Deconstruction of The Devil Inside - Possession Editing

'The Devil Inside' is a documentary-style film made in 2012 following a woman who wants to find out about her mother, who murdered 3 people, after being possessed by a demon. Naturally, the film involves scenes of possession which helps us with inspiration and ideas for editing technique.

Firstly, there is use of special effects in this film as they make the body twist and contort in ways that appear unnatural and therefore make it seem as though the character is possessed. This is quite common and is expected when watching a possession film. There is also the use of non-diegetic sound at this point (cracking of bones) to further creep the audience out and take it a step further.

 During this sequence there are straight-cut edits to jump between different points of view, adding to the chaos of the sequence. It makes the audience feel disorientated and anxious as the cuts are fast and jumpy.

 Again, special effects are used in this film, in the picture it is clear that the body has risen in the air in an unnatural manner, as if she is possessed. This adds an element of supernatural to the film and creates an illusion of possession.

 Sometimes the film is edited to distort the image, like in this example. It is black and white and seems to be malfunctioning. This is common in supernatural films as it is believed that demons/spirits interfere with camera equipment. This adds to the realism of the film and makes the character seem demented and twisted.

 In this image the character looks even more crazed and demented as her teeth are distorted and made to look like sharp fang-like teeth, through manipulating the image in post-production. For the audience this adds to the idea of the possession and has connotations of the devil and evil in general.
As well as this, they have used a professional looking font to make it look like a real tape, adding to the realism of the sequence. Also, if it looks real then this is more likely to scare the audience.

Also, as this is a documentary-style film they have clips from supposed real life exorcisms. Here, it is the camera man filming a clip being shown to some of the characters. The clip is in night-vision and very grainy. This adds to the realism of the clip and tries to make it look authentic to go with the documentary-style. It also means that the audience can't see what is going on very well, meaning there is a build up of tension and fear as they don't know what is coming.

Evaluation
For our own possession, I feel we should use visual elements as well as sound elements to make it as scary as possible. Using filters and blurriness could be good as it would be easier to do on an editing software than acting. Also, the cracking of bones could be easy to recreate as we could use a whole host of objects, like twigs, to crack and it would make it seem like the bones were bending unnaturally.