the statue she tells him they are forbidden from being in the room with the statue so he further presses her on this.

She informs the priest they aren’t allowed in the chapel, even for mass. Why? They are being punished. What for? That’s the ominous moment as she simply tells him “They need someone to clean all those sheets.”

It only gets odder, and a bit creepier as the interview ends and we see a girl spotting the camera in the laundry room and she decides to have a bit of fun doing a song and dance, only to swiftly get smacked by the reverend mother and immediately thrown to her knees. Father Thornton takes this moment to begin an interview with the Reverend Mother. Which she immediately scrutinizes as the camera she feels, Is not needed what so ever. The interview very swiftly is shut down though as Father Thornton discovers rather quickly, as do we all. That the Reverend Mother, is not one to give a fuck. He asked her about how the girls are treated and shows his disapproval.

Which prompts her to chuckle and take over the conversation. She calls him out for trying to say she’s doing a poor job, and informs him in the calmest and harshest way she can. That she is here to deal with the churches problems. How the church sends its problems and dirty secrets to her and leaves just as quickly without a care in the world as to what happens to the girls. How many of the pregnant women there are pregnant from priest, and were sent there to be forgotten and to protect the priest. She is not about to let him tell her how to do the job, that she’s done, was made to do by the church for years, and how the church doesn’t even lend a second glance let alone thought about what they drop off at her doorstep.

The priest is clearly out matched and walks away barely in one piece. This wasn’t her first rodeo, and the fact she didn’t bow to his being a priest, while praise worthy, troubled the priest as he figured she would’ve cared to hear him out and possibly just said ‘yes father, we will see what we can do’, instead she told him to hold her beer and she ranted at him about everything she has to clean up and hide for the church which leaves her with honey badger levels of caring what others think about how she runs things. I like her.

What remains of the day is for him to tidy up and try holding onto his sanity.

Try holding onto his sanity? But how, why you may ask?

Well what else would you feel threatened of losing should you hear what sounds like the soft childrens laughter filling the walls around you, in a place there are no children, and the nuns even tell you there have bever been any children period? So yes. Rightly hold onto that sanity pal. Because it can only get worse from here.

I mean of course it can, and will.

In fact it DOES!

I mean hello, found footage.

The film does not mess around with what it is, or play at anything else. It front and center wants you to know what’s happening and to be expected. It’s actually a bit of fun in the movie because it adds and helps develop the chatacter of both priest. Where you have the young eager priest ready to believe a miracle being witnessed and wanting to be there for it, and an older traveled priest who knows every miracle he’s ever seen has been man made and a trick. They’ve grown skeptical, and not really anti church, but very much grown to enjoy a bit of rebellion against it, when it matters. He’s still a man of order, but less so a spiritual man and more a man of reality and facts.

The fact the younger priest captured the childrens laughter their first night is used in the film thankfully, it’s nice because a lot of the time in these films, people never bring it up because those scares are more meant for ‘us’ and the idea the footage was never properly edited but simply found, explaining why they never saw things or went back to go over them. Instead the priest plays back the recording he took of the childrens laughter from his room at 3am. He wanted to play it for the priest so he could try to convince him perhaps there IS something going on there.

But Father Riley isn’t new to this. You can clearly make out that the sounds you hear are children, and when Father Thornton prompts him wanting him to say ‘yes I hear children’, he instead answers with trained skepticism “I heard, something, yes.”, his explanation? Likely some of the bad girls there up to devilry versus children that do not exist and have never existed there. It’s the closest he’s going to get out of Father Riley so he lets it go unfortunately and the two continue with their second day of waiting for a miracle.

Which see’s Riley taking samples from around the eyes of the virgin Mary statue, collecting as many samples as he can to test them and see if there are traced behind the eye that could show the blood they claimed she cried can from a hidden device within the statue. They just need to gather the samples and test them for that.

Of course any attempt at sleeping this night will be impossible for Father Thornton. Because as the second night comes to a close. Father Thornton hears a who.

Yes I had to set that pun up. Bite me.

What we get, is the priest recording an artsy fartsy show of the stairwell below him, but something catches his eye. It’s a little girl in a simple dress, playing with a puppet and lazily reciting something, about a priest, and grabbing him by his leg. Father Thornton goes down stairs quickly to investigate, only to find the puppet left on the floor and no sign of the girl he’d seen playing. However he does ‘hear’ her, as he is startled by a very clear spoken girls voice telling him “They are going to kill you.” He turns around to spot the figure standing where he had been earlier with his camera. He immediately retreats back to his room and tells the camera he cant sleep as he’s afraid of seeing that girls creeping figure again and hearing her voice. So, of course this means she’s going to be back and singing at full capacity for him again the following night. Right?

