The Devil Inside opened in January to terrible reviews and a lot of backlash about its abrupt and unsatisfying ending. The film was released on DVD last week, and the post-release viral campaign continued. Get the details after the break.
The Devil Inside took the odd route of creating an online viral that the audience only knows about AFTER seeing the film. The Rossi Files follows the possessed Rossi family that is featured in the mockumentary. Now the film goes even more meta, as we get a video about a reporter who disappears during an event for the film’s May 15th DVD release.
The Linda Vista Community Hospital in Los Angeles County has been abandoned since 1991, so Paramount hosted a tour at the historical venue for the press. Per CineMovie:
Members of the “Boyle Heights Paranormal Project” guided press into the empty hallways as they recounted stories of horror that have occurred at the Linda Vista Hallway. White Witch of Los Angeles, Maja D’Aoust, lectured attendees on the practice of exorcism as seen in THE DEVIL INSIDE movie
The following footage is the last anyone has ever seen of reporter John Gallo.
As you should have guessed, this video is fake. Neither this promotional event nor the reporter being missing have been publicized anywhere else. I even had a hard time finding a reporter named John Gallo, since both the CineMovie article and the video conveniently neglected to mention the outlet for which Mr. Gallo reports. In fact, the only John Gallo reporter I could find works for CBS, a sister company to Paramount.
What do you think about this viral video stunt? I think it’s a little silly, especially since (almost) no one is going to believe it’s real, and it’s not even that good. I guess that kind of sums up the movie itself.
