Not much love knocking about for this extensively re-imagined effort that started out life as much longer, scarier and with a different name. The Devil's Light didn't seem to cut it for Lionsgate who gave the makers short shift, akin to saying 'come back when you've done it again and do it properly next time,' whilst politely patting them on the head and kicking them into the street.
And so dutifully the writers came back with Prey For The Devil instead, which is what we see today, a much more filtered, on message, story about the trials of a young, pretty nun with a shady past and her efforts to become the first female Exorcist, to some cost.
Given the apparent derision at this effort, we can only imagine what the original project offered. Those that I have spoken to that saw that first iteration appear to disagree, however, instead calling it a perfectly acceptable paranormal story with the addition of at least one more major character, a little more gruesome and not designed for the audience that Lionsgate were clearly going after.
So presumably toned down for a more malleable rating, Lionsgate could then pitch this at the teen audience they were keen on parting from their pocket money. Fair enough, but my die-hard horror peers have seen this many times before and it really does little to raise an eyebrow in its current form.
The performances are fine, though predictably unchallenging and far from nuanced. The plot is about as obvious as it needs to be to maintain the concentration levels from children who always have their mobile phone to look at.
This could have been much, much worse. Not a ringing endorsement, I'll admit, but as this type of thing goes, it's on a hiding to nothing for originality and there is so much of it out there that's better or just as good, you wouldn't be surprised if this disappeared down a big hole, only appearing intermittently on your local cable providers Halloween roster in about a decade.