POSSESSED BY EVIL (2011) (aka Possessing Piper Rose)

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POSSESSED BY EVIL (2011)
aka Possessing Piper Rose
Directed by Kevin Fair

Joanna and Ben Maxwell are looking to adopt a child being unable to have one of their own. Ben already has a teenage son Dylan from his previous relationship but Joanna longs to be a mother herself. When an adoption agency turn down their request to adopt a baby from outside the country due to Joanna’s depression, which she is being medically treated for, the couple believe all hope is lost… That is until Lydia from the adoption agency turns up at their house offering them the chance to permanently adopt six year old Piper who’s mother signed her parental rights away after being locked away in prison. Overjoyed at this opportunity, the Maxwells sign the adoption papers and everything seems to be just perfect until Piper begins to ‘see’ her real mommy who follows them home…

Spooky horror thriller POSSESSED BY EVIL, also screened on TV as Possessing Piper Rose, is about one family’s struggle to provide a loving home for a little girl against a supernatural force. However, when the supernatural force is the little girl’s mum, well, sometimes it’s harder to expel than you’d ideally like. The dedicated love from Rebecca Romijn (X-Men’s Mystique) as Joanna Maxwell might be just what cute little Piper (Isabella Crovetti-Cramp) needs in her life to help rid the maternal haunting for good.

With Piper passed from pillar to post, this little girl is no ordinary child. On the outset, she looks like your average six year old but when she attempts to electricute herself in the pool and in a bathtub with other children, adoptive families are quick to realise all is not right. And that’s without the mysterious phone calls full of static and the weird sightings of her mother following them home. It would seem that Piper’s biological mum wants her daughter back and she’ll not stop until she gets what she wants.

For a TV movie, POSSESSED BY EVIL is well made and enjoyable to watch with some great shots and editing work. Don’t get me wrong, there’s cheesy parts too and sections of the film that are too nicey-nice to be believable, mainly how Ben’s son Dylan and Joanna are scrapping one minute and the next he’s forgiven her and they’re playing happy families instead of the sparring step-son/step-mother. The performances though are pretty decent, particularly Rebecca Romijn and young Isabella Crovetti-Cramp who lead much of the movie. Their bond is believable and as a viewer, you hope their relationship can develop and hold strong despite the supernatural efforts of the furious ghost mum.

Though this film is presented as a horror, you’ll find no blood n guts here except for a bloodied knife. The film prefers to go for more shock and creepy scares rather than the gory variety, especially being a TV movie where the usual sort of grisly behaviour would be unacceptable. Despite this, there are a couple of fantastic scenes that work rather effectively that reinforce that you can still unnerve the audience without resorting to splatter.

Overall, POSSESSED BY EVIL is mild and predictable fare but as a family horror, it’s a reasonably enjoyable one.

Rating: ★★★★★½☆☆☆☆

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About Bat 4368 Articles
I love practical effects, stop-motion animation and gore, but most of all I love a good story! I adore B-movies and exploitation films in many of their guises and also have a soft spot for creature features. I review a wide range of media including movies, TV series, books and videogames. I'm a massive fan of author Hunter S. Thompson and I enjoy various genre of videogames with Kingdom Hearts and Harvest Moon two of my all time favs. Currently playing: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Yakuza Zero and Mafia III.

1 Comment

  1. The movie is dreadful! Yes, the acting is, in the main, decent (except for the ghost mum), but the story is contradictory and riddled with cliches. It’s like there are three different stories running at onces, but the director is not good enough to fit them all together and make them work. The practical effects (I refuse to call them “special”) as so lame that they distracted me from the story, and shattered the entire illusion that the director was trying to create. There are no scares, and the direction is too ham-fisted to create any kind of atmoshere. And what the hell was that business with the nurse and the limp-wristed exorcist! This is a horrible, horrible movies. Please do not waste your money buying the DVD; or, at least, wait for it to be consigned to the bargain shelf. 3/10

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