Oh absolutely. I love it, the film wants to freak us out, it knows it has a tight running time, and it absolutely is making perfect use of it. I mean it’s worth noting that we are only 20 minutes into this right now so. Buckle up.

As the next night approaches, the priest is once again plagued with voices. This time however. It isn’t laughter. But the reciting of what the girl with the puppet had sang the previous night, only this time much clearer, and creepier.

Old Father long-legs can’t say his prayers

Take him by the left leg and throw him down the stairs.

Once he’s at the bottom..

Unfortunately we don’t learn what happens to father long legs, because Thornton has opened his door to peek out, only to find no one there. Only the sound of children giggling and running. But none can be seen. When he hears a child laugh from within his room. He smartly backs the hell up, closes the door and puts the camera down. Not out of fear but, to check under his bed. Wise man.

But that only serves to make sure if he wasn’t already turtle heading now, he should be full on crapping himself shortly. There is no one under his bed. Thankfully. There is however, the puppet the girl had been playing with. Which we seem him reach out to try and grab onto. As possible proof of what he’s seeing. Only he isn’t able to. NO a hand doesn’t reach out to take it before him. No. Instead we hear a girls voice very clearly, and scarily close to him say ‘Father?” it prompts him to scurry off and I imagine thoroughly filling his pants. He’s had enough of this and while leaving his camera on the floor we see him quickly make his way out the door and to the hallway. He’s done with this shit, and he’s headed to Father Riley. We hear the two priest chatting as he wakes him up, and as the two talk. We also see what appears to be two very real child sized feet walk past the camera.

Does Father Riley believe him? Of course not. His first three questions when being woke and told there are children there? Are classic, and relatable.

Are you drunk?

Have you been drinking the communal wine?

Were you dreaming?

Naturally this is upsetting to father Thornton, and he returns to his room. To clean his pants and try to get some sleep. But he is not going to let this go. The man has legitimate reason to question why, the man that should be his ally and a believer of the faith, isn’t willing to entertain even mildly what he’s experiences as being possible.

I really like it, and the scene that follows the next day. Mostly because the actors they hired are great together, they actually do feel like priest of the era, and Father Riley carries a sort of…I want to say Damien Karras vibe and overall world view, that’s very believable, and a bit sad.

So naturally when morning comes and its time for another round of test on the statue, Father Thornton is going to get himself a couple answers out of his priestly friend and try to understand why he’s even a priest if he’s willing to dismiss any and seemingly all possibilities of not just miracles, but also spiritual. The man is frustrated, I mean three nights of being woke up to some ghostly kid stuff is definitely something you want to complain about, and the one person you can and do complain about it to, treating it the same way your parents do when you tell them you are suffering depression, so they tell you to go outside more.

He flat out ask the priest why he even became a priest if he’s so cynical, to a point he almost doubts the man had faith what so ever.

“You want to know why I became a priest? I became a priest because I wanted to become a good man, I wanted to get closer to God. But that’s not what happened. Take a look around you. Do you think God is here in this place? This place disgust me. The people that run this place, disgust me. The Bishop who sent us here, the Vatican itself with its costume and theater, and luxury. Built on the back of normal people. That nun was right about the church, and its dirty little secrets. And I’m sick of it. Yes I believe in god, or try to anyway. But doing this kind of work doesn’t bring you closer to god, working in places like this. For these girls, this place must be a living hell.”

It's a sincere moment and you can see in his eyes that it pains him to admit it allowed, but as well delivered as it was. It’s cut short because we have a movie to get back to! Which means. Get ready to go off roading a bit.

Just as the priest is speaking, Father Thornton stops him and points to the statue. It’s begun streaming tears of blood. But that’s hardly all. Off in the distance we hear women begin to cry and scream out. A nun burst into the room and tells the two priest the statue is bleeding. Well no shit lady they saw it happen!

But she doesn’t mean their statue. She means ALL the statues of the virgin Mary. It’s genuinely creepy and well played out, and shot. We get a long corridor shot of the statues, all trickling blood, bowls being placed under them to collect the spilt blood even. Father Riley now goes to work and begins collecting samples from each of the statues. Testing the blood immediately.

What he finds is not only did the statues all carry the same blood type. Type O Negative. But the woman who’s blood it came from, is also pregnant.

Now we’re getting somewhere!

