Review of The Possession (2012) by James W — 31 Oct 2013

The Possession isn't the scariest horror in recent memory, but it benefits from beautiful camerawork, a wonderful cast and some truly terrifying images that will undoubtedly send many shivers down your spine.

This demonic possession based horror movie echoes similarities from The Unborn, Mama and The Box. The former being the use of a Dibbuk which is a deeply evil dislocated spirit that attaches itself to it's desired host, the second similarity is the use of little girls against the backdrop of evil, and the latter is the Box itself containing a threat. These similarities aren't at all bad, because I enjoyed The Unborn, Mama and The Box, but still The Possession has it's own ideas so it's not a borrower. I absolutely loved the MRI scene, it's when the lights start to flicker, and the images on the scan start to process, then the camera turns to Kyra Sedgwick's face with a look of terror, and Madison Davenport utters in shock "oh my god". . .You can see the Dibbuk inside Em's body, twisting it's arm up her throat, it then turns it's head and roars. This scene is the most frightening moment, and hospitals in horror movies have always had an impact on a scene. The atmosphere is constantly unsettling through the use of winds and that evil glances from young Em, and there are a tonne of jump shocks very well spaced out through the movie, there's no cheap shocks. The cast are excellent, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a solid lead but best of all is Natasha Calis who plays Em, the look in her drained eyes is unnerving and I love the fact that you can genuinely feel there is something evil surrounding her, now that's what I call some serious acting. I was surprised at the gore on offer here, there's a lot of bodies being thrown across rooms into shelves and walls, eyes bleeding out and teeth falling out, it's all hard to watch yet very effective, and best of all you actually get to see the Dibbuk.

For £9.99 it was a gamble buying this, I've heard a lot of negative things saying it was unintentionally funny which is a bad thing in horror, but that wasn't the case. The Possession grabs you by the throat and pins you down in shock, it suceeds in the use of graphic imagery and top notch suspense building, this is a well crafted movie from Ole Bornedal.