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nTitle: The Possession (2012)
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nDirector: Ole Bornedal
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nCast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Natasha Calis, Kyra Sedgwick, ,nMadison Davenport, Matisyahu
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nReview:
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nI’m going to take the opportunity and comment on the statenof American Horror Films with his review because well, dammit, this is a PG-13nrated demonic possession film, and to me, the words PG-13 and demonic possession simply shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence, but here wenare, talking about the Sam Raimi produced The Possession, a horror film aboutnJewish demons possessing a little girl. I’ve said it before and I’ll say itnagain, American Horror has been castrated, it no longer has any guts. It’s beennso freaking deflated of any true horror that we get films like the one we’rentalking about today. The Possession is a harmless little horror film, not toonscary, not too horrifying, but still, pretty watchable, let’s get that out ofnthe way. This is not a bad film; it simply doesn’t deliver on what we wouldnexpect to see in a film about demonic possession, it doesn’t have that edge,nthat intensity. And of course this is all due to the fact that the film wasnoriginally ‘R’ rated, but in order to get the all important money making ‘PG-13’nrating, it was edited down and thus, we get this soft core horror flick.
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nNow immediately when we talk about demons and little girlsnone film pops to mind and that’s of course William Friedkin’s immortal horrornclassic The Exorcist (1973). If you don’t want your demonic possession film tonbe compared to The Exorcist, then don’t make it about little girls being possessednby demons, or else you’ll get what you’re gonna get today from this filmnconnoisseur, a comparison between the two. So anyhows, was The Possession worthna damn? Did it even come close to the horrifying levels of shit your pantsnscares that The Exorcist did? Hell no! It still baffles me how not a singlenfilm has ever been able to achieve what Friedkin achieved with The Exorcist. Failednattempts include Lost Souls (2000) and The Unborn (2009), by the way, ThenUnborn is a film that has a lot in common with The Possession because they arenboth about ‘Dybbuks’ which is the Jewish word for ‘Demon’. In trying tonunderstand why an American film studio would purposely make their film aboutnJewish Demons instead of Catholic/Christian demons, the hypothesis I came upnwith is that producers want to play it safe and so they avoid playing withnCatholicism or Christianity out of fear. After all, we all know how cautious Hollywood has always beennwhen it comes to dealing with religion. With this theme, Hollywood rarely takes chances; which isnprobably why this film is so ‘soft’.
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nIf you were to judge this film simply by its previews you’dnswear The Possession was a true blue scary film, sadly, this was not the case.nDemons and Sam Raimi are two things that should get together more often, butnapparently the days in which Sam Raimi would direct a good horror film are longngone, never to return. Raimi has gone full on Hollywood for years now, horror is a thing ofnthe past for him. His attempt at horror Drag Me To Hell (2009) was ‘light’ whenncompared to his Evil Dead days. These days Raimi is contempt with merely producingnhorror movies through his Ghost House Pictures label instead of personallyndirecting them; which is fine by me, I love the fact that he gives up coming/newndirectors a chance to flex their filmmaking muscles. I just wish he wouldn’t playnit so safe with the horror films he produces. The question that inevitably popsninto my head is will the Evil Dead remake that is currently in production be ansoft core horror film? A horror movie without guts? I hope not, but if ThenPossession and Drag Me to Hell are any indication…
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nTechnically speaking, the film is very well made and it doesnhave its scary moments. Invisible things shutting doors and throwing thingsnaround is always a spooky deal. The reason why I gave The Possession a chance is because sometimes, PG-13 horrornmovies can be scary, the one example I always give is Gore Verbinski’s The Ringn(2002), a film that is PG-13 and scary as hell. While The Possession didn’tnquite get there in terms of intensity, it is a well told tale, well acted andnwell shot and has one or two truly eerie moments in there, I loved those scenesnwith the little girl opening up the Dybbuk box in her room, which kind of brought to mind the Hellraiser, but thats besides the point. I can’t reallyncomplain about the way the film looks, the visuals are very slick, very clean.nKudos to director Ole Bornedal for deliver a slick looking horror movie. Also,nI loved the score for the film, it’s so classic! Again, with its score the filmnreminded me of a horror film from the 70’s, where so much emphasis was put innthe musical score. Nowadays, this is something that films have all butnforgotten. Music is 50% of the equation when it comes to films!
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nThe cast does a great job, especially the lead actor JeffreynDean Morgan whom some of you might remember as ‘The Comedian’ in Zack Snyder’s Watchmenn(2009). I couldn’t help but notice how much this actor looks like JaviernBardem! It’s actually kind of uncanny! The dude even talks like Bardem! Castingna mature actor like this one in a horror movie reminded me of horror films fromnthe 70’s when they’d cast these solid, mature actors in the principal roles. Innthis sense, The Possession reminded me of The Changeling (1980), which starrednGeorge C. Scott in the starring role of the father struggling with the loss ofnhis family. Jeffrey Dean Morgan comes off as a strong male lead. Natasha Calisnas ‘Em’ the girl who is possessed by the Dybbuk does a commendable job as well,nbut she didn’t go through hell like Linda Blair did in The Exorcist. Ansurprising casting decision was giving Reggae singer Matisyahu the allnimportant role of the exorcist, didn’tndo a bad job in my book, as far as I know this was his first attempt at actingnin a full length motion picture, so there’s that.
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nSo why is The Possession such a harmless horror flick? Well,nbecause this is a Demonic Possession film and doesn’t deliver the goods innterms of nastiness. Demons are supposed to be these ultra evil things who hatengod. They are the worst of the worst; they want to rape and pillage the bodynthey inhabit. On this one, the demon whispers, and makes the little girls eyesngo white, that’s about it. Oh wait, the demon also likes to make the wind blow,nand turn the lights on and off a lot; that’s as far as this one goes. So it’snharmless in that sense, the film uses a lot of old school horror techniques, lots of horror movie cliches like shadowy hallways, the wind howling, the whispers in thendarkness, that sort of thing, and I liked that about it; I just wanted a bitnmore intensity with those old school scares. Truth be told, it reminded me ofnthese harmless ghost movies like Lady in White (1988), you know, scary moviesnthat aren’t too scary. Ultimately, this is the kind of horror film that a kidninterested in starting to watch horror movies would enjoy. Someone who hasn’tnseen a gazillion horror movies before might enjoy it, but for the true bluenseasoned horror veteran this film is just child’s play.
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nRating: 3 out of 5
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