Review of The Possession (2012) by Headcrusher — 01 Sep 2012

What can be scarier than being possessed by a demon? Not much really and the original exorcist film ignited peoples imaginations - but it seems that somehow films and possession just don't work that well - possibly because everyone knows the demons are no match for God and his exorcist servants - its kind of like a superhero movie - you know the bad guys will be defeated in the end - even if the hero has to shout "Come into Me" and jump out the window.

This film does have its moments but overall the story is predictable and I thought it took way too long to get going for a 90 min film. The divorced parents, the grieving children, the dad having to put up with the ex-wifes jerky boyfriend, the dad who misses the school play because of work - etc etc. Will they somehow overcome the evil and realize the most important thing is life is each other? Is their daughter just acting out when her eyes roll up in her head or moths start flying out of her mouth? Still to be fair - it was better than most of these types of films and they used a tripod. I looked into the true story this was based on and think it might have made a creepier film to explore the supposed actual events ( http://www.dibbukbox.com/story.htm) which were much less sensational - and the concept of the dibbuk - which is not really a demon but a tormented human soul forced to remain on the earth after death.

Still a lot of people in the audience were scared and therefore if you like this sort of thing - you'll probably enjoy it. More scares during the set up would have made it better.