I actually enjoyed most of the movie except the last 5 minutes, which ruined everything for me. It's a pretty serviceable PG-13 horror film otherwise. There were several effective scares (albeit not of the torture porn kind) mostly just the jump scares kind, but also some real one too (with knives, etc.) This movie is clearly targeted at teenage girls and to get a PG-13 rating, so if you go into it with that mindset the scare level is pretty decent and what you would expect for a PG-13 movie.
Now onto what I hated about the ending: *****MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT (i.e. the entire ending)***** I have to say, the ending was very disappointing and made me feel that I wasted the entire movie worried about her soul getting taken by the devil, since in the last resolution scenes, the way the movie portrays it, it didn't seem so bad for her after all.
She graduates as the valedictorian, ends up with a hot boyfriend, becomes part of the popular crowd, and it's implied that she'll go on to a life a privilege, power, and position. Big deal. It doesn't effectively portray what might potentially happen after that.
It's like if they had ended "Faust" near the middle when he's still enjoying all of the benefits of trading his soul tot he devil rather than following it all the way through to the later horrible consequences of that.
Also, one part that I felt could have been explained better (and seemed to confuse a lot of commenters) is the stabbing at the end, and why the lead devil-worshiper said "Now you're one of us" when she stabs herself rather than her father.
They actually had to get her to do that to seal the deal so her soul would be "damned" forever. (Yeah, I'm a lapsed Catholic, who went through Catholic high school...) According to what I learned in Catholic school, at least, suicide is considered the only sin that can never be absolved and condemns the person to hell forever because not only are they committing the sin of murder but they would never be able to receive last rites before they died. They used to bury people who committed suicide outside of the church graveyard, because being damned forever precluded them from being able to be buried on "hallowed ground." Anyway, they should have explained that better in the movie.
So, in balance, everything except the last 5 minutes is a relatively serviceable PG-13 scare fest, but then everything goes down the drain after that.
Now onto what I hated about the ending: *****MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT (i.e. the entire ending)***** I have to say, the ending was very disappointing and made me feel that I wasted the entire movie worried about her soul getting taken by the devil, since in the last resolution scenes, the way the movie portrays it, it didn't seem so bad for her after all.
She graduates as the valedictorian, ends up with a hot boyfriend, becomes part of the popular crowd, and it's implied that she'll go on to a life a privilege, power, and position. Big deal. It doesn't effectively portray what might potentially happen after that.
It's like if they had ended "Faust" near the middle when he's still enjoying all of the benefits of trading his soul tot he devil rather than following it all the way through to the later horrible consequences of that.
Also, one part that I felt could have been explained better (and seemed to confuse a lot of commenters) is the stabbing at the end, and why the lead devil-worshiper said "Now you're one of us" when she stabs herself rather than her father.
They actually had to get her to do that to seal the deal so her soul would be "damned" forever. (Yeah, I'm a lapsed Catholic, who went through Catholic high school...) According to what I learned in Catholic school, at least, suicide is considered the only sin that can never be absolved and condemns the person to hell forever because not only are they committing the sin of murder but they would never be able to receive last rites before they died. They used to bury people who committed suicide outside of the church graveyard, because being damned forever precluded them from being able to be buried on "hallowed ground." Anyway, they should have explained that better in the movie.
So, in balance, everything except the last 5 minutes is a relatively serviceable PG-13 scare fest, but then everything goes down the drain after that.