So with that Father Riley orders all the pregnant women to be rounded up and tested immediately. Which turns out to be 8 of the women currently residing there. And of those women? None of them are type O negative. So Riley is moving things up a notch. One crying statue is a thing unto itself to be solved with do course. But several crying blood? That’s call for extreme measures! With that, Father Riley is kicking things into overdrive and he demands all the nuns, and women be tested. Including the mother superior, and reverend mother. If they don’t like it, they can take it up with God. Because father Riley wants blood! Samples. He wants samples of blood….

But once again, his results meet a dead end. At least on the testing spectrum. It DOES however lead them into finding something a bit surprising. One of the sisters they need to test, confesses not to her blood coming from the statue, or knowing who’s blood. But confesses to being the anonymous person who wrote the Bishop about the bleeding statue in the first place.

She tells them how they were strictly forbidden by the reverend mother, from talking about the statue. They were to never speak of it and ignore it. But this none felt she had to do something. Because she felt the calling to become a nun, she felt the virgin Mary had called upon her to do so in fact. So when the same person you believe pushed and wanted you to become a nun, decides to perform a miracle in your presence. Well you gotta go with your gut. Though she seems now to have deeply regretted that. In a very ominous and creepy conversation. She tells both priest that this building they all live in, is full of evil. Both ancient and dark. She trails off and begins worrying the priest. As she ask them about sinning, but how sometimes you can do bad thing but for good, and creepier still is her reciting a passage about, if your eyes see something that’s offended, plucking them out. SO I guess we have THAT possibility to look forward to.

No I did not set up that pun, and your welcome.

She doesn’t want to say much more than she has. And now she believes she’s upset the virgin Mary, Perhaps she wasn’t supposed to talk about the miracle at all, she won’t explain herself but. She just feels perhaps she has somehow managed to do so and upset the saintly spirit that she felt called her to be a nun in the first place. So she parts the priest with just one last nugget of intel. Possibly the darkest secret of that home. She tells the priest that, there is a girl. A pregnant girl. Being locked and kept away from everyone, in the basement. They aren’t supposed to talk about her or to her. No Mention what so ever. Well with that, it is time for Father Riley to continue kicking down doors and searching for answers. So it’s time for us, to visit the Reverend Mother, and demand she introduce us all, to Kathleen O’Brien.

To say the reverend mother is happy about being told to show the priest the basement. Is a creepy understatement. Does she hide the fact they have a woman in the basement? No. Instead, she admits there are a lot of women down in the basement. The basement is where they keep the more, disturbed, and sick women. Which is why Kathleen O’Brien was placed there.

Father Riley wants to be taken there now, he doesn’t care the time of night he needs to see that girl now and especially before anyone has time to possibly hide her or anything else. He flat out threatens the reverend mother in telling her they’ll break down the doors themselves if they have to, just to get down there and see that girl and the other women.

Upon hearing that, the reverend mother gives a creepy grin and says with a chuckle “You’ll regret that sharp and quick. You are not prepared for this, Father Riley, but if you want to see. I will show you.”

It’s almost a bit like Clarice making her way down the stone corridor to Lector. There are women kept behind enforced locked doors. Some of whom call out to the priest for help, and others screaming/laughing. The only silent one, is the one they are going to visit. As they enter the room, it’s a very barren room, no bed, a small bowl of ‘food’, and chained to the wall is a pregnant young girl. Covered in scratches and bits of dried blood.

After briefly looking over the shaking girl, Father Riley in a fury turns around back to the reverend mother and begins giving out orders. He demands the girl be cleaned up and given proper medical attention. He wants her fed proper food and unchained immediately. Th reverend mother hearing this bites back her tongue and does as he instructs. It’s actually well done and adds to the creepy tension when she instructs one of the nuns to unchain the girl. The nun immediately pleads with her not to do so, but she tells her to do it. So the woman reluctantly does.

As Kathleen is set free and helped to her feet. The girl shakily stands, like a cowering animal. For a moment with how the camera is focused, and I think very intentionally. You can’t tell if her eyes are closed or…if they turned suddenly white. But it’s an eerie effect and when her eyes are once more visible, she suddenly turns and attacks the nun that unchained her. Biting at the womans face and drawing blood. There’s a huge panic, and immediately the girl is put back into her cell. All the while, Reverend mother can be heard telling the priest “Now you see why we have her locked up in there?!”

Thomas still commands that someone is to clean the girl and once she is secured, he’ll come back down and begin interviewing her.

It’s a very tense scene and anyone who’s seen even a handful of horror films, can see where this is going now. Father Thornton is recording the interview as Father Riley talks to the girl and the reverend mother stands by.

