A brief evaluation by Doug beaumont, author of The Message Behind the Movie (Moody Press, 2009).

The story is a chronicling of the demonic attacks on a woman and her boyfriend in a suburban home in 2006. What begins as a series of frightening yet largely benign ghostly activity begins to get more serious as the couple attempt to capture footage of the "ghost" on camera. As things go from bad to worse it becomes clear that it is a case of evil spiritual activity.

Rated R for language. The profanity is casual in most instances and in the more intense scenes it is completely understandable! The film has very little violence (but what is there is rather shocking). There is no [clear] gore, no nudity, and no sexual activity. The movie is a personal documentary-style film that is shot entirely from the perspective of the video camera the boyfriend sets up. It is therefore very true-to-life.

The point of the movie is clear: don't mess around with demons. This is the constant problem of the film and causes much friction between the boyfriend (who just wants to kick some butt) and his girlfriend who respects what is happening but doesn't know what to do about it. There was also a subtle sub-text of anti-naturalism in the way the boyfriend approaches the issue. His reliance throughout the film on research and empirical tests are ridiculed by the girlfriend and are clearly shown to be of no avail. This is a good message as well - the world is not, despite our many successes, under our total control (much less available to scientific understanding).

While the film sends a good message, this is a case where background can be as or more important than the overt message. American Christians have for some time now bought into occult rather than biblical ideas concerning the demonic, and this film may very well reinforce that situation. Very often in movies, demonic issues are explained in non-biblical ways which are simply accepted without much consideration, even by bible-believing Christians.

The Bible is largely silent on issues of cause and effect when it comes to demonization and exorcism. The lack of drama in biblical accounts does not make for good horror, and so it is often supplanted by occultic teachings. In this film there is almost no recourse to biblical teachings (which I think is part of the problem!). Rather, a psychic is consulted who basically can't do anything about their problem. His advice is to consult a "demonologist" (who is never brought in). So, while demons need to be taken seriously (and this is the main point), we need to be careful not to think we are being informed about the spirit world by occultic sources even if they do increase the "cool factor" (as the boyfriend might say).

I thought it was a very good movie, one of the few films I've seen that I found genuinely frightening.  I agree that the lack of discussion or even consideration of Christian theology concerning demons did seem a little strange, I would expect many people to request a priest to perform an exorcism in a situation like that in the film, but the only people they consult are "psychic."

This is a very well done film and is truly scary, but don't let the lack of violence or sex fool you, you do NOT want a younger viewer to see this film, it will scare the pants off of them.  I'm 23 and I saw it with my room mate and his girlfriend, she needed to sleep with the lights on after we saw it and I didn't blame her.  I would highly recommend the film, but without giving too much away I'll simply say, don't see it unless you feel like a good fright