The Possession

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2012
Country of origin:	asasa
Director:	Ole Bornedal
Genre:	Average chiller
Starring:	Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Natasha Calis, Madison Davenport, Kyra Sedgwick
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431021/
Tagline:	Fear The Demon That Doesn't Fear God
Favourite line:	None worth mentioning

The latest Exorcist-lite offering.

The plot:
A father, divorced from his wife, takes his two daughters to a yard sale. The youngest of the two, Em, is rather taken by an old-fashioned wooden box, and convinces her father to buy it.
Bringing the box home, it’s not long before the youngster is exhibiting strange behaviour, fixating on the box, and insisting no-one else goes near it.
With voices in her head, apparently emanating from the box, suddenly her behaviour turns violent and, quickly, the father figures out that his daughter is now possessed, the demon within the ‘Dybbuk Box’ having claimed a fresh soul……

It’s generic stuff, no mistake, but that’s ok, as it never pretends to be anything else.
The film kicks off with an opening shot, straight down onto a grid of houses, that instantly recalls the iconic sequences from Candyman. I was genuinely expecting the Candyman theme music to kick in, so similar was it, and it must be deliberate. But, invoke Candyman at your peril, Mr. Director, as to go toe-to-toe with possibly the best horror flick of the 90’s is a daunting challenge, and one that this particular movie had no chance of winning.
The cast do a splendid job of handling some rather trite material, particularly youngster Natasha Calis as Em, and the rather gorgeous Jeffrey Dean Morgan as tormented father Clyde.
Plot-wise, it must be noted that this bore remarkable similarities to a bunch of classic horror – the generic bit I mentioned earlier – but special mention must go to Amityville II. Towards the end, this blatantly rips it off and, worse still, I knew it was going to do so some five minutes before the event. Heh, I don’t mind tapping into sources, but at least try to keep horror-literate viewers guessing.
Oh, and by the way, Amityville II’s full title is Amityville II: The Possession.
Coincidence?
Other movies cited unofficially include The Entity, The Hidden, The Exorcist (of course) and Poltergeeeeist.
Decent enough multiplex fodder, I guess, but not much more than that.