Cast: Natasha Calis, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick
Director: Ole Bornedal
Country: USA
Genre: Horror | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here
Editor’s Note: The Possession opens for wide release on 8/31/2012
Exorcisms aren’t just for Catholics anymore. The Possession shows us that priests aren’t the only ones equipped to do battle with demonic forces. Unfortunately, it seems the battle is pretty much the same no matter what your faith. The basic rules are still the same: an evil force is after the innocence of a child and can only be dispelled by a godly man of god of some kind. It’s a surprisingly warm and fuzzy pro-religious sentiment, but it’s one that most exorcism movies embrace. Usually you’d expect a horror film to be as blasphemous as they come, but you could argue that even The Exorcist, especially the extended cut, has strong religious convictions.
The basic rules are still the same: an evil force is after the innocence of a child and can only be dispelled by a godly man of god of some kind.
Regardless of their religious intentions, possession movies have always had an expansive playing field in which to construct memorable and elaborate shocks and scares. This is because you not only have a villain with infinite powers of terror at their disposal, but the action is also cut off, usually reduced to the struggle of one family, which leaves plenty of opportunity for characters to face their fears one on one. If there’s something to complain about The Possession, I mean, other than the semi-tired story structure, it’s the lack of inventive scares.
Perhaps, ever since Regan’s head spun around, the disturbing qualities of seeing a young girl physically tormented and disfigured by an unseen force has become too familiar, especially when said girl is wearing a white nightie. Horror has to constantly evolve in order to stay current with what scares and doesn’t scare a modern audience. You have to take into account what people are familiar with in order to surprise them. This is why you see more and more guns in movies each year. Back in the days of The Great Train Robbery, it took one gun pointed at the audience to steal screams and gasps, now it takes two bazookas fired from a jet traveling at the speed of sound.
Now that the rant section of the review is done, we can move onto the rave. The performances in this film are really solid and the actors create a strong sense of fun and family, which strangely, the horror aspects of the film seem to get in the way of. The frightening scenes just aren’t as well crafted as the scenes of family drama. At times, you find yourself wishing it wasn’t even a horror film at all… Then someone’s teeth fall out and you’re briefly glad to be horrified again, but soon it’s back to the banal build up with mediocre payoffs.
The performances in this film are really solid and the actors create a strong sense of fun and family, which strangely, the horror aspects of the film seem to get in the way of.
The specific shining star is Natasha Calis, who’s portrayal of a tormented innocent should be right up there with Linda Blair, well, maybe slightly below, but still, up there. She carries with her a stare of perfectly appropriate complexity, always leaving you guessing, is it really her or some evil spirit from a box?
Despite some interesting stylistic choices, like the repeated motif of cutting away right as the horror of a scene crescendos, which itself feels like another echo of The Exorcist, the film overall lacks the tension it needs to really pull you in. Great performance, a few decent jumps, but not enough originality to really terrify.
[notification type=”star”]65/100 ~ OKAY. Despite some interesting stylistic choices, like the repeated motif of cutting away right as the horror of a scene crescendos, which itself feels like another echo of The Exorcist, the film overall lacks the tension it needs to really pull you in. Great performance, a few decent jumps, but not enough originality to really terrify. [/notification]
