STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED
Unmissable
Excellent
Good
Poor
Tragic

FILM DETAILS

Certificate

Cast Natasha Callis Jeffrey Dean Morgan Kyra Sedgwick.

Directors Ole Bornedal.

Screenwriters

Running Time minutes

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The Possession
Maybe leave the box with the human teeth, eh?

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Plot
A girl buys a box at a yard sale, only to find that it comes with a demonic attachment.

Review
Young Em (Natasha Callis) picks up a box engraved with Hebrew texts and full of oddments like human teeth, and becomes possessed by a Jewish demon (a dybbuk). Her divorced parents (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick) spend an hour ignoring symptoms (the former vegetarian crawls around the kitchen wolfing down raw meat) before calling a demon-busting rabbi who has a dispensation to ride in a car on Shabbas if a child’s soul is in peril.

Though this has one or two okay scares of the CGI-augmented creepy little girl variety, it’s a by-the-numbers possessed kid picture with fewer surprises than shocks. Ole Bornedal has made interesting Danish genre films (Nightwatch, Deliver Us From Evil, The Substitute), but – as in the Nightwatch remake – goes all conventional when working in English.

Verdict
Too safe to shock and too familiar to really frighten, this is an overly conventional affair.


Reviewed by Kim Newman

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Average user rating for The Possession

Re: The Possession

Well, my son asked me to go and see the film, mainly to gain a free meal! I thought of it as a cross between a Jewish "Exorcist" and "The Ring". I simply found it entertaining, enough psychological tension and special effects nicely done in the right places, admittadly I haven't been to see a horror film for some time at the cinema. ... More

Posted by tomlyn11 at 14:42, 11 September 2012 | Report This Post

RE: Laughably awful.

Roger Ebert's been raving about this, oddly. Personally I think the whole 'ghost in a box' thing sounds a little like Joe Hill's 'Heart Shaped Box', which is something I'd much rather see than this. ... More

Posted by DancingClown at 10:47, 07 September 2012 | Report This Post

RE: Laughably awful.

SPOILERS It was OK. Didn't really have much depth to it but the sense of dread with the box was good (despite the comedic look to the box opening, or was that me?) The effects were restrained which worked well. Was it me or was the moths bits overplayed (moths in the room, moths out of the mouth) given that it didn't help explain the origins of the person/demon in the box. Thinking about it, there was very little back story about the person/demon unless I missed something. Bit of a ch... More

Posted by piginapoke at 10:15, 07 September 2012 | Report This Post

Laughably awful.

It's based on a true story, alright. The true story of the every other time I saw a film as tedious and predictable as this. Natasha Calis does a reasonable job at long, unnerving stares, but it's a sad day when the best thing about a film is a kid who's not doing anything. When the final scene closed and the credits appeared on-screen, a ripple of laughter actually went around the cinema. I kid you not. ... More

Posted by TheMightyBlackout at 21:03, 31 August 2012 | Report This Post

RE: The Possession

What do you know? Another mediocre mainstream horror....t feels like the genre's in big trouble - somebody please help it out! ... More

Posted by Qwerty Norris at 20:49, 31 August 2012 | Report This Post

RE: The Possession

Does Newman text these reviews in, or something? ... More

Posted by UTB at 19:43, 31 August 2012 | Report This Post

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