The Devil's Doorway

Despite its brief running time, the movie feels dragged out; like the priests, it will eventually lose its way.

"The Devil's Doorway" can't overcome the clichés of either the found-footage format or the "Satan is real!" sub-genre.

All the well-crafted effort has unfortunately been expended on a tired and overly familiar story that never registers as anything more than a compendium of horror film clichés.

Two strong leads, the doubting priest Lalor Roddy and the Nurse Ratchet-like Mother Superior played with gusto by Helena Bereen, help distinguish this Exorcist update and mark Clarke as a talent to watch.

More cerebral than your garden variety found footage picture, although it still contains plenty of moments to give you chills.

It's really chilling.

The film isn't without its effective scares, and long-time fans of the found footage genre will find something to enjoy in the film, even if the only fresh aspect of the film is its cinematography.

The ambiguity of the title is as important as the ambiguity of the ending -- and always, underscoring it, the understanding that there was nothing ambiguous about what was found beneath the ground in Tuam.

[S]pooky as hell, with some biting commentary on the history of the Catholic Church and a setting that grows increasingly claustrophobic and menacing as the narrative deepens.