The girl pleads with the priest, not knowing why she was placed there, claiming she didn’t do anything horrible. Anything they’d said she did, it was not her. But the reverend mother insist she is a danger to herself and others. Hearing this the girl again pleads to Riley and begs him to listen. Which he would if not for the fact that she. Well. Starts speaking in ancient Greek.

Which…she does not know how to speak, yet now here she is speaking it perfectly.

Odder still is that she is asked if knew what she was saying, and she says. Yes she does. But she doesn’t know how she knows it. Do they ask her what she said? No. It might’ve been nice to know.

MAYBE!!

The only one who seems to have any idea on the matter. Is the mother superior. And her idea falls squarely on, you guessed it. “She knows because she is the Devil.”

Well that goes over about as well as you can imagine. Father Riley immediately dismisses this and ask the girl to pray with him. Which the reverend mother warns him, “She won’t pray”

And surely enough just as the priest begins, one of the nuns snarls out and a loud piercing scream fills the room. It’s pretty horrific and a fairly well done scare. I mean anyone can do a good scream, but the well done creepy part isn’t the scream, so much as the fact the nun is on the ground contorting herself in an inhuman way that absolutely should’ve destroyed her body. Even when they manage to stop her, Kathleen immediately begins pleading once more that it wasn’t her, it isn’t her. All while the reverend mother continues her impression of Ricky from The Trailer Park Boys “I’m not the kind to say I toad a so but. I fuckin toad a so.”

Does any of this make Father Riley believe she needs an exorcism? He believes she needs a doctor.

As for Thornton? That man, once he stopped his reciting the lines from The Wickerman “Oh god, oh good god, or Jesus!”, he ask god to pray for them, turning to John and ask him if it could be her blood that came from the statues. But Thomas doubts that…heh. If you got that, you get it.

But no. Thomas believes she couldn’t have done that by herself. She would’ve needed help. Naturally John in his very open mindedness ask if that help could be ooooh…the DEVIL?!

Maybe I dunno. Or it could possibly be whoever the hell held Kathleens hand under the bed during the entire scary spinning nun trick. WHO KNOWS?!

I just really dig the vibe of the film. I like the interactions between the priest and their discussions on faith, evil, and miracles. It feels very real, and it never over reaches. It could’ve easily gone over board when Thomas and John are talking about the girl and what they witnessed. Instead it plays very much to what sounds like. Well the character. As john ask Thomas if the girl could be evil, Thomas doesn’t hold back, “No more evil than you or I. Evil is in all of us now. She’s just an ordinary girl. Evil is all around us John, evil is in each of us. The Devil doesn’t have to hide in a pregnant young girl. He roams freely among us”

That, unfortunately is about to become the last ‘peaceful’ moment of the night for the two priest. Just like every night before, and around the same time as I usually go to sleep every night it seems.

So as it is custom every night in this place of holy laundry. There are once again children at play and tormenting poor Father Thornton. Why don’t they pick on Father Riley? Well my guess is because he’s an old grumpy priest and he’d be more likely to scold the spirits than he would to go chasing after them. It’s a legitimate guess.

But even poor grumpy Riley is not having a fun time of it either. But for different reasons. As Father Thornton is shaking and shitting himself. He blast a nuclear wave of scared shitless through his striped pajama bottoms as his mini statue of the virgin Mary suddenly burst. No sooner does that happen, he hears pounding on his door. As the slime of enchilada dinner slaps between his cheeks while rushing to the door. He finds his priestly friend, also seemingly in a state of shock. He tells him to come with him and makes no comment on the foul evil odor following them from the nethers of the poor scared priest.

Am I embellishing, or is it true? Who can say. But we all know. We know.

ANY way…

It appears that every statue of the virgin Mary is bursting suddenly. They’re all tipping over, or exploding somehow. The two priest are on an adventure to find the source. But instead. They find, well a familiar site for poor Father Thornton. A child. Who vanishes and appears at will. More scarily though and more to the point. They stumble across a room. A very dark and evil room. SO dark and evil, that an Elf might say ‘This place is so evil, even fire has no warmth”

If you got that reference, I pray for you, and you have my condolences for having say through that show.

Moving along. The two priest have stumbled upon a room of black mass. A satanic Netflix and chill room where bad naughty people do bad naughty things. There’s an altar, writing scribbled on the walls and ceiling. The place is a testament to evil, by evil. For evil.

So why not go pounding on the reverend Mothers door at three in the morning!

