The Possession

The Possession appeared in the cinema listings out of the blue but after watching a short tv spot I saw enough to know that it had the potential to be more entertaining than Total Recall.

PLOT: Divorcee Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) takes his daughters Hannah (Madison Davenport) and Emily (Natasha Calis) to a yard sale to buy items for their new home. Emily purchases a mysterious box not knowing that it contains an angry demon. As the demon slowly begins to possess his daughter Clyde must figure out a way to save her. END PLOT

The Possession is standard exorcism fare with the only original aspect being that it uses Jewish mythology rather than Christian. The plot follows the standard beats before culminating in an exorcism, which due to the budget, was nothing more than flashing lights and screaming.

There were a few plot points left up in the air such as Brett driving off never to be mentioned again and no one thought to question the previous owner of the box but they are minor quibbles.

The effects were basic and the demon looked like something out of an old computer game.  The moths were creepy as they are born from pure evil, but other than that, the low budget did the effects department no favours whatsoever.

In the never ending spate of exorcism films you are not likely to find better performances with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Natasha Calis both being very solid. The casting saved The Possession from being a boring watch.

Ole Bornedal is a director who loves mortuaries (so much so he filmed Nightwatch twice) and the scene with Clyde in the morgue was the only real moment of tension in the entire film. 

I didn’t like the constant spinning overhead camera shots of buildings and I can’t understand why there were so many of them. 

The score was essentially a repeated low piano note which did not help to create tension. It is the first time I have ever thought that a score was lazy but by the gods it was awful.

The Possession is a well made film but completely devoid of any originality and it gets 4/10. If you happen to catch it on tv it is worth a look but I couldn't recommend that you spend your cinema pennies on it!

Still, it was probably more enjoyable than Total Recall…….

JDM looks like someone tried to inflate Robert Downey Junior with an air pump.  There I said it.  I can more on.