TL; DR: it was the devil, then it wasn't, then it was. If you're confused I can't help you.
Kid is scared of demons. Demon steals his sister, now we're all scared. Fast forward to adulthood and he's still living in the family home and his mum has recently died. He's hyper religious and the place is boarded up with crucifixes and icons everywhere to ward off evil. His only friend is his childhood priest.
Somehow he meets someone and they fall in love (given that he's agoraphobic, works from home and spends all his spare time praying the rosary thisay be the biggest plot hole). She gets possessed, him and the priest do an exorcism. So it's woman as the devil, sex is bad, eve and the apple blah blah blah. Or so we think.
Half way through the exorcism it cuts back to him living normally. No girlfriend, no priest. Doesn't make sense. His neighbour inexplicably takes an interest in him and can't resist banging him in his dead sisters room after he's cried about the exorcism on his ex that "went wrong". Red flag to any normal person, surely? But not to...Satan! Crosses start turning upside down, everything gets weird. Sexy woman = devil, again Or so we think.
His internal nightmares ensue then the priest is there and he wants to know where the neighbour got to. The priest says you know where she is, just like you knew where Catherine (the girlfriend) was. The protagonist is holding a knife covered in blood that in his visions he just found. Aha. Male violence and/or mental illness as horror! OR SO WE THINK.
During his typical "schizophrenic flashback" he remembers the priest saying "the devil's greatest trick is convincing you he doesn't exist" and he resists one of the voices and we are rewound back to the exorcism (which was never finished) and he isn't attacking the girlfriend, she is possessed, and the demon is successfully cast out.
And they all live happily ever after. OR SO WE THINK (j/k, in this case a new neighbour moves in who bears a striking resemblance to one of his scary visions, obligatory silly open ending stuff).
Kid is scared of demons. Demon steals his sister, now we're all scared. Fast forward to adulthood and he's still living in the family home and his mum has recently died. He's hyper religious and the place is boarded up with crucifixes and icons everywhere to ward off evil. His only friend is his childhood priest.
Somehow he meets someone and they fall in love (given that he's agoraphobic, works from home and spends all his spare time praying the rosary thisay be the biggest plot hole). She gets possessed, him and the priest do an exorcism. So it's woman as the devil, sex is bad, eve and the apple blah blah blah. Or so we think.
Half way through the exorcism it cuts back to him living normally. No girlfriend, no priest. Doesn't make sense. His neighbour inexplicably takes an interest in him and can't resist banging him in his dead sisters room after he's cried about the exorcism on his ex that "went wrong". Red flag to any normal person, surely? But not to...Satan! Crosses start turning upside down, everything gets weird. Sexy woman = devil, again Or so we think.
His internal nightmares ensue then the priest is there and he wants to know where the neighbour got to. The priest says you know where she is, just like you knew where Catherine (the girlfriend) was. The protagonist is holding a knife covered in blood that in his visions he just found. Aha. Male violence and/or mental illness as horror! OR SO WE THINK.
During his typical "schizophrenic flashback" he remembers the priest saying "the devil's greatest trick is convincing you he doesn't exist" and he resists one of the voices and we are rewound back to the exorcism (which was never finished) and he isn't attacking the girlfriend, she is possessed, and the demon is successfully cast out.
And they all live happily ever after. OR SO WE THINK (j/k, in this case a new neighbour moves in who bears a striking resemblance to one of his scary visions, obligatory silly open ending stuff).