Father Riley with the power of zero shits given, and none offered. Pounds on her door like a red headed child blaspheming the lords name. She comes out fully dressed, which the priest has to point out as being odd. Until she glares at him and tells him she’s not going to answer her door at three in the morning with two male priest there in her night shirt. Fair enough. As soon as she sees the state of the statues, she ask them just what the sam hell is going on here and what did they do to her statues.

Nobody wants to fit that bill so the priest tell her there’s no time to explain woman! You got evil in your house. EEEEVVIILL!!!

So they take off for the room of evil and kill, only to find. It’s perfectly normal. Not one hint of evil anywhere or on anything. Which baffles the priests and upsets the reverend mother as she carries a look of “I was dragged out of bed, for this?”

As the grumpy butt nun departs, the two priest try to figure out just what happened and how. But neither of them has any answers.  But they aren’t given much time to ponder this, as they hear screams suddenly. Not haunted screams or demonic screams. But a woman in pain. Riley hearing it immediately worries it’s Kathleen. So the two take off for the basement and her room. As Father Riley throws the door open we see Kathleen is cutting at her belly, trying to cut the baby out of herself. Father Riley rushes into the room, and suddenly the door slams shut. Thornton throws himself at the door pounding on it and trying to open the door. Only to find it impossible. But moments later Riley pops his head through the small viewing slit of the door and screams at John to get help.

Thankfully, for now. Kathleen is alright. Or as alright as she can be. A doctor has come down to look at her and care for her wounds. We see Riley and the doctor having a discussion together before noting the camera and turning to now let the doctor speak in front of the camera. Father Riley asking him to please repeat for the camera what he told him.

We learn from this very concerned, and confused doctor that. Kathleen is fine, her wounds will heal and the child is very healthy. We also learn that indeed Kathleen’s blood type is a very rare type O negative. What’s more, is after examining her. He discovers that, though she is pregnant, she is also…intact. Meaning yep. She’s a virgin. Carrying a child.

Needless to say that is enough for Thomas to consider questioning things.

Well, that is at least until he meets with Kathleen again after the doctor leaves and she’s now in a proper bed. They talk together for a while and, within moments, we get further confirmation that shit’s getting real, and what the hell even is reality even more.

Kathleen begins to go rigid and arches nearly off the bed. Items fly off from their tables and within moments, Kathleen begins hovering off of the bed and in mid air in front of the two priest. Neither man knows just what the hell to do. But thankfully Father Thornton wore his brown pants for this meeting. The only thing the two priest can think to do, is immediately begin reciting scripture together. Which seems to have some effect, even if small. It at least puts Kathleen back down on the bed.

It's time for the two men to consider very heavily the real possibility that she is indeed, afterall possessed. Which even then. Even after that. Father Riley is still not that convinced. But you can see written across his face that It’s less about not believing in the devil. It’s more to do with not wanting to accept that true evil like that can possibly, truly exist. It’s another great setup scare and show of restraint. Which I do give this film credit for.

Normally with these type of films, you begin the scares small and go bigger, grander the closer toward the end you get. The early Paranormal Activity films are huge examples of this. They all carry small growing jumps scares, one BIG scare, and then things go to hell. But those films and others, tend to go over board. Because they want the films to stand out. It just ruins the mood most the time and pulls you out of the story. Thankfully that is not the case here. They’ve built up to this scare. The lights flicker on and off. We see the crosses covering the wall suddenly turned upside down, swinging. Kathleen is no longer visible on the bed. The next time we see her is when the lights flash, and she’s squatting on the ground. Eyes pale white and a large unnatural smile on her face. She lunges at Father Thornton and the camera cuts out.

When next we return, we find the two priest managed to subdue her and she is now relaxed, and chained to the bed.

What follows is another lengthy scene of great dialog. Again I really give praise to the film for that. It feels genuine and I like the character work. Father Riley tells John that he can speak Greek, and he knows what she said a few nights ago. She told him “You were born here.” Which he admits, could very well be true. He tells all of us that he was born in a house like this for wayward women, and he was adopted. So it could be he came from this place directly. He just hadn’t had the time to check the church’s records to know if that were the case. She begins talking again to the two men. This time alternating between Greek and English. “The beasts, below us in hell. I am in limbo. So are you. The children, heaven is above. But they are in hell with the beasts…Down there. In some ways limbo is worse. The babies have no mothers, so I am their mother. They are suffering for the sins of others.”

Thomas ask her what babies she means and all she tells him simply is, the dead babies.

