Daily Links, Friday the 13th: Exorcism films, Stephen Colbert, the Pope meets a rare crocodile

It’s Friday the 13th (spooky, scary)! So, I just read this excellent comedic banter about a screening of The Devil Inside, the latest big screen exorcism. It’s got a couple of spoilers, so between that, having helped edit a feature on exorcism, and being among “anyone who has ever seen any movie” (and therefore know that in movies about exorcism, “there will be multiple demonic possession and there will also be transference”), I’m thinking I’m pretty much an expert on exorcisms and can safely say, even without having seen it, that The Devil Inside is terrible in a hilariously bad way. Which means you should probably see it. Although, CNS calls it “morally offensive,” and a “cheap, inept piece of story telling” and “eye-poppingly bad,” though their critic’’s beef seems to have a lot to do with the filmmakers’ “lazy, sullen antagonism toward the Catholic Church.”

If you’re looking for films with religious content that doesn’t make you want to hurl rotten tomatoes at the screen, America magazine has a list of what they call the best spiritual films of 2011, of which “there has been no shortage of relevant stimuli at the multiplex, though some of it has come from the oddest places.” The list is good, albeit a little predictable and unimaginative (save, maybe, for Cowboys and Aliens). For recent movie reviews from US Catholic, check out our Art and Reviews section.

While we’re talking about entertainment, how about that Stephen Colbert? He’s getting lots of coverage this week.

Also entertaining: this headline.