The Possession: 85% Worth It

The Possession tried to corner the market on people hoping for a scare this Labor Day Weekend, but it failed to startle with its overdone premise and formulaic use of cliché's. For fans of the genre, it's a “get what you expected” kind of experience. For everyone else, rent The Exorcist and save your cash for all those Labor Day sales.

You can probably guess the plot based on the previews, as they reveal everything: recently divorced father Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has his daughters Hannah (Madison Davenport) and Em (Natasha Calis) for the weekend. Em becomes obsessed with a “mysterious box” she finds at a garage sale, and after opening the box, a demon attempts to take possession of her. Then Matisyahu needs to rescue her from the “Dybbuk” (Hebrew for malevolent or possessing spirit). Yep, you read that right. The end.

The first thing you will notice is the music… bad sign. I had a hard time focusing on the story because the entire first half of the movie is scored beat by beat with ominous piano notes and stock suspense SFX. The music is so overbearing that even the characters seem to have trouble speaking over it. Thankfully some relief was given midway through to cram a bunch of exposition in rapidly, but sadly the music began blasting again once the exposition had concluded.

After I had adjusted myself to the deafening soundscape, I was able to catch most of the plot. The movie didn’t have a bad story; it was just a much better story when movies like The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Paranormal Activity 1, 2, &3, The Last Exorcism, etc, etc, etc were produced. I was hoping the Dybbuk would at least offer a different twist on demons and lend a few surprises to the exorcism scenes, but the only real difference was that the prayers were in Hebrew instead of Latin. It was just too easy of a story. A few ancillary characters died, but nobody cared because we met them moments before they died. The demon itself seemed so easy to get rid of it made me thing I should change professions.

There's a possibility I'm being too harsh here, as I did see the movie on a Sunday afternoon. I hold scary movies to a very high standard: A comedy should make us laugh, an action movie should excite us, and a horror movie should thrill and terrify us. If The Possession were your first horror movie, you might be extremely frightened, but as my first horror movie was The Shining, I'm often very critical of the genre.

Here's what you might enjoy about the movie: Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick are good in their portrayals of separated yet concerned parents. Morgan's quiet approach to the character set the tone for the film, as he said more in what he didn't say than what he did. Kudos to director Ole Bornadal for the pregnant pauses. (I would say kudos to screenwriters Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, but can a screenwriter really take credit for white space in between dialogue?) Every so often a cool visual effect or sudden “jump cut” may startle you. Don't expect them often; this is more of a suspense film than anything, and at times the violent bursts of music actually added to the effects.

This movie won't win any awards for best horror flick and shouldn't birth any sequels, but it will offer a few thrills for horror fans desperate for a fix after Cabin in the Woods withdrawals. The Possession did not grab a hold of me, and it most likely wont make anyone miss any nights of sleep—aside from the horror of losing the $25 they shelled out for the ticket and concessions.