The Possession - In Brief
A young girl gets possessed by an evil spirit which trapped in a mysterious box.
The Possession - Verdict
Although there is nothing in the film that will scare the living daylights out of you, the makers have done well to not try too hard either.
The Possession - Short Plot
The film starts with an old woman trying to open a mysterious box. However, before she tries to destroy the box, she is thrown violently around the room by an unseen force. Cut to a recently-separated couple Clyde (
Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Stephanie Brenek (
Kyra Sedgwick) who are trying to make their kids, Emily (
Natasha Calis) and Hannah (
Madison Davenport), feel that everything is normal. Clyde takes his daughters along for the weekend to his new house. At a yard sale, Emily chances upon the same mysterious box which killed the old woman. She is enchanted by the box and cajoles her father to buy it off. The box, of course, is a dybbuk box that dates back to the 1920s. It contained a broken spirit of a Jewish demon. We find this out much later. What happens in the interim is a lot of 'terrifying' stuff! Emily gets possessed and does a lot of evil things in the house. Grunting horrifyingly, assaulting people around her, being extremely abrasive and a lot more. Moths fly out of her mouth. Hands jut out of her jawline! She also kills her mother's boyfriend.
All this goes on until the father approaches a Jew to free his daughter off the spirit. Is the ending happy or sad? Go figure!
The Possession - Technical
The story is quite predictable. There's nothing novel about the concept. However, the presentation wasn't that bad. Luckily, the makers do not vie for something ambitious. There's no 3-D for starters, no over-the-top visual effects and no shenanigans! The execution was simple. Although the scenes are not overtly terrifying, you might be left shaken a bit after watching the proceedings. Director
Ole Bornedal does a decent job of the film, however, leaves the ending a bit too predictable. The cast does a fine job. Natasha Calis, who plays the possessed girl, is absolutely terrific and at some places, terrifying.
The Possession - Final Word
The Possession is a decent film. If you really 'dig' horror films, you may be a bit disappointed.