And with that an angry Father Riley is off and in full investigation mode. He makes way into the reverend mothers office and confronts her with his findings. He has pulled every adoption record in the past few years from this building, and he called to confirm the adoptions. Only to be told there were none. All records on file in that house are falsified. Which she admits too, she won’t hide that fact. But she also won’t say they killed those children delivered from those girls. She does however confront the priest with the truth. She sold the children. They all found homes yes, but never through proper adoption homes. She sold them to families and did so to support and keep their home running. What the church gives them is barely enough, and with all the women they have to feed and care for. They needed the money to do so. So, she sold the children. She also tells him the Bishop is well aware of it and just simply. Doesn’t discuss it. All of this of course just further scrambles what’s left of the fathers good belief in what little there was for the church and how it works, versus how it ‘should’ run.

Just then though, its time to set things into hyper gear. A nun rushes into the room and informs them that Kathleen is going into labor. Riley immediately states they need to call back the doctor. But the reverend mother will not have it. “She’ll be well done with the labor once he arrives, it’ll take too long.” But the father insist, informing the reverend mother that the doctor told him she would likely not survive the child birth outside of a hospital. Without skipping a beat the reverend mother coldly stares back and snaps at him “Then that will be the end of all our troubles, won’t it?”

It's a sad scene that plays out. As the two priest are asked to leave the room Kathleen is chained to on the bed, and the nuns work to deliver the baby. Kathleen is on the bed in obvious pain, the reverend mother is telling her “Open your legs girl, you’ve done it often enough before.” If that wasn’t enough, mixed in wit Kathleen screaming and the sound of flesh being cut, the nun stating she’s going to cut the ligament. We hear reverend mother tell her “Think of our Lord, feeling the thorns. The precious blood. The nails. Do you not know that suffering is His gift to us women? Show some gratitude.” And with that, to ‘help’ Kathleen with the delivery..or whatever they’re doing. The mother begins singing for us, as soon all the nuns do. Because how else better to comfort a woman dying in child birth being cut into with nothing to numb the paine.

By the blood that flowed from thee

In thy bitter agony

By the scourge so meekly borne

By thy purple robe of scorn

By the thorns that crowned thy head

By thy scepter of a reed

By thy footsteps faint and slow

Weighted beneath thy cross of woe

By the nails and painted spear

By thy peoples cruel jeer

And with that, the camera cuts.

It’s really unsettling and I love how it was handled, and filmed. We barely see what the nuns are doing as the camera is solely focused on Kathleens face and chained arms where Thornton left the camera at her bed side. But the sounds, and at some point a large bloodied cloth with, something. We can tell all of it is just horrible. And Kathleen has gone from screaming pain, to suffering, and finally then. Dying.

It’s a close favorite of mine from this film. Only surpassed by one other, again from the two priest, this one took place before the delivery and confronting the reverend mother. John was going over all that is needed to confirm an exorcism is the only solution, and the proof that someone could be possessed. Every criteria has been met, and he is more sure than ever that this is their only course of action. Father Riley hears this and doesn’t want to admit he’s right. He still tries to write it off. Until he is left to accept the truth. That this girl could indeed actually be possessed, which means they would have to do something.

In that moment, the two priest could begin to ready themselves, and they could dig deep and find the strength of faith they needed, that Riley was missing to confront this evil and perform the exorcism.

Instead it’s a very real moment for Father Riley as he admits to Thornton, he doesn’t feel whatever it is they will do, will work. Not because he doesn’t believe in the devil. Or that it would save the girls life. He does. He accepts this hard truth. He just feels it will fail. Because he doesn’t have the strength of faith. He feels like the wrong man to be tasked with this. And Father Thornton knows that, he agrees compassionately as the priest begins a slow breakdown under the realization, he is having his faith tested, he has been shown what he’d always believed only existed in the actions of mankind, and now that he’s been shown it is real. He isn’t strong enough to face it and fight it.

I was going to discuss the scene at the end of the review, but really it’s difficult because it really is just a very well acted and felt scene. Again all of the priest scenes together are very well done and highly believable. Hats off to the writers. Seriously.

But now, with Kathleen dead, they have no need of an exorcism.

How do they learn she died? Did the reverend mother tell them? That would’ve been nice. Instead, they learn in absolutely a creepy as hell way.

As the two sit in silence, realizing the doctor will not make it in time to help the girl. They sit on a stairway, listening to the storm outside. When the silence is broken suddenly by a baby crying, a newborn. The two men stand up and head toward a room at the end of a hall. The door is lit up from the other side and as the two men approach. Small childrens hands begin to reach and flatten against the door. One after the other. The two priest throw open the door. Finding the room empty of children. All that sits there, is a large table, and Kathleen’s body, wrapped in white, with two gold coins on her eyes. Father Riley mourns for her and rest a hand on her shoulder. As he does, little tear streaks of blood leave her eyes under the coins, and once again they hear the sounds of a child crying.

