The Possession (2012)
Directed by: Ole Bornedal
Written by: Juliet Snowden, Stiles White
Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, Matisyahu, Natasha Calis
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gBeG31fX40[/youtube]
Running Time: 92 minutes
Certificate: 15
Reviewer: David Gillespie – HCF Official Artist
The demonic possession theme has had its successes on the big screen. Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Prince of Darkness and the Exorcism of Emily Rose all passed muster in their efforts to thrill their target audience. However The Exorcist still remains the grand master in its field. It delivers the scares, pace, style and acting quality that far surpasses all other rivals. So far this year, we were treated to The Devil Inside which was a very poor film and will best remain forgotten. Ole Bornedal’s film, The Possession arrives to raise the bar and uses Sam Raimi’s name in the marketing campaign to promote the film. From past experience, the use of another horror director’s name to sell cinema tickets does not bode well as to what we can expect to see on screen.
The story begins in the aftermath of a family breakup. Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is picking up his two girls, Hannah (Maddison Davenport) and her younger sister, Em (Natasha Calis) from the family home. His belongings have been packed by his estranged wife, Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick) and a new man, Brett (Grant Show) seems to already have found his way into the house. On a chance visit to a garage sale, Em is attracted to a hingeless, wooden box and begs her father to purchase the item for her. He agrees. What they don’t know (but the viewer does) is that the box is the home/ prison to a rather unfriendly dybbuk (an evil spirit from Jewish folklore) that would like nothing better than to take over Em’s body and cause chaos and hurt to everyone that dares get in its way. After several failed attempts to prise the lid open, Em finds a secret clip that unlocks the device. The contents comprise of lint, old toys, dead moths and a ring. The young girl places the ring on her finger. It is a perfect fit.
From the outset, Em is the child that is introduced as most affected by the parental split. Her change in behaviour and eccentric mannerisms do not seem surprising to her parents due to the upheaval in her life. Clyde does take notice when a breakfast dispute concludes with Em sinking a fork into his hand.
After chatting to a mad history professor (Jay Brazeau) about the sinister origins of the box and the evil that lies within, Clyde disposes of the cursed object. This results in Em going berserk and tracking it down. Her father is then framed for his daughter’s self-inflicted bruises and is denied access to his children. Clyde realises that his family are in terrible danger and travels abroad to track down a Jewish order of exorcists who may be able to save his daughter’s soul. Only the youngest member Tsadok (Matisyahu) agrees to help. The men return to discover that the dybbuk has fully taken over Em and that it might well be too late to save the child.
The Possession has many positive aspects to it. Firstly the haunting soundtrack and spine tingling, sound effects are superb. A small box shouldn’t really be sinister but Bornedal does achieve numerous unsettling sequences with long lingering shots of the object and the eerie creak as it slowly opens. The demon is very rarely in shot and this adds to its menace. But its powers are a little inconsistent. In early scenes it is able to fling people around rooms and break an unfortunate victim’s back (similar to that Paranormal Activity 3 scene). Yet in later scenes the spook struggles to deal with Morgan, Sedgwick and Davenport as they hold their family member down?
As with many of the modern breed of horror films, The Possession suffers when the action hits the CGI overload button in the final quarter. Up until this point, the effects are fairly subtle or obscured. One memorable shot has the sillouette of the possessed child in a darkened room repeating the line, ‘Daddy. you scared me’. It does not sound alarming on paper but it was the only moment to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. Another clever sequence has the demon reveal itself on a muddled MRI scan although I guess this did stretch the ‘based’ on a true story tag.
The biggest positive is the assembled cast and the chemistry they have together. Bornedal spends time building his characters and makes you care about what happens to them. Morgan and Calis create a very moving and believable father/daughter relationship. The sequence where Morgan begs the Jewish exorcists to help his cause exhibits far better acting skills than you would expect from the type of yarn. Natasha Calis is impressive as the possessed child and carries a difficult role admirably. The director unwisely covers her in ridiculous gothic makeup for the final quarter that created more laughs from the theatre audience than screams. Rapper Matisyahu offers some well-deserved light relief as the action rabbi before the predictable final battle between good and evil. By then the story has devolved into a child friendly version of The Exorcist as if the makers have run out of interest and ideas. A lazy, final twist only adds insult to injury.
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