A film snob like myself may go into The Possession thinking "great...another little girl being taken over by a demon." In fact...those were my thoughts exactly going into the film. Coming out of the film was a different story. The Possession reminds me of ice on a hot summer day...sure everyone's doing it but it is refreshing regardless. In fact...this particular girl taken over by demon film is original in the way that it is great looking and superbly acted.
This is not to say the film is beautiful. On the contrary, the film is extremely ugly. Take this as a ringing endorsement. Too many of these types of films try to look high budget and advanced in the way of visuals. This is where the film succeeds brilliantly. It knows that films of this type should look cheaply made and be disturbing to look at. This is what brings the creepiness to a film like this. Onto the acting...Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick as Em-the possessed girl's divorced, bitter towards one another parents are great. They bring a realism to the film very few could. They have both proven to be terrific actors before and nothing changes here. Also....Natasha Calis as Em is also great. Calis recently acted on the NBC show The Firm and gives a dynamite performance here.
Of course with every possession film...we get many obligatory scenes. These include an exorcism towards the end, a gross body transformation scene and a scene in which EVERYONE finds out the girl is actually possessed. However...these are done in such an original fashion that I even enjoyed watching those. The film never runs out of steam and always stays on its own two feet without having to go to school that much on The Exorcist or any other film of that kind.
The Possession is an excellent horror film. It grips you to your seat from the first second to the last. And even when you think it's going to peter out at the end...it makes up for with one final shot. If you like your horror scary and original...skip The Awakening and go see this.
(4 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving violence and disturbing sequences)
It was hair-raising for me to see moths, hear voices and know about a box that is supposedly still out there. What’s even creepier to me is the fact that the storage area where the movie props were being held was found burning after they filmed. I watched it with a few of my Dish coworkers, and there were quite a few jumpy moments. I plan on seeing it again soon, so I’ve added it to my Blockbuster @Home queue so I won’t have to worry about paying for another movie ticket. I’ll have some time to look for other scary movies too!
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