With that the two men are once again off running through the large building. They run through the dark building and as we approach the final 19 minutes of the film. This of course means. It’s time for shit to get turned up to 11. And oh boy does it.

Drapes begin to paint themselves suddenly with bloody childrens hand prints. The priest begin chasing after small children appearing just out of site at doorways and halls. One of which even calls out to father Thornton and tells him “They’re going to kill you.” The priest runs off and rejoins father Riley as they follow the sound of the babies crying. Leading them to of all places. The black mass room.

Where waiting for them, is no child. But instead a dead nun. Her eyes bleeding. Father Riley stops by the body and gives her the last rites. The two find a small opening in the wall and crawl through.

Now, you may wonder. Possibly. Or not. But who asked.

Why in the hell would the priest continue to carry and lug around the huge ass camera?

That answer is given in the film and it makes sense, thankfully. The priest took the camera with them as it has a built in light source, and they use it as their only flashlight to get through the house and now, into a dug out series of underground catacombs. But the light is dying out. Thankfully Father Riley like most priest, adopted a smoking habit, so he carries a lighter with him.

What waits in the tunnels under the building? Bones of dead children, of varying ages. Dirty broken children’s toys. Greek whispers and of course. The cries of a new born baby. It only gets worse as they find not all the remains are skeletal. There are some still, rotting corpses. Floating in small puddles of collected water.

It’s now at this point. The film circles back to the first clip we saw at the very beginning of the film. Concerning a screaming Father Thornton as he is lost in the catacombs and cries out to Father Riley. Only to find himself speared by a nun. Eyes blood streaked as the other one they found dead. Through the chaos we can make out that the nun tackling him began clawing and biting at his neck, and sadly poor Father John Thornton gags, choking on his own blood. His friend Father Riley finds him, only just in time to deliver the last rites to him as well.  As he lay dying with his hand held in Father Riley’s his last words to the priest are gurgled out “You have to hope…that something’s…” and with that, he passes.

Father Thomas picks up the camera and takes it with him, intent on doing whatever he can in a dire situation. Well aware that he will not make it out of this. As his recently deceased friend had told him he feared they would not.

So Thomas sits the camera down, lights some candles with his lighter, and makes a recording.

“To whoever might find this, this is the last confession of Thomas Riley. A person or…bless me, father. Bless me God…for I have sinned. I have caused a good man, Father Jogn Thornton, to lose his life. I allowed my stubbornness to blind me. The statues bleeding, the spirits of the dead children, they were signs of the evil in this house. I don’t want to think  of what happened to these children. But God…God in heaven. Help me save this one child, Kathleen’s child. Your child. So I can make amends for my sins. If I were born here…I can die here. God, be with me now.”

With that, a priest who had turned cynical, finds his faith and moves through the catacombs. Reciting and calling out to god as he moves to carry his mission. Taking the camera with him. We see him pass a room of chanting nuns, all in unison chanting over and over. None of them giving care to him. He recites the holy word louder and louder until their voices are buried by his. He finally finds his way to a room marked in skulls and satanic symbols, with a red baby blanket sitting at its center, wrapped around the form of a child. He makes his way intent on saving the baby and rushes to grab at the blanket.

Only to find it empty. Confused what happened, why It was like that and now where the baby could be. He turns to leave the room. Running directly into the Reverend Mother, her forehead scraped with bloody scratches, eyes pale white. She stares at the priest and says “Welcome home. Thomas” and with that we hear the sound of a blade piercing Thomas Riley and the camera falls, along with his body to the floor. We hear in the distant a baby quietly crying and then a nun softly whispering, hush child. And with that, our movie comes to its end.

I mean….we knew things would not go well for these two men. Like I said in the first review, they rarely ever turn out well with ANY survivors. It’s always “and they died” or “They are totes missing, yolo”

It’s just well executed and acted enough, you really do in the end root for Father Riley. The strength he finds in himself, his sheer determination to just rush through and make his last great attempt to do some good. I mean…you want to see him succeed. You really want to see him make it or at the least save the child THEN die. But no. Evil has won that night.

And again, if it weren’t so well done, you wouldn’t had cared for them as much, but I feel we do. At least I did.

This was a really good find honestly. Though it’s far from perfect or following an ideal found footage film. It’s very much a horror film done in the style of found footage.

