The Possession

Released: 2012

Directed By: Ole Bornedal

Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Segdwick

Certificate: 15

Reviewed By: Darryl Griffiths

The Last Exorcism. The Devil Inside. After a barrage of ‘torture porn’ courtesy of the Saw franchise and the like, Hollywood seems to have pinned its hopes on the sub-genre ‘the exorcism film’ to remotely keep us interested in horror. Now it’s the turn of Danish director Ole Bornedal’s (Night Watch) ‘The Possession’ to breathe life into an already worn out format. With Evil Dead and Drag Me To Hell director Sam Raimi’s production company Ghost House attached and taking into account his own track record.. would he dare apply his name to such a mediocre project?

Toying with audiences once again with its tag ‘Based On True Events’, we follow the life of Clyde Brenek (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). A basketball coach with marital issues (Kyra Sedgwick’s Stephanie the other half) aplenty, he’s prompted to move to a new home along with his beloved daughters Em (Natasha Calis) and Hannah (Madison Davenport).

Eager to add a few touches, a yard sale presents an ideal opportunity. Proceedings take a sinister turn when the youngest Em becomes increasingly obsessed with her purchase, an antique wooden box called a Dibbuk. Her disturbing behaviour is initially put down to her parents’ bitter break up, but it soon becomes apparent that evil lurks within and is preparing to claim its next victim.

With such a familiar premise, it’s frustrating to find ‘The Possession’ plays it awfully safe despite the applied mythology through the Jewish dibbuk box. Its poster and trailer respectively may have teased a fright fest, but Bornedal’s approach leans more towards ‘child demon drama’ than ‘full blown horror’. Bar a well executed exercise of sharp jolts (CGI fueled) during the climax, its focus on ‘domestics’ stifles the film’s underlying menace and will likely prove too tame for hardcore fans of the genre.

The film’s strength certainly lies in the quality of acting, which is a step up from the performances we’re normally served with such fare. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) is solid as the ever concerned Clyde, compensating for Segdwick’s Stephanie being the equivalent of a cardboard cutout. The standout is most certainly Calis’ Em, whose facial expressions alone prove an effective tactic to unnerve you.

Refusing to take itself too seriously, ‘The Possession’ does occasionally show signs of life thanks to its committed cast. However, its restraint to truly terrify results in the film being as dead behind the eyes as it’s tormented female protagonist.