The Possession (2012)
Directed by Ole Bornedal
A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child.
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Yet while both Mannis and Haxton served as ‘production consultants’ on The Possession, and Juliet Snowden and Stiles White’s screenplay supposedly takes its inspiration from an article on the box by journalist Leslie Gornstein, this film is true not to the facts of the case, but to the rather different story told by William Friedkin’s The Exorcist.
Calis is especially good as the possessed girl, turning in a performance that can be favorably compared to the gold standard for this kind of role, Linda Blair in “The Exorcist.”
The concept behind The Possession , a solid, Jewish-inflected B-movie riff on The Exorcist from director Ole Bornedal , can't help but leave you wondering.
Unfortunately, it isn’t a comedy, it’s an exorcism-themed horror film that fails to glean suspense out of scenarios that devolved into kitsch after The Exorcist inspired an avalanche of knock-offs that continue to this day.
Like " The Exorcist ," the best film in the genre, it is inspired by some degree of religious scholarship and creates believable characters in a real world.
On the other hand, The Possession is also a horror movie being made in the 2010s, and that puts a serious limit on how much character drama it can hold; once it becomes increasingly obvious that Em is possessed by a demon - a dybbuk, specifically, though the further into Jewish mysticism the movie goes, the more obvious that the writers stuck Jewish concepts into the Catholic framework of The Exorcist , and called that "research" - the film abandons all of its subtlety and becomes yet another generic horror picture of the loud noises, things slamming around, and cheap tricks with dark lighting variety.
They might have taken inspiration by watching the prologue to A Serious Man by the Coen Bros.
Instead, check out the 1937 Yiddish film The Dybbuk or re-watch the Coens’ A Serious Man.
For those who've never seen the Coen Brothers' " A Serious Man ," a dybbuk is a Jewish demon of sorts and they've been being exorcised in rites for centuries (check out YouTube for some 'real' 'live' ones).
As far as I can recall a dybbuk has only been used in a few films -- the nearly lost 1937 film " The Dybbuk, " in a prologue for the Coens' "A Serious Man," and referenced in " The Unborn ."
Not even a subplot straight out of The Seventh Sign (1988) can add enough silliness to make The Possession palatable.
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When Danish director Ole Bornedal (making his first American feature since 1998's smartly skin-crawling "Nightwatch") gets it right, his know-how of the genre, of the importance of building atmosphere and character over easy, predictable jump scares, recalls a lush, adult-minded style all but missing since the 1970s.
Writers Juliet Snowden & Stiles White ("Boogeyman," "Knowing") follow the same old template, distrusting the 'less is more' approach for sensationalism that goes far beyond anything in the lore and Danish director Ole Bornedal (" Nightwatch ," " Just Another Love Story ") compounds the issue by orchestrating with a sledgehammer.
Like so many horror movies of the past few decades, “The Possession,” directed by Ole Bornedal (“Nightwatch”), starts off well with a smooth and almost elegiac tone, quietly and slowly building tension only to disastrously crumble upon itself in the second half.
A few moments are effective, though, courtesy of the noted Danish director Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch), who holds himself to clean, classical filmmaking and prefers creepiness to shocks.
The only thing even remotely “new” is the fact that there’s a Tzadik (played by reggae/alternative rock musician Matisyahu) performing the exorcism instead of a priest, but even that was already done in David S. Goyer’s 2009 film The Unborn.
The anticlimactic finale, which plays like a poor man's version of 1973's "The Exorcist," leaves plenty to be desired, just as it did in the far messier, similarly-themed 2009 misfire " The Unborn ."
In this case, the story is near identical to The Unborn , but that 2009 trifle by David S. Goyer was given a certain polish by some A-level talent (Gary Oldman, Idris Elba).
By the way, we last saw a dybbuk as recently as 2009 in the massive David S. Goyer flop “The Unborn,” which featured a similar Jewish possession plot, was filmed in Chicago and starred Odette Annable and Gary Oldman.
The Possession is produced by Sam Raimi, and, at its best, has some of the throwback appeal of Raimi's last theatrical release, Drag Me to Hell.
Even if the devil of the piece is a Semitic dibbuk rather than a Sumerian demon, and even if it bears a strong facial resemblance to the ‘Gypsy’ witch from producer Sam Raimi’s previous Drag Me To Hell , this still feels like an entirely derivative addition to the already well-trodden exorcism subgenre, where only the names have been changed.
For mainstream movie fans The Possession producer, Sam Raimi, is best known for helming Toby Maguire’s blockbuster Spider-Man trilogy but, for horror movie lovers, the filmmaker is also responsible for directing fan-favorites like Army of Darkness, the Evil Dead films, and most recently Drag Me to Hell .
The byproduct that is “The Possession” from producer Sam Raimi – the director of the “Spider-Man” trilogy and other horror films including “Drag Me to Hell” and “The Evil Dead” – results in half of that story’s initial allure in a film that squeaked by at “PG-13” after a re-rating on appeal.
Raimi had more fun with his possession tale, " Drag Me to Hell ."
Much like Gore Verbinski’s remake of The Ring, The Possession delivers the spine-tingling goods in a classy, extremely cinematic fashion.
Overnight, Emily turns into a Goth girl, taking her fashion tips from the ghost in “The Ring.”
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The byproduct that is “The Possession” from producer Sam Raimi – the director of the “Spider-Man” trilogy and other horror films including “Drag Me to Hell” and “The Evil Dead” – results in half of that story’s initial allure in a film that squeaked by at “PG-13” after a re-rating on appeal.
For mainstream movie fans The Possession producer, Sam Raimi, is best known for helming Toby Maguire’s blockbuster Spider-Man trilogy but, for horror movie lovers, the filmmaker is also responsible for directing fan-favorites like Army of Darkness, the Evil Dead films, and most recently Drag Me to Hell .
The byproduct that is “The Possession” from producer Sam Raimi – the director of the “Spider-Man” trilogy and other horror films including “Drag Me to Hell” and “The Evil Dead” – results in half of that story’s initial allure in a film that squeaked by at “PG-13” after a re-rating on appeal.