By that I mean, well.

The editing. There were scenes through out that had editing and voice over. The early interview with the girl cleaning the floor, played as audio over video shots showing the women using the various laundry machines and pressing, cleaning the sheets. Then again with the priest discussing their faith and Kathleen. The essence of evil in the world. It comes up a few times, and Seeing as their sole purpose being there was simply to document their findings. It doesn’t make sense that Thornton would decide he's going to bring along editing gear and begin splicing together an art piece to present to a bishop on whether or not a statue was really bleeding.

I mean if you want that, hire Stanley Kubrick to shoot your findings.

Same with the music.

I love the music, it’s perfectly minimalistic and eerie. It creates tension and builds a solid atmosphere. Just again however. It’s a horror film soundtrack. It’s not entirely uncommon in found footage films. But by and large they go without a soundtrack. It adds to the realism of the thing, which is sort of the point. Telling a good ghost story without heavy effects or tools. Just your imagination.

The music works, it really does. But yeah you absolutely are reminded this is a horror film. Every time. But, to the filmmakers credit. It’s not used heavily enough that it becomes a burden, or gets in the way of the story.

Like hearing it doesn’t make you sigh, or feel like you are watching a film. It only perks up and presents itself when its really needed.

The effects in this film are correctly minimal and well shot. They restrained themselves and I can honestly say the only instance where they could’ve REALLY gone over board but didn’t, was with the Nun’s contorting body. It was creepily done, and I’d believe a contortionist was hired, versus cgi. But I could be mistaken. Which means the effect was pulled off well. It wasn’t lingered on for too long, and it was just enough to get its image into your mind. Same with the ghost children and the demonic faces with blank white eyes. They were never there but for a few moments. Never out staying their welcome.

I know I keep bringing it up. But damnit man! It needs to be rightfully praised. The acting in this was top notch.

A lot of the character moments, the discussions and how they came about, played out. It reminded me of both The book and extended cut of The Exorcist. A lot of the scenes added back were character scenes and speeches between the two priest between breaks in the exorcism, and with Damien and his friend father Dire. A lot of those chats with the characters, both in the book and film were well done and did a lot to build the relationship between the characters, show the contrast between them, and give us insight into them and their struggles. Beliefs. Honestly some of the talks between Damien and Merrin are some of the best dialog I’ve seen in a lot of films. They are short lived, but so well done.

This film gave similar vibes and struck close chords. You had an inkling where the story would go, or could. And I loved that. You knew at one point possession was coming into play. But where the story ultimately ended up heading. The turns it took. They were well paced, unforced, and it all naturally fell into place.

It’s like comparing this to the last film The Monster Project. The film had things happen because the film needed it to happen, so things got pushed a certain way, and it was less than subtle in its actions, but it was strong when left on its own. This film managed that perfect balance, maintaining what the movie needed to happen, and letting it happen. Which again, given the films run time, being shorter than the first two films? That says a lot. A shorter run time, but still managing to come off unrushed, well paced and executed.

Hats off to the cast and filmmakers involved, honestly they deserve it.

It was hard reviewing at first because you just get pulled into it and stopping to write then starting back up again? Its an effort you just want to skip out on because damn. Just watch it. Which you should have before this. Unless you LIKE having it all spoiled for you. Which I can get. But I’ll still shame you for. And if you rather just read about a film you’d rather not see, then that’s what I’m here for.

It’s no surprise the acting was  as good as it was. The main cast, Lalor Roddy(Father Thomas) Ciaran Flynn(Father John) and Helena Bereen(Mother Superior/Reverend Mother) All of them have a history in film and television, and are still working today. However unfortunately the director Aislinn Clarke, has not directed much since this film, and that’s a real shame. They still write, thankfully. But it’s surprising they had not directed more projects. She also served as one of three writers on the film, and the body of work for the other writers on the film, Michael B. Jackson and Martin Brennan is also short. We can just say that, when you reach a perfectly made film, you can safely walk away after that gift to the world.

Is it my favorite found footage film? Hmmm, it’s up there. Easily within the top 5. It’s certainly worthy of a few rewatches and I can attest to that as I watched it several times while reviewing it. Absolutely check it out and rent it, buy it. Show support for it.

To take what is found footage bread and butter playground of demons and possession, and do it in a way that’s interesting, entertaining, and keeps you guessing. It’s worthwhile.

So until tomorrow. Any time you see a statue bleeding, from any orifice. Just walk away. Don’t even take a photo with your camera. Leave with the memory of what you saw. Don’t stop at the gift shop. Just get